im planning 2 move to tokyo

yes im 19 and i live in the USA...i have no job here but i plan to get a job soon..when i get one i will work for 1 full year and then contimplate on moving to tokyo japan...is there any way i can get some help on living expenses and or prices cureency conversion ...anything related to living in japan...i will be a geijin but that is the least of my worries.its been a honor to have the dream of moving to japan.

is there any art type careers i can apply for when i move to tokyo.

Jeremiahruth,

If you are American, then your options are extremely limited unless you have a university degree.

Americans have really limited options?
This doesn't sound good. I'm American and I want to someday go to Japan, maybe to stay for around a month or two for the first visit, to get a better idea of how living there is like. The thing is, I was planning on visiting the summer after graduating from high school, which means by then I would not yet have any degrees. Would there be any way I could earn enough money to survive for that amount of time without a degree (while in Japan)?

I'm really set on this goal, so I would greatly appreciate any and all help.
Thank you.
lui

Lui,

Americans have really limited options?

The options for Americans are much more limited than for citizens of many other English-speaking countries (including Australia, Britain, Canada, and New Zealand) because America is not part of the Working Holiday Visa programme.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Working_holiday_visa

Would there be any way I could earn enough money to survive for that amount of time without a degree (while in Japan)?

Your options would be to enroll in a language school on a Student visa and apply for permission to work part-time after a certain amount of time has elapsed, or to marry a Japanese national.

Dave in Saitama is exactly correct. I know because I'm an American Uni student here in Japan... Just to elaborate further you would need a bachelors degree or get a student visa, but when you can work and how many hours you can work is all very limited on a student visa.

You can certainly visit for a month or two (a tourist permit gives you 90 days) next summer, but you will not be able to work in Japan during that time, so you will need to save the money in advance.

Without a bachelor's degree, as above you only have the choices of coming over as a student, which is not cheap, or marrying a Japanese national.

I think that saving financially would be key. Seen as you won't be moving for at least another year, I would recommend having a savings account and filling that up using the one year full time employment. Living expenses are high but food and clothign can be cheap thanks to Uniqlo and late night discounts.

Other than that you could try online dating with a japanese girl as mentioned above and get marrie when you move over there.

Thanks to everyone who has responded!

I will definitely save up money before I actually go on the trip.

I doubt I'll be thinking of marriage very soon. Oh, and just to clarify, I'm a girl. Sorry about that.

I suppose getting a student visa could be a good idea. I want to learn Japanese, so that might work. The main problems are the cost of this option and the fact that I already had plans to start learning Japanese this summer, so I would hopefully be able to speak at least a little of it before going there.

Right now, the tourist visa sounds the most appealing. If I do go to Japan, I don't really plan on constantly moving around to try and see everything i can in the limited amount of time available in the trip. Well, maybe I'll do that for part of the time, but I really want to see how it's like there, not from a tourist's point of view, but from a resident's point of view. I want to try "living" there, but in a shorter amount of time, of course. Therefore, I might stay in one area for some time. Are there places to stay that are good, affordable, and give you a better taste of Japanese life, almost as though you live there?
Sorry if I worded some of that in a confusing way.

I was thinking about going to Japan with a friend or relative; maybe just one other person. Would that help? especially if we both have student visas and work, sharing the bills?

Actually, the response here are really limited maybe due to a bunch of young and/or uninformed people, but there are many ways to live and work in Japan if you are an American (even without a degree.) The best way is t work for an American company that has offices in Japan. For example, my good friend used to work for M-Audio which has a Japanese Tech Support and Product Specialist office. Also, Japanese companies that are big in America will sometimes transfer you to their Japanese offices (Roland, Yamaha, Sony, Toshiba, Mitsubishi, etc.) so there are many, many options. And if you are an artist (and are good with something to show) then getting invited for an exhibition is another way to go. Finally, I had another friend who worked as a remixer for Sony of Japan (record label) and lived there for two years, so again, many options, just need to explore.

NIck, people were giving answers based on the info that the person who asked the question gave- a 19-year-old with no job currently who wants to come to Japan soon.

Your friends working in the music industry no doubt had considerable experience in their field so met the requirements for visas, and the artist was an established artist so met the requirements to come here as an artist. A 19-year old American with no work experience and no degree will not get a working visa.

There is not too much point suggesting a path that the person who asked the question isn't qualified for, although as a long-term goal it might be worth looking at.