From several feet away, our fancy Japanese model (on the right) looks identical to the original North American unit. But upon closer inspection, our peepers notice a few slight differences:

The inside of the CD trays are nearly identical, save for some small differences in the plastic molding.

The most noticeable cosmetic difference is the PlayStation logos on the lids. The Japanese model sports a bit of green instead of the PlayStation Blue we're used to seeing, as well as a brownish color in the negative space of the logo.