Wireless Channels 12, 13, and 14

My router is capable of brodcasting on WLAN channels 12, 13, and 14, but I can't seem to get my wireless cards to see them.

I tried drivers from Japan, and still no luck.
Would this require a firmware change?

I currently have 2 Intel 2200BG chipsets.

Probably, if the cards are also sold in countries that use those channels.

check the advanced options in the driver for the wifi cards... you can usually set the country from there, and enable the extra channels. Gotta use "japan" i think in order to do that, also, check that the power levels will be ok, i think Japan allows less power, but I might be mistaken.