Is this true?!

I've been thinking about what work I can do in Japan and thought I would be relegated to English teaching. I figured that to be a translator one had to speak the language fluently. Right now I am barely at a conversational Japanese speaking ability level. However, I can read and translate almost any Japanese into English.
Is there anyone here that has experience at translation? Right now I can translate most any Japanese into English that I come across. Could I work as a translator in Japan if I only spoke broken Japanese or conversational Japanese? What about the JLPT? Would I have to pass level 1 to be hired somewhere? I'll already have my Japanese bachelor's degree from the University of Utah.
PLEASE tell me I could be a translator while I worked on my speaking skills! That would make my year!
(I don't even dare crossing my fingers!)