I want to start a business in Japan

after college i plan to move to Japan where i would like to start my own business. i wonder if anyone has any advice for me? maybe you know what kinds of businessess are prosperous(i think its spelled right :]) or how hard it is to get a loan?

No business = no loan. No visa = no business. No sponsor = no visa. If we are only talking about self-employed businessmen/women.

The overwhelming majority of European and North American gaijin operating their own businesses are married to Japanese nationals and have spouse visas, which allows them almost total freedom vis-a-vis an occupation.

Get a university degree, get someone else to foot the bill for you to come to Japan (the JET program is excellent), experience life here - then decide if it's the place where you want to work and live.

There is a mailing list called SmallBizJapan.

http://finance.groups.yahoo.com/group/SmallBizJapan/

Sign up...

But dude. Holy crap it's hard! Setting up a biz in your home country is hard. Overseas is going to be a real challenege. Not impossible mind you, but you really gota have your stuff together. No slacking.

Ganbare!!!

One of the keys to being able to self-sponsor yourself is employing Japanese people. But yeah, starting from the outside is almost impossible. Move there first, and work from the inside out.