hello all, is a MA in linguistics with an emphasis in Language and culture, coupled with TESL certification good enough to land a halfway well paying job in a country such as Japan or China?

Yes, if by "halfway well-paying" you mean by local standards. In Japan, you could teach at a language school with that degree, and in China you would have a very easy time getting a university position (some universities will take anyone with any Bachelor's degree who is a native speaker, so you'd be far ahead of those applicants).

As for pay... in China, you might make $400 a month working at a university. That may not seem like much, but it goes very far in China. Your university would probably give you housing for free, and they would likely give you a round-trip plane ticket as well. You can buy decent meals for about 50 cents there, and you wouldn't have major expenses since housing is covered.

Are you from Australia. If so there's certificate IV in TESOL ( teaching English for speakers of other languages) which allows you to teach English to migrants in Australia. When you go overseas, eventhough this certificate course is well structured and well accepted within Australia, it is not well known in rest of the world so CELTA is the course you should do.

Instead of asking your question here, you oughta do it in the Yahoo China or Japan Answers, there you will obtain a more sincere and useful answer!!

This is enough education to meet the requirement to teach English abroad. You will be able to live quite well on the salary they give you, but it is less than the average American would make. This is all based on if you decided to teach English in Asia though.