Growing beyond Eikaiwa and ALT

Assuming one had a legal right to live in Japan and could speak the language to an adequate degree, is it possible to branch out into any form of employment in Japan such as general admin or retail work? Or is the hapless expat forever doomed to Gaijin jobs such as Eikaiwa and ALT? Is being non-Japanese a serious impediment to finding work?

"Legal right" would be the key, meaning, your visa status. If you have Permanent Resident or Spouse of Japanese National, etc. status, you are not limited to any types of work.

But if not, you need to get an employer-sponsored work visa, which there are many types of. (Japanese immigration policy is to grant status of residence to those who need to be Japan - be it for special skills not available in Japan, for study in Japan, or for family reasons.)

So if you want to work in Japan under an employer-sponsored work visa, you need to find an employer who finds your skills/experiences interesting and is willing to hire you (and sponsor you for a visa). When you think of skills not readily available in Japan, the first thing that comes to mind is English language teaching, then maybe IT, finance.

Retail? Some department stores I know hire Chinese-Japanese bilingual (or almost bilingual) staff for their customer service because the number of Chinese visitors/shoppers to Japan is on the rise. General admin? Some multinational companies might want English-Japanese bilingual staff, but just English probably would not suffice. They might rather send their overseas staff (already experienced) to their Japan office instead of hiring here.

I've met many foreigners who are not ALTs or work in Eikawa.

They usually fit into one of these categories:

1. They still work English instruction, but do it freelance, teach at universities/colleges, or work in Corporate English Teaching (teaching English to employees at major companies, this line of work is very different from the eikawa world).

2. They do not do English instruction but have special skills, eg I know a legal-law adviser, another guy who works in information technology, they all speak excellent Japanese.

3. They are Asian and work in mainly Korean or Chinese restaurants.

Any case you might want to put yourself into sections 1 or 2 if you have skills.

I knwo foreigners doing all kinds of work in Japan other than teaching English, myself included. Friends of mine work in finance, IT, human resources, marketing, as yoga teachers, dance teachers, actors, personal trainers and in quite a number of other fields. Retail work is unlikely because you not only need native-level Japanese, there is no working visa allowing foreigners to do retail work.

Some of the people that I mentioned are on spouse visas or have permanent residence, which means they are free to do any kind of work, but others are sponsored by their employers.