"Mr. Right" is the same type of person in Japan as he is anywhere. Educated, good looking, ambitious, and with a good job. If you have all these traits any woman will marry you, personality counts for little.

That said, if a Japanese woman is still single at or beyond the age of 30, she will probably begin to re-prioritize what she wants in a relationship. In Japan people very often marry for no other reason than the sake of being married.

I don't think thats a Japanese thing, to a lot of ladies, Marriage is a giant milestone in life, regardless of the nationality and culture. You are about right when you said all those "qualities" of MR RIGHT, except GOOD LOOKING, since thats not something you can really measure, its all subjective. But I don't think they are asking for too much for someone with these qualities.

Any idea if University of Liverpool is on their "reject" list? Liverpool is a prestigeous university, they have regular programs too on top of the online education, and the degree from either study method are the same??

If the University of Liverpool has a physical campus then I'm sure it is okay. Many online schools now exist only on the internet, with the only physical address being the place you send the payments for your tuition. Perhaps MOFA are being a little old-fashioned in their thinking, but they make the rules, which as we all know, they may change at any time.

I just found out that my 3 year japanese-chinese course will last 3 years (with japanese) and plus 2 more years (the first spent in China).

3 years (japanese/chinese) + 2 years (china/1 year more studing the language in Portugal).

Will this be enough to get me a job in Japan? It's 5 years, in Japan they hire with a minimum of 4 years. Or as to be 4 japanese language learning years?

The ticket isn't how many years you study Japanese, but what kind of a degree you earn. The minimum should be a 4-year degree and any post-graduate degrees are even better.

Oh, thanks.
But what is a post-graduate degree? Is it the master degree or something like it?

Hm.. not to be insulting or anything, but I find it really hard to comprehend why anyone would even consider not going to college. For me college has always seemed like a necessary and uniform part of life, and I can't imagine not going.

My question though is if anyone knows what kinds of jobs are most in demand in Japan or what jobs are they most likely to hire a foreigner for. I automatically think of teaching English, which honestly doesn't sound bad (my aunt teaches English to Japanese people here in America), but I wonder what else there is.

This is why I love people like MMM so much. Realistic, whether we agree or not. (But in this case, it's the former)

As a junior in high school, I'm struggling...not because I'm stupid, but because it's hard to keep me on track, especially with the past few hard years going on. (No excuse, I know. trying to recover)

I'm making plans to go to a community college up north cali, like san jose or san fran...maybe the tokai university in hawaii when possible.

I'm going because in certain classes in high school, I struggled or have no interest, like math. I got a high school on the CAHSEE, but that's easy anyways...however, it seems to go on from community to university.
My main focus however, is languages. I'll inquire more about taking multiple languages at community, for english is just too boring to be my only language ;D

I know enough japanese to keep conversations and get around, but I will go back to very beginning. I'll be taking chinese in senior year, continue on with it, so I'll see if it's possible to take three languages, along with my catching up classes. (Chinese, Korean, and Japanese)

however, if it's possible to do schooling in japan or Korea, I'll jump at the chance.

I used to be against teaching english in japan, however. I LIED and said it was "beneath me", but really, it's prolly above me. I would make a bad teacher, I fear, and if by some chance I did get to be, that job maybe taken over already with the popularity the idea's given. Basically, I'm scared.

I want to give up my USA citizenship and be considered a "Japanese Citizen" if possible by my 50th birthday.
But on the other hand, I'm afraid of the difficulties behind that too, as one way I'm considering to learn languages in a military linguistics school, where you have to serve, and to me, it wouldn't prolly make sense to the japanese government to give one who served another countrie's fighting/protection force citizenship. (Sorry if this made no sense in proper english. My thoughts are a scramble.)

I know japan is not a perfect society. I know it's VERY difficult, and money is indeed "king".
Plus education. And that I'm a easy-come, easy go person, I guess you can say. I don't act ambitious, unlike most of my japanese friends.

However, I do want to be there. If citizenship isn't allowed, I rather live there for a least a decade, then move somewhere back in US or UK, and just go back every year for visits and such.

By the way, I keep hearing of "JET" program, and other stuff.
Could anyone PM me more info on these programs?
Maybe that could help...

Sorry for such a long post MMM, but any comments/advice/etc would be appreciated. ^^;

That's something that worries me too... I think I would really love to teach English in an elementary school in Japan, but I worry that the job is too popular and would be hard to get. Does anyone have opinions on this?

i just had a question after reading this comment - if someone does an apprenticeship (4 years in australia) and get a certificate out of it that makes them qualified in there field of work is that acceptable? or is that still "frowned upon" keep in mind you can leave school usually as early as year 10 (sometimes earlier) to persue a career in a trade whilst undergoing an apprenticeship

this was not reffering to myself by the way.. just a general question