^ so you're doing okay over there right out of college? i was planning on working in the US for about a year to get some experience and during that time practice/learn japanese more and start trying to take those tests and try to get to japan via the company or just by myself, but it'll be a lot better if i get sent over there by the company or at least get t he opportunity to go to japan for a couple weeks or other countries like my uncle who is a systems engineer, he gets sent too all different countries and state for a couple days to weeks by his company and he could move there if he wanted to and still be making the same if not more

yeah,your plan sounds great...
hope you come japan as soon as possible!
Have fun..:vsign:

For those who want to challenve the OP post, I suggest you watch a J-Drama name Dragon Zakura.

The main char. comment's about Todai is extreme, but he said something really really true: Much or of the society and its justice system is built by a group of people with knowledge, knowledge that was acquired from school. That is why, the society always operate in a manner that is in favor to those that has the proper education, simply because these rules and regulation are set by a well educated group of people. For the rest of the population, they will just have to live in a sub standard life.

While I don't totally agree to to this, it does hold true to show how important an education is in Japan. The general society call people who didn't end up in a University as "Baka", we understand this as "Stupid", but it really has a strong implication as "Retard".

Another thing with hiring someone with no degree is that, what will happen if this person need to see a client or business partner? What kind of image will the organization be presenting by sending someone without a degree? Thats a potential deal breaker as the other party may just consider this as a lack of respect.

These are good points.
on top of this, we have to remember the hiring process in Japan and dedication to ones company. This is the thing that so many people either don't understand or choose to forget.

A person in a company is the person in charge of hiring. Chances are he isn't the president/owner, unless it is a small company.

That person has to find the person who is the best for the company. If the person works out, then great. However if that person messes up, the boss is going to look at the person who hired him for an explanation. If the employee that hired him can show the screw-up had a good resume and had graduated from college, then he won't be the one to blame.
However if the person he hired had no college degree the boss will probably fire (or some sort of punishment) for hiring incompetent employees.

This is why "taking a chance" on an employee without a degree or credentials isn't very likely. The guy hiring you doesn't want to lose his job taking a risk, despite the fact you are obviously a wonderful and dedicated worker who just couldn't get around to college.

An addition to your point MMM, my uncle owns a garment manufacturing company in Saitama, if he hired someone without a degree and send this person out, not only that it will be seen as an act of disrespect, they will also question his ability to lead a compnay, because they will judge him and consider that as a poor decision, and will start having doubt on his ability to make sensible decision

Unfortunately, thats just how Japan is....

It can be the same way here too, especially if you want more than just an "Everyday Job". Exactly why I'm going back for my Bachelor's now.

I know this goes against your post on your thread, but would going to an (english, if possible) art school in Japan after learning Japanese for a few years before I graduate from high school be ok? I am actually aiming to become a musician and I am more interested towards the music there because they are more wide in variety in terms of music that I would like to play. And yes, I would be fairly proficient, in terms of music; art being a hobby and it can go vise-versa if all else fails for my music hope and dreams.

However, until I get sure confirmation I think I'm going to take your advice and graduate from college first.

You will not be accepted to any accredited college in Japan before you graduate from high school.

I guess it depends on how you want to live there. It may be possible to do a simple exchange with a family, not necessarily get a job that might require a four-year degree. An adult can also go to Japan as a volunteer for a year or so, for which most programs don't require college education; and then of course, there are exchange students who are still studying and don't have their degree yet... There are a lot of options besides having to go to college.

This was directed not at people who want to visit Japan or do an exchange, but those that say they want to drop everything and live in Japan, i.e. more than a year or two.