If cw band conditions are usable between US/Japan, you might hear JAs calling "CQ -..---" If stateside stations reply, the JAs usually won't respond. First time I heard this, I thought that maybe the "-..---" was a poorly-sent "NJ", and maybe a New Jersey QSO party was going on. But no, it wasn't that...
"-..---", to a JA station, refers to Japanese "Morse", called "wabun". "CQ -..---" indicates that the sender is looking for another JA station for a QSO using wabun. The JARL has contests, especially for JAs hunting JCC and JCG awards (similar to WAS and USA-CA).