I've came to this same conclusion after realizing just Japanese kind of limits what kind of jobs you can do...obviously you and I want a job where we can utilize japanese and interact with japanese people, so that part is required...but have you thought of going to college yet?
you can pick a major (besides the obvios: japanese) that can help you out with real world jobs both here in the west and in japan (where a degree is pretty much required to do any job that pays enough to live there):
- Global Studies
- International Business
a school I applied to (San Deigo State) had an International Business major with Emphasis on Japan, which also required a japanese minor. Something like that is pretty cool, go to college if you can (i'm just starting to go back now and i'm 23 and working full time). Keep the whole degree thing in Japan in mind, it is more important compared to the west.
if neither of those majors interest you, find something interesting and minor in japanese or do a double major with japanese (if you're crazy
)
A lot of big companies require you to be JLPT Lvl1 and/or pass the Kanji Kantei (SP?) depending on the place and job, so think of it this way...pretty much everyone in Japan can speak Japanese, you're only advantage on the natives is you can speak english...so that will help you a bit, but also limit you to teaching/eikaiwa/translation, so you want to have another aspect about you to make you stand out and have companies want you to work for them. At the minimum try a 2 year AA/AS degree (which is what I'm doing now cuz I can't afford University)
hopefully that helps some...