[steven]

It depends on what kind of American you are. Japan's image of America is blond hair, blue eyes, and really white. If you are Asian-American, you are Asian (and maybe even Japanese on first sight) and will be treated differently. Basically, if you aren't white then you're not American until you explain to them that you are American. Likewise, if you are white, you might be considered American (even though there are white people all over the place). This is why it always helps to know Japanese-- if you can explain this stuff then they will usually understand.

As far as how 'Americans' are viewed, I think in general Japanese people like Americans a lot. Some people have different reasons than others. Personally I'm really into music, so the people I end up talking to seem to be into America for the music. Older people like older music (like bluegrass and stuff like that) and the Beatles (even though they're not American) and younger people might like newer music like Coldplay or whatever.

Where I live, agriculture is huge, so if you talk to really old people you sometimes run into guys who went to America to study about farming, and brought back some of their impressions of America back then. So they have memories of really nice and polite families from back in the fifties... something that has probably changed about America.

Other people might just like America because they like whatever American culture is in Japan-- it's kind of like people who like Anime/Manga in America I would think. Like maybe they watch 24 or full house and just like the 'foreigner lifestyle' and way of speaking and all that. It's kind of vague to me, but there seem to be a lot of people like that.

I'm not so sure about people retiring in Japan. I remember MMM (a moderator here) said that in order to live here you usually have to work here.