Ouch! Seeing as how you are closer to Japan than we are, and the US dollar is so weak, I would have thought your prices would not be so bad. I guess having a monopoly in the market means the local folks can do as they please!

Any way, I definitely agree with Rich. If you lubricate it when it is new, you are much less likely to have problems in the future. I would suggest that you look for some type of dry lubricant as "oily" or "greasy" lubricants will make dust and dirt stick to it. It is not really a constantly moving part, so that may not be a big issue, and grease has worked for Rich. But I try to stick with dry lubricants for everything except inside the diffs. There are lots of dry lubes out there. I have heard straight dry powdered graphite is good, but I avoid it since it is messy. I use a Liquid Wrench product [link=http://www.gunk.com/CAT_L512.asp]http://www.gunk.com/CAT_L512.asp[/link], and my servo saver has stayed free for several months now. Just watch for it getting loose as I mentioned.

Good luck.