Become Screenwriter in Japan

Hi!

I am interested in becoming a screenwriter in Japan, and I have a few questions. If anyone has the knowledge to answer, it'd be greatly appreciated.

A little about me:
I am a high school sophomore, and I love everything about Japan. Japanese language, history, literature, film, culture, everything! I am learning Japanese (learned all 2,042 kanji presented in Remember the Kanji), and I am writing a lot (poems and short stories mostly, working on a novel).

1) What would you recommend education wise, to become a screenwriter?
I was thinking of coming to Japan for my Bachelors degree, so I can become fluent like a native (if possible) in Japanese and become immersed in the culture. After that, it becomes a bit more foggy- there is a East Asia Cinema Ph. D. program at Yale which is good for figuring what makes a movie great, but I was also thinking of a Master degree in screenwriting (or something similar).

2) I also know I need to really study Japanese cinema so I am going to try to watch all the Picture of the Year from the Japan Academy Prize list plus more. I was wondering where I can find some of the older films mentioned on this list, and if you could recommend any other great movies.

Thank you so much!
I really do appreciate it!
Kira

Shinji Nojima is an active screenwriter in the front lines in Japan.

http://ja.wikipedia.org/wiki/%E9%87%8E%E5%B3%B6%E4%BC%B8%E5%8F%B8

Thank you so much! :D
He has a very interesting start up in screenwriting.

If anyone has any Japanese cinema recommendations, I'd really appreciate it! ^_^

Start at U.C.L.A. http://www.tft.ucla.edu/

I had no idea that UCLA has such an amazing program, thanks! :)

Anyone have recommendations for Japanese movies?

Rashomon by Kurosawa is a must if you have not seen it already.

Tokyo Story by Ozu

gilesdesign- thank you so much! ^_^
I really appreciate it!

I am trying to buy Kurosawa's autobiography (along with Miyazaki's). We had to order them -.- Better than nothing!

Thanks again!