>>26
Surely instead of moving to Japan you could just move to a different state within the US? There's more than enough variation between states, and you wouldn't have to deal with the downsides of being a foreigner *living* in Japan. Note that your perspective as a temporary tourist is very different from what situations are supposedly like as a permanent resident. Read up on how difficult it is to rent apartments, for instance. Also in terms of job prospects, it's almost strictly going to be a downgrade: you'll be a second-tier choice for any salaryman jobs, so unless you have something lined up with a large multinational beforehand (at which point you're basically dependent on the company and out of luck if they ever restructure), you'll be left with the odd scrap of jobs. Not to mention that in terms of economy Japan hasn't really been doing too well for the past decade (maybe it was the place to be in the 90s, but not anymore); like it or not, the US still controls the majority of international dominance and from a purely pragmatic perspective it's probably a safe-bet in the long-term since if it goes down then the entire world economy is probably crashing as well.