Do you have any advice on how to become a singer in Japan?

I'm a really outgoing 17 year old girl. I have blonde hair and blue eyes. I am 5'4'; average weight. I have had 7 years of dance class, 11 years of piano, and 7 years of vocal coaching! wooh! (I have been teaching myself Japanese for a few months because my school doesn't offer it as a foreign language, and there are no Japanese classes I could take outside of school.. argh) My dream is to one day become a singer in Japan! I know a lot of other people out there have the same goal, but I am sure of myself, and I know I could if I only had the chance! If anyone has any words of advice, I'd love to hear it. : ) hehe!Do you have any advice on how to become a singer in Japan?
Wauuu you are so talented. Of course Japan awaits you.


Hurry up.Do you have any advice on how to become a singer in Japan?
What a lie. how can you do piano for 11 years, dance for 7, and singing lessons for 7 when you're only 17? Brush up on your math skills.You'd have to be at least 25 to even of been on earth that long.

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Well it definitely sounds like you're an ambitious person and a talented musician/performer!





I'm just not so sure how easy it would be for a foreigner to get their start as a singer in Japan. I'm not sure about the entertainment industry in particular, but some industries and employers in Japan can be a tad...well, not exactly racist, but not exactly foreigner-friendly, either. On the other hand, I hear there's a lot of foreign personalities on television and such over there, so maybe foreigners are more popular because they're 'different' or something.





I'd imagine either way fluency in Japanese is a must. And you'll probably have better luck as a singer if you sing/write songs in Japanese; although I know a lot of Japanese people who listen to American and other English-language music as well, if you're trying to get your start in Japan, you will most certainly need to know Japanese fluently (native level speaking/reading/writing/etc).





I also have a hard time imagining how exactly you'd get in and get 'noticed' initially. Japan's not really somewhere where you just get up and decide to move to. They've got pretty strict immigration requirements, and unless you have a job offer from a company that will sponsor your visa, you really can't stay long-term in most cases.





Of course, the other alternative is a spouse visa, lol. I have heard people visiting Japan as tourists, meeting someone, and then falling in love and deciding to get married so they can stay together -- all within the 90-day tourist limit. But you're a bit too young for that, I'd imagine :-P





I'm not saying to give up, but if you're interested in Japan, I'd have a backup plan on how to at least get in and start living there, and maybe work on getting noticed as a singer once you're there for other reasons. English teaching tends to be the most popular route into Japan, since the only qualifications are usually a bachelor's degree in *something* (really anything, doesn't have to be English or Education...) and to be a native English speaker.





Anyway, good luck, you sound like you have the talent and the looks to make it as a singer, but Japan's a completely different story than the US (or wherever you're from, I'm assuming here %26gt;.%26gt;).





Good luck





edit: I'm not sure why I got voted down so much, but I found this link that might be if interest to you





http://www.sonymusic.co.jp/sd/IA/english.html
Your biggest obstacle is getting a permit to stay in Japan, you will need a visa.





Most people get one by teaching English but you need a 4 year degree for that. Also the unemployment here is very high, so even with the degree it can be difficult.





Your knowledge of Japanese will have little or nothing to do with you getting to stay in Japan.





Japan is not a place you can just move to and ';make it'; like you can in America, to be quite honest you have a better chance in the US or Britain even if you dont want to hear that.





Japanese immigration doesnt care about your grades or who you are in a group of friends or what state you are from.





Japan is very anal and it is ALL about the paperwork and you basically have none to show them.





There is one way you can stay here, you can come to college here on a student visa but you will be paying for it. If you go to Temple Tokyo, you can use US financial aid for part of it but you will have to pick up the rest of the cost.





Heed my warning. Get an education. I came to Japan with the same dreams as you and while it may be true that some Americans can get work easy as an entertainer, it is not as easy as it seems. Just being from the states is not going to open every door in fact many will by closed because you are basically an outsider.





The only other option is the entertainer visa. You would have to fly here on a tourist visa and basically find someone to sponsor you. This is probably the most difficult way especially in this economy.





If you are truly serious, save up. Cause it is going to cost a lot of money. Otherwise, invest that money into your career elsewhere, where the cost of music production is lower. Good luck!
This girl sounds pretty awesome in both talent and mindset, and i am not seeing why anyone would discourage her. She has a practical mind, and seems to know enough about how difficult it is to move there and is just seeking a pathway for being noticed by a talent agency to help bolster her desired career.





Anyway, as you know it would be difficult, and even less likely that you would succeed than a japanese person with a similar, yet difficult, goal like this one. Leah Dizon at least became noticed at some point in her career, i am not sure how she did it though. Her japanese was pretty bad, and she would appear on TV shows (where often her learning japanese was part of the conversation or part of a game they would play on the show). So, having super japanese ability is obviously not necessary, but also -- obviously desirable. Then again, even though Dizon is so mixed, she does have the general feature of having something of an asian appearance (and small body frame, also she was a model so that helped her).





Being so non-japanese will make the path harder. If you are as likable a person as you come off to be in just how you phrased this question and how you handled people's comments so far, and you work hard enough, maybe you could be the 1%, so good luck!





(Sorry i am unaware of any international auditions or anything, and i doubt their existence. As everyone is talking about, japan is not especially used to having foreigners become singers, so international auditions would be a waste).
I dont think so. Suppose Avril Lavigne decided to change her home ground from america to japan, and dumped her current ugly husband to some decent japanese man. she could still manage her status as a singer, yet she wouldnt necessarily obtain a japnaese citizenship while there's no visa issues. she would still be a canadian and a singer in japan. but in other words, the probability could be as low as avril lavigne would go through all of these above.