Moving to Japan

How can I move to Japan? What do I need to do? These are questions I here often from American teens. Lemme tell you. Chances are, you can't. You need a visa to be over in japan unless you are vacationing. You aren't going to get a visa unless you somehow marry someone there, or unless you are getting a job there. Let me also tell you that if you are planning to marry someone, it's easier for guys. If you compare Japanese women to the men, very little of the guys will choose foreigners over other Japanese women, whereas more women (in comparison to the guys) are willing to be with foreign men because they can view it as cool and exotic. If we're talking about jobs though, unless you are joining the navy, airforce, or marines, likelihood of being able to work in japan is low (even if you join the military you can't pick your first duty station, so it would be about 4 years on average before you could pick japan if it's not your first duty station). If you aren't in the military, you gotta take a literacy test that'll place you on a scale for how much Japanese language you know. Only job you're getting on the lowest level is being an English teacher, and that has its own set of requirements. You need to get a TEFL certificate (teaching English as a foreign language), and once you complete that, you could theoretically request japan through that program, but as you could probably imagine japan is in high demand. Even if you don't go through the program to "pick" a location, then you would have to do the hard work of applying for a position at a school yourself. Overall, I'm not saying to give up on your dream of moving to japan, but unless you really develop a plan, the probability of you actually moving and living in japan is low at best. Vacationing there is totally realistic though, just dont get your hopes up for actually having a permanent residence there.