How long can you delay your career?

I was strongly considering getting a job teaching English in Japan once I graduate with my Bachelor's in Software Development, but am not sure if I would want to teach English for the rest of my life.

If I decided to quit and get into the programming field (I miiight be able to claim just 1 year of experience on a resume), how many years after obtaining your degree could pass until employers are discouraged from hiring you? I'm thinking that if I taught English in Japan for 1-2 years, quit and came back to the U.S. it should be fine, but as for longer than that, I'm not sure.

How about you have your cake and eat it, too? Take a look at Gaijin Pot - there are dozens of programming and CS type jobs posted monthly, many of which do not require any knowledge of Japanese. Several big tech firms have offices in Tokyo and Osaka, some of which are looking for English speaking, tech-savy talent. Apply for some of those jobs so you get both the Japanese experience and you can build up your resume.