[Akakage]

I can't imagine what technology we'll have in 10 years and the education needed to take advantage of it. Robots anyone?

Kai13, you don't need to marry someone to stay in japan permanently. Here the qualifications for a single person:

The Minister of Justice may grant permanent residence permission provided that an applicant satisfies requirements of "good conduct" and "sufficient assets or ability to make an independent living". However, foreign nationals having a spouse visa are exempt from these above mentioned requirements. Furthermore, the Minister of Justice must deem that the applicant's permanent residence will be in accordance with the interests of Japan.

In practice, the applicant is required to have lived continuously in Japan for a particular period depending on his situation. For example, the periods are ten years for a person having a working visa, five years after obtaining a long term resident visa, and three years after getting married to a Japanese for a person having a spouse visa. The above mentioned "ten years", however, is not sufficient for some cases. For example, a person who started as a pre-college student or college student in Japan and changed from a student visa to a working visa must have resided in Japan more than five years since his or her working visa was granted. Furthermore, the period of stay of your visa should be the longest in your visa category.

Keep learning those languages, especially Chinese! It's going to be a big one in the future. I'm currently learning Chinese and Japanese right now. It's tough but it will be worth it in the long run. Keep up the good work!