U.S. Citizen Planning on Moving to Japan: Advice/Tips?

Hey guys!

I guess I should start with an introduction. My names Luke Wall, and I'm a (two weeks from) high school graduate from Tennessee, and I'm also working towards being a Japanese manga artist... yes, I'm that kid. Haha.

So, I'm almost done graduating high school, and my plan right now is stay with my mom over the summer and fall semester of this year, and maybe spring semester of next year, and save up some funds, while I work more on my art skills. If I'm lucky, I might can win a competition with a magazine and go ahead and get a head start before I actually move over there, but at my current skill level, art wise, I'm not sure how far that will fly. So my plan is to just move to Japan and try and find a job as an assistant, unless something else happens.

The only thing is, there is a whoooooooooole lot that I'm still in the dark about, and even though I'm learning more day by day, there's a lot preparation that needs to go into making sure this will work out. So I guess I'm asking if you guys could give me some pointers on what exactly I need to do in order to prepare for this... adventure, I guess you could call it.

What I'm currently doing:
1) Studying Japanese for a minimum of an hour a day (gonna bump that up when I graduate).
2) Working on my art skills and trying to become skilled enough that I won't be immediately overlooked.

And honestly, that's about all I know that I need to be doing right now, and I know there's stuff I should be doing that I'm not. Lol. So if you guys, if you would be so kind, would help give me some advice and tips, that would be awesome and I'll try and keep you updated on my progress so that maybe I can be of some help to others as well when they need advice. Thanks in advance! ^_^

P.S. I've already heard the "what you're trying to do is impossible" and "your just in a manga/anime phase that most kids go through". That's not it. This is a decision that I've thought through long and hard about, and I'm beyond the point of return. So, there ya go. ^_^

Go to college and graduate. Otherwise you're not eligible for a visa to move here and work. Either that or marry a Japanese girl and come on a spouse visa. Either way, go to college and graduate.

(West TN homeboy here).

Also, save up a lot of money. Internships and many types of training are almost always unpaid in Japan, and if you end up around Tokyo the cost of living will be steep (steeper than Tennessee at any rate). Pray for more yen weakening. Most likely you'd need another job to fund yourself while in Japan, such as teaching.

RukuKabe said:

P.S. I've already heard the "what you're trying to do is impossible" and "your just in a manga/anime phase that most kids go through". That's not it.

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Unfortunately, yes it is, unless you get a degree or 10 years of work experience in order to qualify for a work visa, as Mike said.

You want advice? Get a degree, experience (portfolio), lots of Japanese language ability, and try visiting here a few times before you leap before you look. You might just hate the life here, despite being in love with (ugh!) manga/anime.

There was a thread elsewhere on this board about somebody who got offered a job in Japan as a concept artist for a games company. He had been working freelance for them already, and the games industry is an area that needs a lot of artists. (Although it doesn't seem that he came back to report how things went getting his visa/the actual move).

Here's the thread:
Artist trying to relocate to japan

He also met visa requirements, having worked for years as a commercial artist, and had astounding art skills.

Are there any foreign manga artists actually working in Japan?

It gives the OP something to aim for - sort of a "you must be this employable to ride this ride". Plus, if they can establish themselves as a commercial artist in the US and then decide they don't want to move to Japan after all-- at least they're still employable in the US.

Isn't a lot of stuff farmed out to Korea these days? (Then again, so is the Simpsons.)

I already have three jobs secured for this summer. I plan on getting a good bit of funds together. Lol. And I have a friend with family in Japan who says they can help me get a place for a reasonable price. They live in Kyoto though.

There's an american lady known as Jamie Lano who works as an assistant for Takeshi Konomi (The Prince of Tennis).
From what I have found, the relationship between mangaka and publisher is a little bit different then say your average employer/employee. I recently watched an interview of Jamie Lano and it didn't specify though whether she had lots of experience or if a work visa, but I do recall her stating that she applied for an assistant job, so I'm still trying to figure out the nooks and cranny's of how that worked. That's my first objective is to get an assistant job, as I think it'll make this much easier.

P.S. I'm not looking to be a concept artist, as yes that would require a degree and probably an artist visa. I think that there are a few bendable rules when it comes to being an assistant to a mangaka.
I don't know any of this for sure though, so if somebody has other info then please tell me. I would appreciate it. ^_^

We already gave it to you; you just didn't want to hear it.

There's no special mangaka assistant exemption. You either satisfy Immigration's visa requirements or you don't get in. That is the immoveable and unavoidable truth of the matter. They don't give two damns about your having friends who will help you get a place.

Check out Immigration's visa classes and qualifications for yourself if you don't believe us.

O_O... I was simply saying I don't think you have to have a bachelors degree just to get a visa to work in Japan> I apologize if I sounded like I was ignoring you or being rude.
I just checked out the requirements for an artists visa and it requires a passport, visa application and photograph (obvisouly), and a certificate of eligibility. I'm still researching the requirements of the Certificate of Eligibility, but I have been able to find out more about what it will take to apply for an assistants position, so thank you guys for helping me out.

If you don't have an impressive portfolio, along with some Japanese clients, then I think your chance of getting an artist visa is going to be very small. You may want to research that more. As for a work visa, yes you need a BA/BS, and a certificate of eligibility is not a 100% guarantee you will get in. To do what you want to do without a college degree, you would need a very strong sponsor in Japan, and that will be hard to find because my impression is there are some very talented Japanese manga artists in Japan already who would love to be someone's assistant..

There's no rush to get to Japan, take your time and hone your skills. Also, plan for the future. Even if you do get to Japan as a mangaka assistant, what if someday you don't like it and want to do something else?? Without a degree you can't get a work visa, and thus without a sponsor you'd have to come home to the US, where even people with undergraduate degrees are having a hard time landing jobs.

Do not underestimate how anal the Japanese can be when it comes having the proper documentation.

RukuKabe said:

I already have three jobs secured for this summer. I plan on getting a good bit of funds together.

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Money is definitely needed. Are those jobs intended to give you artistic experience as well?

Just how much experience do you have working as an artist, by the way?

And I have a friend with family in Japan who says they can help me get a place for a reasonable price. They live in Kyoto though.

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Who is going to be your guarantor for the apartment? Most places want one, and the guarantor is usually an employer. Not all, but most. For some places, you have to pay all of the stay's rent up front, whether for 6 months or a year. What exactly did your friend's family get for you?

I think that there are a few bendable rules when it comes to being an assistant to a mangaka.

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Such as...?

BTW, have you thought about a cultural activities visa? You would need experience there as well, but then you would study under a manga master (if such exists) and can work PT.

Jamie Lano, thirty-seconds googling tells me, has a degree (in Animation) and was legally working in Japan as an English teacher (which she could only do since she had the degree) when she applied for the assistant position (which she has since left). I'd imagine talent, hard graft, and luck also factored into it.

Ok. That's what I was trying to figure out.

But I can enter a contest in Shonen Jump and if I win that, along with having a portfolio, unless a college degree is a solid-stone, "have-to-have-it-no-matter-what" factor, I feel pretty confident that I can do it. I mean, I have an entire summer with nothing to do but eat, sleep, work, and the rest of the time drawing, so my skills should improve even more by the time I'm getting ready to plot everything out. If you can show me a link to an official website where it is set in stone that a college degree is required, I will shut up and not say anything else about it, but so far I haven't found anything of the sort (and yes, I used google and found the websites)

For the record, I think you guys are incredibly underestimating me. I can understand that there are a lot of people who post stuff like this and never really do anything about it, because they think it would be cool and they get excited. I have been in the process of working towards this hardcore for around five months now (excluding the three I was drawing before I actually committed to this), and I'd like to show you one of my first drawings, and then what I'm currently working on right now.

This was drawn on October 5th, 2012

Scary ugly, right?

This is what I'm currently working on. It's a crappy quick sketch and I'm working on the finer line art, but its a start:

I'm already working on the eyes and left (his right) leg. So I'm aware of those mistakes and working to fix them.

I mean I'm not Kubo yet, but at the time I drew the first pic I couldn't even draw a body without it looking like a fifth grader. And this is when I was devoting quite a bit of my time to school. When I have more time to hone my skills, I suspect I'll improve even faster.

And I have already memorized the Japanese hiragana alphabet and I am beginning katakana next week.

So before you start telling me to "get a college degree" like a normal person, I've had four years of homeschooled hell where I practically had to teach myself every subject I had, and I usually had to take classes in the summer. I have been taking duel enrollment classes for two years and, this is not me being lazy, but college does not work for me. I am more than happy to learn things and figure out how to do stuff. But I'm not going to devote my time to a college where I learn things that I could less about and don't even want to learn, I'm going to devote every ounce of my energy towards my passion, and then I'm going to succeed. I will get a portfolio together, I will win a contest for publishing rights, and I will succeed. Simple as that.

I'm not overconfident, I just have enough belief in myself that I can overcome this. I apologize if this seems like a rude, adolescent hormone-fueled rant, but I have enough people being unsupportive as it is. I would really appreciate it if you guys would not treat me like some kid with a dream that he doesn't even know anything about....

So there. Sorry if I offend anyone or sound rude, but there it is.

We're not being unsupportive or treating you like a kid....even though your thinking so is rather childish. I'm sure we all wish you the best in whatever you wish to do in life. But neither our best wishes nor your best wishful thinking are going to move the Immigration ogre who guards the door. Japan is notoriously uptight over issuing permission to come here and work. You don't qualify and they're not going to waive policy and grant exceptions just because you think you're special and it is your destiny to come here and draw comic book characters. Especially when three-quarters of the high school girls in Japan have notebooks filled with doodles of cartoon characters done better than yours, are already here, speak the language, etc. The cartoon/comic industry is a business and working visas are given out in situations where there is a particular need from a business for skills/talent from a foreigner or when the Japanese job market is unable to fill that need. You fulfill neither policy objective, and Japan's immigration policy is all about fulfilling the needs of Japan in general or Japanese industry in particular. An exception is a spouse visa, which takes care of the needs of individual Japanese citizens to maintain an intact family unit. Again, you fulfill none of these. Japan isn't interested in letting in every Tom, Dick, and Harry who think they should be allowed to immigrate for their own purposes and benefit. If they did, they'd be so overrun with Western teens who can mimic the stylized unoriginal dog crap that passes for art in comic books that the Japanese would all have to leave the country to make room for them.

Every bit of the above is the same thing I have said to the adults who come here asking similar questions, if it makes you feel any better.

It is easy....you want to come here? Get eligible. Don't want to get eligible? Then you ain't coming. Cut and dried, Put the chairs on the wagon, revival is over. End of story.

Pinning your hopes on winning a competition is a pretty immature and silly plan of action, by the way. Are you burning up to be a commercial artist? Or just to come live in mangaland? If you want to be an artist, go to college and major in art. There are professional training opportunities available to you where you learn your craft and learn about the industry. Take advantage of them. When you're done, come on over. But you need to lose this notion that just on your own you're going to draw so well by next year that Japan is going to go out of its way to import you; that's not a realistic scenario.

I agree 100% with Mike. It may sound formidable, but the people who get here in Japan for their skills in various fields and disciplines get there through TALENT and HARD WORK, not over a summer but over years.
If manga art is what you pursue, go to art college.

Luke, I'm your West Tennessee homie from up Humboldt way. That means I am predisposed to go out of my way to give you a hand where I can and it would tickle me to see you come here and set the world on fire, if that's what you want to do. But I will tell you from personal experience, this isn't a place you want to be without a college degree. Go get yourself prepared by building your art skills under professional tutelage. Build up your language skills. Spend the time and put in the effort it takes to land in Japan and hit the ground running, well-prepared for an extended stay if that's what you want. Japan has been here quite a long time and it isn't going anywhere. It will still be here when you get here and the worst thing you can do to hamstring your chances of a successful and extended stay is to be in a rush to get here.

Alright guys...
First and foremost I apologize for my childish behavior. I could make a few excuses but I'm just gonna leave it at "one of those days, y'know?"

I thought I'd cured myself of this gotta be a grown up and do every thing right now syndrome, but looks like I still have some growing up to do. I am extremely passionate about pursuing this and I think I got too into the getting to the top as soon as possible, and stopped focusing on what is really important.

So, me and my dad did some research and found a place called SCAD, and one of their bachelors/masters degree's is in sequential art... and two of their electives are manga focused and one goes to Tokyo for a semester!!...
I started reading about all the stuff in this school, and I started thinking....... "Wow, I was a total ignorant dirt bag to those guys on the forum..."

So I heavily apologize for my childish reactions and ideas, and thank you guys for filling me in and helping me out!

And Mike, thank you for being straight up. I appreciate you not just being a critical jerk and telling me all the reasons it can't happen, but in truth you actually showed me how it can happen... I was just too ignorant and hard headed to accept that it's going to take more time to achieve this dream. Lol.

So thank you guys, and again, sorry for my behavior.

Never apologize for zeal.

Mike Cash said:

Never apologize for zeal.

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I'm not apologizing as much for my zeal as much as I am for my immature reaction to everyone's advice.

In your 5 months of planning for this, have you taken the time to ask an embassy or consulate person whether a degree is absolutely necessary? If not, do it. It will be the final straw if true.

Then, "all" you need is years of experience (again, ask how many are needed).

As for dissing university courses, this is where I think you are being the most childish. You say that you don't want to learn from classes that teach you things you don't know. Uh, how do you know whether they are going to be beneficial at all? Ever hear this story about Steve Jobs and a calligraphy class?
Steve Jobs' 2005 Stanford Commencement Address (with intro by President John Hennessy) - YouTube