(1) Kozuka Gothic (小塚ゴシック) and Kozuka Mincho (小塚明朝) from Adobe
Adobe’s Kozuka Gothic and Kozuka Mincho are easy to get and have as a modern and warm feeling as Cronos has.

(2) Hiragino Kaku Gothic (ヒラギノ角ゴシック) and Hiragino Mincho (ヒラギノ明朝)
Hiragino Kaku Gothic and Hiragino Mincho are loaded on Mac OSX. They were designed by Jiyukobo (字游工房), which is one of the most respected foundries in Japan.

(3) Yu Gothic-tai(游ゴシック体) and Yu Mincho-tai (游明朝体)
They are designed by Jiyukobo as well.

(4) TypeBank Gothic (タイプバンクゴシック) and TypeBank Mincho (タイプバンク明朝)
TypeBank Gothic and TypeBank Mincho are well designed fonts.

(5) Gothic MB101 (ゴシックMB101) and Ryumin (リュウミン)
They are ones of the most frequently used font in Japan.

Type Project’s AXIS is also a nice sans serif font. AXIS doesn’t has the serif companion but Kozuka Gothic might be a good companion.

Thanks a lot Akira!
I started setting the text in Hiragino Kaku Gothic
and Hiragino Mincho which worked alright
but I am definitely going to explore your suggestions
and see what looks best (well in my not-able-to
read-japanese-text eyes. smile.

I really like the TypeBank fonts (No 4)
Is the Mincho one a good font for long text?

Yes. I think TypeBank Mincho is a good font for long text.

[edit]
Type Project’s AXIS is also a nice sans serif font. AXIS doesn’t has the serif companion but Kozuka Gothic might be a good companion.

Of course, Kozuka Mincho is correct.

I’ve known TypeBank Gothic and TypeBank Mincho are also available at Linotype.com just now.

BTW, the latin characters of TypeBank Gothic and TypeBank Mincho was designed by Akira Kobayashi.

Also consider the Ryo "PlusN" fonts, available as two serif families (Ryo Text PlusN and Ryo Display PlusN) and one sans serif (Ryo Gothic PlusN). These combine the kana and punctuation of the Ryo "Std" fonts, which were specifically tuned for readability, with the kanji and other glyphs from the Kozuka Mincho and Kozuka Gothic families.

Roughly 70% of Japanese text is comprised of kana, so making the kana glyphs more readable increases overall readability.

I believe that the Ryo PlusN fonts are bundled with the Japanese versions of the Creative Suite.

Dr. Ken Lunde
Senior Computer Scientist, CJKV Type Development
Adobe Systems Incorporated
lunde@adobe.com