If you are caught working on a tourist visa you will be deported and never allowed back.

so err. im going to japan for a year starting august this year. i hope to work PART-TIME as a english teacher if possible. I will be studying japanese on a pre-college student visa. As the visa status already points out... I have just finished high-school. I therefore don't have a degree yet, but I wanted to know if it is still possible for me to get a job teaching english?
(Or german or portuguese since I am trilingual)....

I seem to remember a student visa allows you to work part-time?
Or do you need to ask permission?
If your visa allows you to work you might have a chance..
You are how old? 18?

Yes. 18. And I have already asked the school Im applying to if I can get a work visa and they said they will give me the necessary papers to allow me to do that. So my main concern is the acquirement of the job itself... if you know what I mean?
Do you know of any people without degrees getting jobs?

(And thanks to replying to my post )

You can work part time on a pre-college and college visa. But you need to get permission from the Immigration office to allow you to do part time work on the visa. Also there are restrictions on hours of work (which i think is max 28 hours a week - 4 hours a day) but id say its still enough considering your main priority will be study. There are also restrictions on types of work - so checking up regarding if English teaching is ok would be a alright (i think it's ok if you do it privately)

Also Laura, regarding people without degrees and getting jobs. I think you might have the same thoughts that i had a good time ago. I planned on studying Japanese for 1-2 years on a pre-college visa and then hopefully try find work. When i checked more into this, the answer i basically got back was that you need a degree, regardless of your level of Japanese. Initially it was a bummer hearing that but I'm now planned on furthering my education and getting my degree before i head back over. Long term it works out more beneficial too and degrees are almost a must in the current climate.

I saw an article in the Japan Times of a English professor at a university in japan that even though he has great exprence teaching English and has done it for about 12 years he lost classes to an inexperienced teacher. It said that there is no way to be sure on your yearly income and that it changes. It also said that he lives below the Japanese poverty line. Is this normal?