Living or Studying in Japan or South Korea
 

Hi everybody,

I recently (6 months ago) moved to California from Europe. My last permanent residence before that was Brighton & London in the UK. However, I have to be honest, I'm not enjoying my life in America, so I'm considering any possible options for the future. I adore both Japan and South Korea, but have never visited either country.

It's important to note that I'm not an American citizen, I'm a Resident Alien (I get my US citizenship in about 4 years), so in terms of visa and everything related to that, I guess I would have to file applications as EU citizen (which I am), rather than US.

1. What are the possibilities of getting a live & work visa in Japan/Korea? How hard is it to get them?
2. If the above isn't possible or is too complicated, can I somehow arrange to go study in Japan/Korea? What are the requirements for such case in terms of both, visa AND getting accepted into the university? I've read you need to be proficient in Japanese (I don't speak any Japanese, but I'd love to learn it), but that can't be the case for all universities, can it?
3. Anything else that you feel I should know about this?

If this helps to help: I'm a young guy, 24, and I don't plan to settle down for another 10 years probably. I'm not a native English speaker. I work from home as a freelancer, but my budget isn't impressive: about $2000 a month. I love languages, I'm trilingual in three, and would love to ultimately learn Japanese as well. In Japan, I'm mostly interested in living in three cities: Yokohama, Osaka or Kyoto. In South Korea, I'd love to move to Seoul or Incheon, but I haven't researched other cities.

I'm in no rush to move, and am considering this plan for either next year or academic year 2016 (if studying is a possibility, as I will also be 26 by then). I still want to spend some time here in the US, travel as much as I can afford and see this beautiful country.

I appreciate everybody's input. Feel free to criticize, haha :)