Context:
I am an American citizen living in Chicago. I have never studied Japanese formally, but plan on taking some classes in my city and hope to study in Japan for language immersion. I am considering moving to Japan in the future but am not sure and wanted to use an extended stay (ideally learning the language) to help me determine if it's the right move. I am ethnically half Japanese and half Taiwanese. I am a licensed Couples Therapist that owns their own business and works remotely. My hours are completely flexible. I'm considering ISI as a potential option to study Japanese.
Questions:
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Would continuing to work remotely as a therapist seeing clients in my home state of IL be an issue on a student visa? I'm aware of the 28 hrs/week limit on a student visa but was told by a language school that it didn't apply to jobs that are not located in Japan.
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As far as paths to permanent residency in the future, would I be excluded from long-term stays and residency since I would be planning to work through my U.S. based business? Would I need to find a job in Japan to be eligible?
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Is applying to a language school the most prudent way for me to gain language acquisition? Would there be alternatives that could allow me to study Japanese in Japan that's more cost-effective or flexible? I saw that most programs are 1 year or 2 years but focus on applying to higher ed or job searching, neither of which really apply to me. My secondary goal with language study is to get a feel for living in Japan, and I had hoped to stay for around 6 months to figure that out.
Thanks in advance for any thoughts or help around this! I really love Japan and hope to be lucky enough to live there one day.
by Pure_Implement7662