Your response gives me life. I’m…kind of in the same boat. >__>;
High five of awesome.
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I started learning Japanese thirteen years ago. Back then I had never been into anime beyond Pokémon, which I had outgrown at the time, and I had never, ever read or been interested in Manga.
But I was into music and I loved plastic pop and Ayumi Hamasaki gave me lots of it. And I wanted to understand her songs naturally, so when I found out a Japanese guy in my city gave classes I begged my parents to let me take them. Eventually I got in and got started. I didn’t learn much on that first attempt (I was 16/17, starting university, and had very little contact with Japanese outside of classes and music,) and even my second attempt on 2010 failed after a while, for mostly the same reasons (Very little Japanese material to practice with outside Minna No Nihongo).
This time I’m actually able to obtain material easily, mostly thanks to a much more globalized world, and I’m also able to play some videogames or import textbooks as I need them, so I’m actually doing fine. Funnily enough my interest is no longer understanding music lyrics, but simply being able to understand the language itself, which means these days I’m learning Japanese for the sake of learning Japanese. It’s a bit of a personal challenge, and I’m doing rather fine with it so far 
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Hm, good question. Somewhere far, far back, it’s probably because I was fascinated by Dragon Ball as a kid (as if that ever changed). But at this point, after a study-abroad, a minor, and now living there, it’s just because I’m broadly interested in its unique culture and because this is the language I’m learning, and I’d like to fluently learn at least one second language in my life.
I don’t think it’s the most difficult, by the way, outside of its absurdly inconvenient writing system, difficult honorifics, and the barrier it creates for learning other languages by being so high-context. (This comes down more on native speakers than learners, since I think the jump from high-context to low-context thinking and grammatical construction is much harder than the other way around.) But what challenges it presents in those areas, it makes up for by being surprisingly consistent in others.
Is it hard, though? Yeah. Learning another language is hard no matter what it is and what you do.
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When I was a kid, my parents bought me this children’s book that was about Japan and I was mesmerized by the thought of being able to go to Japan, much more live in Japan. So it’s basically my #1 dream to be able to live there for at least a year.
But I only decided to learn it starting in 2014.
I’ll be honest here,
The main reason that pushed me to learn Japanese is that yuri mangas take so long to translate.
And nowwww, I don’t have to wait for the english translations anymore!
I used to and still do watch a lot of Japanese dramas, and I also like reading works by Japanese authors. I want to be able to watch dramas and read books without waiting for subtitles and translations, so I’m trying to be a bit more hardworking about learning Japanese. I’m a big procrastinator, so self-learning isn’t easy, but I’m picking up on words here and there the more I watch dramas.
I do have some Mandarin background, so some of the kanji are familiar and I can understand why certain onyomi are the way they sound. The problem for me is remembering how to pronounce the kanji in Japanese rather than Chinese, haha.
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To me, Japanese and Chinese are not comparable at all. Chinese is 100% non-phonetic characters, and is tonal. Japanese pronunciation is analogous to English, and you can learn Kana in a week. Totally different ball games.
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Ever since I was young I had wanted to visit Japan. I was finally able to go this year. I had started studying how to speak Japanese so I could communicate (at least a little) with people when I visited. I stayed with a host family and my host mother tried to help me when she could with the language as well.
While I was there I saw so many light novels, manga, and games that looked interesting that I would likely never be able to experience because they would likely not be localized. So rather than just learning to speak the language I started trying to learn to read it. I figured learning to read it would also lend help to me learning to speak the language as well. So here I am 
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what’s the name of the show from that gif?
ささめきこと！
Because not knowing Japanese is a crime.
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I’ve always had respect for those that put in the effort to learn another language, and it has always annoyed me how few English natives bother, so I decided I would learn one, and as an Anime/Manga fan Japanese was an obvious choice (living in Australia makes it more viable from a practical sense do our our proximity to Japan), and I also really like how it sounds, its a really nice language to listen to, easy on the ears and flows nicely.
To begin with it was all about the pop culture, the manga, the movies, the games… and wanting to be able to consume them in their native language.
From there though I have grown to really like the culture and after a visit to the country I really felt like I wanted to be able to go there again and partake in conversations and the community at a level that you just cant without knowledge of the language.
I have always been terrible at learning languages at school (part of that I am sure was being forced to learn Spanish which I had no interest in) but now as an adult I wish I could buy back those years and get deep into Japanese earlier!
The good news is that it is never too late to learn something!
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Hm… I don’t really watch anime much and while Japanese culture interests me, it’s not that intriguing. I think I’m trying to learn it for three reasons. One, I listened to Vocaloid a lot as a teenager. The cryptic translations were fun to dissect and I realized I like to analyze things. Eventually I picked up a few words from these songs. Second, I wasn’t allowed to watch anime as a child. I can see now why mom didn’t want me seeing dumb short-skirted girls who cry a lot portrayed as role models. But still, I wanted to know what I’d missed out on. So that, ironically, fuelled my interest in Japanese culture. Third, learning Japanese is an act of defiance. Where I am, it’s much more practical to learn French or Spanish, but I’m stubborn and I don’t want to. I want to learn Japanese, I want to understand the songs I love without subtitles, and no passive aggressive attempts to shove some other language down my throat is going to work!
It’d also be cool to play Nintendo games as they were originally written in Japanese, but that requires a lot of extra equipment because of the joys of region locking <.<
I’m glad to see Okinawa is being talked about. That is actually one of my main interests for learning Japanese. My grandmom is from Okinawa, and my Dad was raised nearby the American bases there. Being biracial meant he was pretty mercilessly teased from all sides. Now they all live in the United States, and my Dad has forgotten the language, but I’ve always had a strong desire to be fluent in another language.
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I don’t really think anyone needs a reason to learn a language, but for me it’s just a love for the Japanese language. It feels as comfortable and “at home” as English, even though I can’t speak it to the same level. I started trying to learn other languages about a month ago (dabbling in Korean), but going back to Japanese felt like coming home. It’s just become familiar and a part of me. The thought of not having it in my life is really heartbreaking and I think I’ll always be studying Japanese.
I’m not an anime person and don’t particularly care for it, but I do enjoy reading novels and manga. Dramas are a lot of fun. The food and culture is great here. The music is fantastic. There’s a lot about Japan to love, so it keeps me motivated. I never thought I could fall in love with a language & culture so easily, but it’s what keeps me motivated.
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Me too! I want to learn Spanish.
Why are you learning Japanese? Is it (with Chinese) the most difficult language in the world?
Wait… I thought I was learning Chinese… 
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An interesting thing is that a lot of people who don’t live here think that Okinawan’s are anti-American but this doesn’t seem to be the case. Most of the people who are upset seem to be upset with Tokyo. With exceptions of course.
Yesterday I started adding Okinawan to my vocab list.
でーじにりた。-> I’m really sick and tired.
I forgot to add “how are you?”
I’m learning Japanese to be able to communicate better with my in-laws, help my kids with their school work, and to make life easier.