Is it possible to get a job in retail?

I was just wondering, to get a Visa to move to Japan do you have to have an actual career or could you just be in retail and then go to japan and get a job in retail?

I'll assume that you're not married to a Japanese, you're between 18-30, you speak Japanese, and you come from a country with a Working Holiday Agreement with Japan.

Yes, you can work in retail.

To work in general retail in Japan you would need native speaker level fluency in spoken and written Japanese. If you have that, and something like a working holiday visa or a spouse visa where the company is not required to sponsor you, then I suppose it's possible although the only non-Japanese I've ever seen working in retail were Koreans or Chinese who presumably grew up in Japan.

More typical working holiday visa occupations are English teacher, ski resort staff and bar staff.

If you want to get an actual working visa then it's either English teaching or you would need to have an actual career, for example in IT or finance, to be sponsored. A Japanese company can't sponsor you to work in retail- there is no visa category for this.