[MMM]

The best way to learn a language is to immerse yourself, so in 6 months of living in Japan and making a concentrated effort you should be strong enough to get yourself around.

In terms of illustrators/artists. I just want to be clear, that is more of a lifestyle than a job description. You can be a professional artist, and certainly there are thousands of those out there, but generally you are contracted for projects, and not hired full time and go to an office 9 to 5. I have worked on projects with clients locally to clients as far as New York and Tokyo. Nobody is ever in the same room together and I never have to leave the comfort of my home.

In terms of being very good at art, that is fine, but that isn't enough. You have to be better than everyone else...so good that the government will agree with the company that wants to hire you that it's worth not giving a Japanese person a job so that they can give you a job. We see this pattern in professional sports...but I am not sure about publishing.