First, bringing a pet into Japan is serious business. I've answered this before, but I think it was on the naval forums, where someone was moving to Yokosuka, so I can't just pull it up and link it here. There's a lot of documentation involved, and your pet can be held up to two or three months to make sure it isn't carrying anything and isn't a threat to local populations. If it's a disability dog, that I think gets you through much faster, but I don't know how much faster.
As for job, it all depends on what your visa is. If you have a professor/instructor visa, you can only teach. If a company wants to give you this type of visa, I would look for another position. It does not allow you to do anything else, and if you lose your job, you won't have as many options. I once applied for a position with ECC, and they demanded they change my visa to a professor/instructor visa. I told them that it was a condition I would not meet, and thanked them for their time.
The visa you probably want is the one I have, which is a Specialist in Humanities/International Services:
Quote:
The following conditions are to be fulfilled.
1. In case where the applicant is to engage in a job requiring knowledge in the humanities, he must have graduated from or completed a course at a college or acquired equivalent education majoring in a subject relevant to the knowledge necessary for performing the job concerned, or have at least 10 years’ experience (including the period of time spent obtaining the relevant knowledge at a college, college of technology, upper secondary school, the latter course of a secondary educational school or during a specialized course of study at an advanced vocational school.
2. In cases where the applicant is to engage in a job requiring specific ways of thinking or sensitivity based on experience with a foreign culture, the following conditions are to be fulfilled.
a. The applicant must engage in translation, interpretation, instruction in languages, copywriting, public relations, overseas transactions, fashion or interior design, product development or other similar work.
b. The applicant must have at least 3 years’ experience in the relevant job, except in cases where the applicant who has graduated from college is to engage in translation, interpretation or instruction in languages.
3. The applicant must receive no less salary than a Japanese national would receive for comparable work.
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That actually covers A LOT. One of my former teaching coworkers is working for a marketing firm doing animation for commercials. His degree is in animation from a US art school, but he was teaching English with me until he found that position.
You can work in hotels/hospitality as long as your employer says you are being hired specifically for your unique experience or worldview as a non-Japanese person, or to deal specifically with foreign visitors to the establishment.
Basically to get any of these jobs and the SH/IS visa to work there, all the company needs to do is write a little blurb playing up why your experience cannot be normally or easily found in Japan, and you'll be fine. Once you have the visa, if you do lose your job, you have every right to visit the Japanese employment offices set up by the Japanese government and they can help you find a job that your skills and your visa allow you to do. That is how my former coworker got his position at the marketing firm.
Do not let anyone tell you that you have to teach English to stay in Japan, just be aware that it is often the easiest way into Japan for English speakers, and be aware that I am an English teacher because it is my career and what I love to do. I vastly prefer people without teaching experience who want to move to Japan do so only for a short period of time, or better, do the research and get the job they want and are qualified for by bypassing English altogether.