MMoving to Japan

I have some questions about my plan to moving and living in Japan.

  • January 4, 2026

Hello, I am a 24M American w/ an associate degree.

I have a successful animation YouTube channel which rakes in a decent monthly income (2.6k-4k USD per month) and I have no experience of the Japanese language.

My plan was to study abroad for 2 years while applying for talent agencies for YouTubers such as myself. Once, I finally get accepted by a talent agency. I want to gain a work visa and live in Japan.

Is this possible? Is there any obstacles I should be worried about?

Thank you

by MasonBoy324

2 comments

  1. So your plan is basically two parts:

    Study in language school, then be a professional entertainer.

    To study in language school you’ll need to get yourself to a minimum familiarity with that language first. In general this is either holding JLPT N5 (or better) or have a verifiable 150 hours of classroom study.

    You’ll also need to have a small stockpile of funds or a third party financial guarantor. You’d likely need to put content creation on hold as students require additional permission from immigration to work and such permission is not likely to be forthcoming when your work is entirely self driven. Residual income from your channel would not be an issue, just make sure you’re paying the appropriate taxes.

    Finding an employer for the second part of your plan is likely going to be a lot more difficult. I can’t imagine your existing channel would be useful for this as anything other than a portfolio of sorts. Do you have any industry contacts in Japan who could help you find this sort of work?

    Status wise you can read about the requirements for an entertainer status here: https://www.moj.go.jp/isa/applications/status/entertainer04.html?hl=en

  2. By “study abroad” do you mean studying language in Japan? If you plan to do 2 years Japanese language course, it is possible to move there. However, work will be limited to part time since you will be under student visa (28 hrs max/week) and as a beginner you can’t start working right away since you don’t have the required Japanese proficiency.

    As for “talent agency” do you mean for animators? Like are you aiming to become an animator, or like a specialized Youtuber agency? I have no knowledge if there are creator “agencies” unless you mean something like vtuber agency like Hololive/Nijisanji etc. If that’s what you mean you can just apply for global auditions. If you get in and then start working under such agency, then moving to Japan under some sort of work visa should be possible.

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