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I may be going to Japan for a couple of weeks in late October. Are there any worthwhile alpine/mountaineering objectives? Something with moderate rock (up to 5.10) will be best. Is late October too late to climb there? Any advice will be appreciated!

The Japanese alps are amazing mountains from what I saw watching the winter olympics. Google Nagano.

I haven't been there so can't help much, but since no one else has answered with info, the book World Mountaineering (by Salkeld) has a section on Yari-Ga Take and the climbing there. More than likely you can find the book in your local library.

Late oct is a good time to head into the japanese mtns as not many folks around and skies are clearer than summer mths. If you're on your own I would aim to do the Yari Hodaka traverse (start point Kamikochi), it's basically a fun 3 day scramble on some of japan's biggest and most impressive mtns. If you have a partner/are a competent alpine soloist you could spice it up a little by:
- Starting it by taking the n ridge of yari route, although maybe expensive for you to get to start of route due to remoteness.
- Starting/finishing on myo jin san
- Including an ascent of mae hodaka north east ridge.
Unfortunately there are no english alpine/rock climbing guides. If you are willing to buy a japanese one, i'll later post a amazon link.
Other big (3000m ish)peaks that offer rock routes are Kita dake (n buttress), Hodaka, Tsurugi dake and nearer to tokyo Aka dake in the yatsu ga take range.