"a fake degree...?"
It's been done before.
Japanese Immigration have accepted fake degrees for a Work Visa if:
1.) the employer is 100% supportive of the employee's "bona fides", and
2.) the visa candidate looks the part---that is, a clean-cut Westerner in a quality suit.
For example:
The extremely successful entrepreneur, Terry Lloyd of JapanInc.com brags about being a high-school dropout. I've watched in person a couple of English language journalists here get a Work Visa with a bogus degree AND fake college transcripts.
Think about it: Do you think all those journalists at the weekly free newspapers for gaijin have a degree? Ha. Even the major English papers here have editors without a real degree.
It's possible. It's fun.
And it's the fastest way to get screwed too!
(THINK of Japanese employer's potential for blackmail, wage cuts, slavery . . .)
Good Ruck!
Taro Toporific
--- It's toporific!