I know what I want to do, but how do I do it?

Lets start off by saying, I have been interested in Japanese history and culture since the age of 7( Currently 19 now). It was that fateful day, little me walking into my 2nd grade class to be taught about the other cultures outside of the U.S...I was amazed by the other countries, and immediately lost interest in my own. But it was Japan that really caught my eye. I started reading books on modern Japanese culture and entertainment. That's when I learned all about anime(Kind of went downhill from there , yes I was a a total anime fan-boy)...

Anyway, it is present day and my interest has only grown stronger and stronger. I find myself reading news articles from Japan frequently, listening to Japanese music and watching Japanese entertainment. I've stopped my fan-boy phase a couple years ago, and thought about pursuing my dreams to go there. That brings us to whats going on in my life now.. I enlisted in the Army, I leave on April 2nd. The military offered me a 6 year contract to be an Air Traffic Controller. If you don't know about the details of that job, lets put it simply. The average civilian pay in New York( Where I live) is $120,000 salary. It's also a job that is always in demand. Now my pay for the next year in the Army will be around a $20,000 salary. The reason why I joined the military? You guessed it, to one day pack up my stuff and go out to Japan for an adventure I will never forget.

My questions are now, what should I do to prepare for this?

My training is 26 weeks total, which is very close to being 6 months, so this would be the beginning of September. By then, I would have easily saved up $6,000 for an all out, awesome trip to Japan for a good 10 days( We earn 2.5 vacation days per month of work in the Army, So I will have some left over ).

The Army also is giving me up to $61,000 for school. I can't go to a physical college while in the Army sadly, but the Officers highly encourage us to attend an accredited online college to get a degree because that will make the Army look better.

If I enjoy it out there, and I want to continue to pursue moving out there , what should be my main course of action? I cannot find any accredited online college for Japanese language, or even history/culture for that matter. Should I look at Japanese online colleges?

When I'm out of the Army(I will be 25) I want to continue to pursue my education at a university or college in Japan. Will they even look at online college credits? Will I be shunned from being prior military? I plan on hiding that part of my life later on, but that's hard stuff to hide from an school when the military is the one paying for it,,,. Call it contradicting myself, but I am far from patriotic. In fact I am completely against the majority of what the U.S currently stands for.
Then again, I did not want to be like the rest of the idiots from my school who had dreams, went to college, and are currently in debt. Anywhere from $10k-$20k in debt. Now their dreams are lost , working part-time, minimum wage jobs( 5 of my old friends are in this situation, I know a few others as well). So I swallowed up my pride, and went with the smarter route of earning my pay for school and moving out of my parents house ASAP, all while getting a very nice career.

Basically.....

How / when should I get schooling done? Who would I talk to about school? What should I do about getting a career out there? Are there accredited language programs I can do online? What should I do to get a life started in Japan?

Visit . Get a dose of reality and see if you like it as well as you did the cartoon world Japan. You may hate it here.

How much Japanese did you bother learning in the last twelve years to prepare for this? What job do you foresee yourself doing here? Are you aware of visa qualifications?

Any idiot can get a visa by marrying a japanese person. This is how a large portion of gaijin do. They first marry and through this they are allowed to work in Japan. After a set number of years working they apply for permanent visa and then they claim "I got this through my work". Yes sure, but they first got their permit to work through marrying and they have therefore effectively taken the bedroom route into the country.

Marry a japanese woman. Problem solved. Any idiot, and yes I know several, can move to Japan this way.

As for qualifications. I know several people with zero language skills and zero qualifications working low wage jobs in Japan. It is definitely possible. I cannot however tell you how they got these jobs with zero qualifications. Maybe their boss had a gaijin fetish? Maybe they used their wife to get it?
From how it seems, It's also not uncommon among male gaijin in Japan that their female partners have a higher education as well as higher salary and provide the real money for the household. Another way to sneakily get around in Japan if you have no honor. Of course the wives will have to hold their gaijin husbands hands and do a lot of paperwork for them as well.

I don't recommend anyone doing this as I would personally consider it shameful. However it is indeed possible even though those who built their entire identity through "having lived in Japan for X number of years working as language teachers or low grade clerks" will have you believe otherwise.

This is part of the ugly truth behind a good deal of western immigration to Japan. I'm just surprised japanese legislators aren't doing anything about it. Making normal work permit qualifications apply even for someone married to a japanese wouldn't be that hard, would it? Changing this minor issue would mean Japan could flush out a lot of waste and instead get only high quality immigration. Even liberal countries like the Netherlands and Scandinavian nations are looking at changing the laws for family immigration and placing higher demands on the ability of the immigrant, not just his marriage status or blood relation. Mandatory language and culture tests are also becoming more common in the west.

Macrobiotic said:

Any idiot can get a visa by marrying a japanese person.

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Wow.... just wow. Without touching on all that hurt feeling transpiring from this post, do you really believe a Japanese person will marry "any idiot"? You seem to hold Japanese people in very low esteem, too. Or at least those who fall for the sneaky and shameless non-Japanese.

thomas said:

Wow.... just wow. Without touching on all that hurt feeling transpiring from this post, do you really believe a Japanese person will marry "any idiot"? You seem to hold Japanese people in very low esteem, too. Or at least those who fall for the sneaky and shameless non-Japanese.

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All developed countries have a select part of its population (a number of women and homosexual men mostly) who will marry or sleep with any trash as long as he's a foreigner of a specific race. So the answer(s) to your question is yes and no. Most japanese probably wouldn't lower themselves to that level but no doubt, or rather as a fact, there are also those who would.

Weren't you the one who disliked generalizations? Now you are the one generalizing all japanese people.

The point of my post was however that taking the bedroom way is the easiest way. Evidently, this is a major reason quite a few foreigners are even allowed to work for years in Japan in order to secure their permanent residentship. It's not very hard and it doesn't require much skill in anything apparently. It seems to be a big hush-hush thing in the the so called "gaijin community" however and people instead use standard code phrases like "it speeds things up". There seems to be some sort of silent agreement that this critical detail must never be mentioned for what it is.
I most certainly would label someone who isn't highly proficient in japanese despite living in Japan for years an "idiot".

thomas said:

Wow.... just wow. Without touching on all that hurt feeling transpiring from this post, do you really believe a Japanese person will marry "any idiot"? You seem to hold Japanese people in very low esteem, too. Or at least those who fall for the sneaky and shameless non-Japanese.

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He has a fascination with and apparently a general loathing of foreigners on spouse visas in Japan. It is a recurring theme in his posts.

Xarashin said:

I started reading books on modern Japanese culture and entertainment. That's when I learned all about anime(Kind of went downhill from there , yes I was a a total anime fan-boy)...

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Downhill is an understatement.

Anyway, it is present day and my interest has only grown stronger and stronger.

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Not in anime, I hope. Your downhill ride should be underground by now if that's so.

Now my pay for the next year in the Army will be around a $20,000 salary. The reason why I joined the military? You guessed it, to one day pack up my stuff and go out to Japan for an adventure I will never forget.

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That's dirt pay. Question should be, how much can you save?

My questions are now, what should I do to prepare for this?

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Buy a guidebook. The first thing you need to do is consider what you want to see and do on a vacation, not plan a life here. You figure 10 days. Ok, that's barely enough to see 3 cities unless you are a maniac. September is still hot and humid in the bigger Honshu and Kyushu cities, but cooling off slightly. From all your 12 years of reading, you should have some idea what you want to take in first. Make a list and crack open that guidebook (and the JNTO website).
Japan National Tourism Organization Web Site

If I enjoy it out there, and I want to continue to pursue moving out there , what should be my main course of action? I cannot find any accredited online college for Japanese language, or even history/culture for that matter. Should I look at Japanese online colleges?

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If you like a 10 visit to your home country, do you think that's a reasonable excuse/logic to choose to live there? I don't. Really think about that. You aren't going to get a true send of enjoying it enough to work here (I emphasize that 4-letter word instead of "live") just from a few days gawking at the sights.

Get more out of this than sating a lifelong dream. Find out what you would be able to do for any sort of job here. The majority of jobs are for people teaching English (or a variant). Practically no qualifications needed, but a bachelor's degree is almost always the requirement for a work visa. If you don't have it, I'd say that is plan B (after the visit and some soul-searching for a career).

BTW, a degree in practically any subject will satisfy immigration's requirement for teachers in the lower ranks (what most people get). If you want any other type of work, you will have to have a specific degree, sufficient language skills, related work experience/skills that a Japanese doesn't have. This is the part that usually stymies people who are agog with enthusiasm about coming here to live, despite having little to no actual experience in Japan.

Look at the second link (Table 3) and the last link on this page from immigration to see what you will need to get a work visa.
Immigration Services Agency of Japan

BTW, you need to be hired first, then apply for the visa. So, an employer needs to be assured you can do the job before immigration tags you with their requirements (which may be different).

When I'm out of the Army(I will be 25) I want to continue to pursue my education at a university or college in Japan. Will they even look at online college credits?

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If accredited, yes. But you will have to attend one of the very few places that provide courses in English unless you are a linguistic whiz from now to then. I emphasize the words "very few". You can probably remove one mitten to count them.

Will I be shunned from being prior military?

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No.

Then again, I did not want to be like the rest of the idiots from my school who had dreams, went to college, and are currently in debt.

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Welcome to the real world. A bachelor's degree is needed for so many things as a bare minimum nowadays, you should rethink your perception.

Basically.....

How / when should I get schooling done? Who would I talk to about school? What should I do about getting a career out there? Are there accredited language programs I can do online?

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Whoa. Slow down. You haven't even put a toe in country.

What should I do to get a life started in Japan?

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I already told you, you are putting the cart way in advance of the horse here.
Visit
Perhaps visit again
Learn the language so some level
Decide what kind of career you want and what it is like here for such a job (biggie point that so many ignore)
Find out how to get your foot in the door in Japan with it