Well, i think all that we are saying is that HAVING A DEGREE IS A FOOT IN THE DOOR, BUT DOESN'T MEAN THAT IT GUARANTEE YOU A JOB.

THere are always exception, but to "GET THIS FOOT IN", the degree IS THE KEY

People who does business trade are different, I meany if you have a store that sells specific Japanese good in the state, and you need to do your procurement in Japan, then I am sure you will be technically living in Japan for the most part. There are also US company that station people in Japan so sure, there will always be exception......

I would have to disagree with you there... Unless you carry a Japanese passport (or spousal visa), even McDonalds in Japan will turn you away

And even then, if you want anything better than working at McDonalds, you need a degree

Scandles are here to MMM we lost a governer to prostitution and now we may lose another person in politics bc he has a love child.

Besides teaching english are there any jobs for thoes not from Japan?

I am going to do a degree at University in Game Design. I would hope to go to live in Japan, but it seems this is quite unrealistic, so I will probably just visit and stay here in the UK. The Game Design industry is hard enough to get into already without throwing in a foreign country. But the majority of the video games are designed there so I need to research things more and see what chances I have.

Here's something to think about: In your own home countries, in order to fill a position that doesn't require a university degree and no special skills, how often do companies hire someone in a foreign country, including sponsoring their Visa so they can get into your country? Considering the time, hassle, and possibly expense of doing that, and getting someone who speaks little of your country's language, doesn't know your culture, and who you know cares more about just getting to live in your country than he does about long-term loyalty to your company, why would they hire them when there are plenty of local kids, some of them even with a degree, applying for the same job? Think about that...

I can tell you now, lots of people hire people like that here. The reason? They can pay them less than anyone living in the country already.

Translation services, but your Japanese has to be very good for that, and possibly acting as a foreign sales rep in a Japanese company. But those positions are relatively very rare compared to teaching English...

Ok, then considering a Japanese person without a university degree usually gets very poor pay, and typically will continue to live in their parent's house because they have a hard time making rent on even a small apartment, would you as a foreigner be willing to work for even LESS, enough less that it's worth the company's trouble to hire you?

For what kind of job though? QA (my field) is probably one of the fastest growing field now, I too hire people from say India or China to cut the cost down, but still we only look for QUALIFY CANDIDATE, in this case, without the ability to do a reference check (we could, but its not simple), the only thing that I can base my hiring decision on is the candidate's academic achievements.

When you say game design, you are referring to graphic design right? There are a lot of things involve in a game, the base engine (which probably require a background in computer science or computer engineering), the story, the character, the graphics....... I am sure specific areas will be of interest to Japanese game developer, however, if you do research game developers in Japan work long hours. The people that did final fantasy have to put sleeping bags under their desk to sleep there. So be prepare for it if you planned to become a game developer in Japan

Even these jobs are not jobs that the employer are willing to sponsor a foreigner to work in anyways. Like Taxi drivers, restaurant waiter and waitress etc... why would mac donald sponsor someone to work in Japan whey their targetted staff make minimum wage?