[GoNative]

The fundamental thing that some of you seem to not quite get is that you just can't rock up in Japan and expect to work in any job (even cheap arse ones like in a convenience store). For one Japan doesn't have any structured immigration intake policy. Australia for instance has an annual intake of around 110,000 migrants in it's skilled migrant intake and are looking at increasing it further. There is no similar intake in Japan. You can't just apply to come and live in Japan. You need to get yourself a working visa. And the first thing that immigration will look at when reviewing a sponsored working visa application is can a Japanese person do the same job without any problems? If they can then they are very unlikely to issue a visa. This is why english teaching is one of the main ways to get a visa. You will need to have a bachelors degree as a minimum to get the visa for a teaching position. Once you have a sponsored working visa it becomes easier to change careers as getting the visa extended is a lot easier than getting it in the first place. I have managed to spend the vast bulk of my time in Japan without teaching english (for which I'm very grateful as I didn't really enjoy it).