accent in language

Does time have a roll when it comes to learning a foreign language? Yes, it does. It takes time to obtain its large vocabulary, rich expressions, listening and understanding skill etc. But what about "accent"? If we speak a foreign language for long enough, then do we come to speak it native-like in its sound? Hmmm, I am not sure about it. Of course we should be able to improve it to much extent, but it does not seem to me there is a mutual connection between the length of learning and the improvement of accent.

And next question is that "Is that a problem to have a foreign accent in a language? "
I am sometimes told that the way I speak English does not really suggest that I am from Japan( I don't seem to have a strong Japanese accentin my English), but it does not necessarily mean I have a good communication skill in English. As a matter of fact, I meet people who have much stronger accents than I, but they could have much better overall communication skills. I don't believe there is an interrelation between accent and communication skill, either. So it is no problem to have an accent inlanguage communication. This is what I think.

Nowadays I've come to think that the accent in languages should be recognised as one's identity or one of physical features such as tall, fat, blond, tanned.
I personally feel friendly to English with Spanish and Indian accent. They sound so lovely.
A friend of mine gave me a song called "London is the place for me " by Lord Kitchener(www.calypsoworld.org/uk/london.htm). This song makes me purely happy and puts a big smile on my face. You understand why if you listen to this. I thought about the accent topic above while listening to this song actually....

what i want to write

It's been quite a while since I wrote here last time. Time simply flies so fast.

I want to write about the harsh winter weather in Lund, about my tough relationship with -10 degrees' world, about problems with my dry nose (pain in the nose) and dry legs in the dry cold air.
I want to write about some trips I made, about my 1st experience of splendid tango-dancing in Tokyo, about Barcelona's palm trees under the big sun and my old friends, about unexpected great meetings with some people and unexpected troubles with flights and loss of my valuables and belongings during the trips.
I want to write about having been ill in bed straight after the new year's day, about benefits of sleep for health and beauty, about interesting medical check-ups I went through.
I want to write about pleasures of good food and drink, about my recent learning of red wine.
I want to write about Skype as my life companion and about installation of cool 100Mbit/s speed broadband.
I want to write about what happens to my mind when I think about spring and summer to come hopefully soon! I will have a lot of terrific plans towards summer.

I have a lot more to write, but I'd better stop here. It's Monday tomorrow, not my favourite day.... I need to go to bed now.