How to use a foreign iphone in the US?

So I had a relative return from Okinawa, Japan, and she brought home her iPhone 4s that she used overseas with the carrier JP AU I think. She gave it to me and said I could have it. She factory reset it and everything. When I went to start it, it asked for a sim card. I put mine in and it said that the phone couldn't be activated or something like that. I went and bought a sim card to try and jailbreak it but I can even get the phone to activate to even do that. It won't go past the start up screen because it says it can't be activated. I think it has to be some sort of restriction that stupid company put on the phone. Is there some way to remove that restriction so I can use this phone?

SIM card

You need to unlock it - with the 4s you need to press home button 20 times at two second intervals, then on the 21st two second pause press the top button 10 times at 1 second intervals.

Then press home button and top button until apple shows up

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