[saaxu]

1. Taking Japanese in high school is a good idea, taking more Japanese at a university is even better.
2. While getting a degree you could always consider minoring in Japanese, it's fairly easy and could land you better jobs.
3. You need a company to sponsor your Visa before you can go over to Japan, so basically you have to get the job before you come to Japan.
4. English teaching is getting over-saturated, it might be more difficult by the time you graduate from college. You have to apply before you can move to Japan.
5. You pick up languages easier when you're exposed to it and have to use it to survive rather than relying on your native tongue. One of the best ways is to study abroad in Japan through an exchange program.
6. There's about a 99.999% chance you will never become a manga artist in Japan, let alone for Shonen Jump. Only the best of the best survive in that business, that's why you never hear about any foreigners becoming famous mangaka in Japan. The only way would be if you were some type of genius at it.
7. Every week manga gets ranked by readers and the ones that aren't popular gets cut, so just getting published is not the end of it. Those that don't make a big hit will usually have another job because only the most popular mangaka can make a living off of just creating manga.
8. Forget about the citizenship for now, it's not really worth it for most foreigners living in Japan.


I know it starts to sound more harsh as you read on (especially about the mangaka part), but it's the truth. Most people that plan to live in Japan don't make it past taking courses in high school and college. Most of the foreigners I know that lives in Japan never planned to at all, but they either married a Japanese or their jobs relocated them there.