Am I able to go to japan?

I am 17 and I live in California and I want to go to Japan and live there for 2 years after I get my bachelors criminal justice degree. I have been learning the Japanese language for almost a year and I'm gonna learn more. I'm gonna be a senior this fall. And I'm wondering if it's better for me to go to College first and then move to japan? I'm gonna be a cop for a few years though and I want to be a manga artist in Japan

That depends on what you plan to do in Japan. If you want to work in Japan (to be eligible for a work visa), you need to have either a bachelor's degree or already have at least several years of work experience in the field you want to find employment in Japan. (You need to be a Japanese national to be a policeman in Japan, so that is out of the question.)

The only realistic chance I see for you to "work" in Japan is to get the bachelor's degree first in the US, then come to Japan with a job teaching the English language. (You will need to see how the economy is then - currently the market for English language teaching is not good...)

OR, if you want to study the Japanese language more, you can enroll in a Japanese language school in Japan and come on a pre-college visa. You will need to have some good savings for this, though.

Becoming a manga artist isn't that easy - you need to study the artwork, then try to publish some work in the US first. There are many threads on this forum on "living in Japan" and "manga artists," so please do a search on the forum as well.

Don't make the mistake I did.. If you want to go to Japan, you can go to college in Japan. And not just taking a 1 year abroad through your American college.

They have Japanese government scholarships for international students. You apply. If accepted, You will spend 1 year at a Japanese language academy, and the rest of 4 years in a Japanese university of your choice.

Also they have the 2 years technical colleges as well. So if would be 1 year in the language school, and 2 years at the technical/career college.

They pay your tuition and you get a monthly stipend/spending money of like $1500.

So yeah.

You would apply at the Japan Consulate for your state.

Something to look into.