Mechanial Engineering Jobs in Japan??

[LifeisBeautiful]

Hi friends!! I already searched on this-- no results. My friend wants to both be a mechanical engineer and work in japan. I did find some helpful stuff that I plan to tell him, but I dont want to frighten him away too badly (visiting before deciding, learning japanese ~naturally~, etc.) I know japan is pretty big into cars and such, so mechanical engineering must be pretty big, right?
I guess my question is this: has anyone heard of a foreigner working in japan as a mechanical engineer? This is assuming said foreigner has pretty good japanese language skills and is mechanical engineer hiering material by American Standards.
Any thoughts?

As for me, just so you don't think I'm some ignorant dreamer:
I'm still in highschool, but am already making plans to become TESL/Japanese major in college to ~hopefully!~ become an english teacher in Japan. I know about JET I have visited Japan. I feel I'm pretty well prepared, but I just got my friend really interested in it. So we're starting research for him, and I thought what better place to come?!! You guys seem really knowledgable and experienced. I look forward to your responses
Google search came up with no helpful results.

[ouji88len]

in response to your friend's mech eng job in JP, I would highly recommend that he get some experience in your native country (I'm assuming you are from somewhere in North America). Working for a branch company will be a start and if you are good they will transfer you to JP if a position opens up. It is really difficult to get a job directly in JP because they have specialized university programs like automotive engineering thats more specialized than just mech eng, which means anyone else will have a hard time competing for positions in that field.

I'm not too sure about the specifics of how Japanese branch companies work, but I do know that they allow international transfers if the candidate is capable or working there (i.e. fluent japanese, good working knowledge, innovative etc...)

hope you find this info helpful