Heyyy.. I was searching for job recruiters in Japan and came across thiswebsite:

http://www.japannewbie.com/tokyo_nova.php

The article was very interesting. It said that the major english recruiters in Japan were Nova, GEOS, Aeon and ECC. I am going to apply in some of these agencies and see what happens. Why don't you have a go too?

:)

My advice? Keep searching.  Don't give up now, if it's something you really want keep to it and eventually - even if it takes longer - it'll come to fruition.

There's a first for everything. I think it would be fine if you got a 6 month or so teaching position in China and then you have legally 5 or so holidays during the school tenure, in thise holiday you could perhaps visit Japan and try to secure a teaching contract by going to schools there?

Then you would come to China, finish the remaining days of the teaching contract and go to Japan with a teaching job in the bag.. I mean, six months teaching in China is better than waiting for six months and trying to get a teaching position in Japan. I heard it helps if you go to Japan and talk directly to the schools face-to-face. And that would be better, because Chinese school pay those vacation days, so you're on vacation in Japan and employed. I hope it helps.

:)

Something I have thought about is going over to Japan just as a tourist and applying for Jobs from within the country, but then I'm honestly a bit scared about going over without a job or somewhere to live. Plus my Japanese isn't all that good at the moment.

People have told me to think about going to other places, but I really have had my heart set on Japan as I know a little bit about the culture and lifestyle and would love to go out there.

No surprises there. I've been trying to do that for a year. I would love to teach in Japan and I'm willing to break a limb for it, but that won't help anyway. I'm guessing that getting a teaching position in Japan is a lot harder as compared to getting it in China, Korea or Thailand. What you can do is go for China or Korea first and then afterwards try for Japan. That way you'll even have a professional teaching experience, save up some money and use it to go to Japan and personally visit schools there to apply for teaching. Hope that makes you feel better!