Work visa, alternative to Bachelor’s degree

Ok, actually I've already read & googled a lot about this, even the official laws but I still don't know how high/low the odds in my case would be.

I don't want to give any personal details here but I'd like to know if an unfinished (ca. 75% finished, long story) B.A. degree & 10 years of work experienve would actually be good enough for obtaining a work visa in Japan. The way I see it this is entirely up to the sponsoring employer and most are rather conservative/risk-averse, correct?

Also how much of an disadvantage would my age (older than 32 = no working holiday visa for me anymore) and the fact that I'm no native English speaker (I'm German) be? My Japanese is JLPT N3'ish, so I can communicate in Japanese if I need but proper Keigo usage is still something I need to work on.

I've been to Japan 5x already (last time this spring for four weeks) so I kind of know what to expect.

I am serously considering looking for a job in Japan, but when the general opinion is "no chance", then I'd rather stay where I am doing what I'm doing right now - at least for the moment.

But let's just say that the recent events here in Europe don't exactly motivate me to stay here.

Ten years of work experience in what field? Note that the immigration requirements is either a bachelor's degree of several or more years of "relevant" work experience, meaning in the field where you seek employment.

The conditions for a work visa specify that you either need a bachelor's degree or several years of work experience, but the work experience is usually only if the job does not have a university/college degree associated with it (e.g. chef).

An unfinished bachelor's degree means nothing - you have no diploma. There will be others applying for the job with a diploma.

It also depends on what you want to do as a job. What specifically are you looking for?

Are you good enough at what you do to get a job in Japan (in Japanese). If yes, then find/get a job and then the visa. Applying with a job (offer of employment) seems like a pretty useful thing when doing your CoE and Visa application.

Thanks for the replies.
Especially the last one, I didn't think about that as an option.

Yeah, I am aware that an unfinished B.A. is worth exactly nothing.
I'm not writing don details of my work experience here since this is a public forum.

But I expected that much. Rather unflexible system in general.
Much more convenient here in the EU...

I suppose I should look for some kind of consultant with experience in these matters.

Don't complain that the system is inflexible. It is not a right to work in another country, it is a privilege. Japan wants to ensure that anyone coming to the country to work is going to bring useful skills and will be able to support themselves; there's no point hiring a foreigner if a local could already do the job, and they're not going to risk a migrant ending up on welfare.

The EU is a very different system because of the visa agreements. Hardly comparable.

We didn't ask for specific details about your work history; we asked what job you are looking for, to get an idea of the specific visa requirements, and if you are qualified for such a job.

the flexibility leads to the current disaster of UK and EU.

Applying with a job (offer of employment) seems like a pretty useful thing when doing your CoE and Visa application.

It more than just a good idea, its a requirement. In fact, you can't even apply for the COE on your own. Your sponsoring employer has to do it for you.

I'm not writing don details of my work experience here since this is a public forum.

You don't need to write anything personally identifying. Something like "7 years in IT" or "10 years as a chef" would give a good enough idea to suggest options.

But I expected that much. Rather unflexible system in general.
Much more convenient here in the EU...

Well the EU was designed to ease workforce mobility so not really comparable. But if you want to see an inflexible immigration system, try applying for a work visa to the US...

To the follow up replies:

I didn't mean to sound like I was complaining. In fact I'm pretty sure that the regulations for non-EU-citizens who want to come here are exactly the same (or worse). Same rule here in Germany of course (unless they decide to ignore that now...): priority should be with one's own citizens first and then, if no suitable candidate can be found, looking elsewhere is an option. And of course it would not be in the best interest of any country to let masses of unqualified people in (I share the criticism about this, I can see the results here in Germany). The EU...yeah it's a mess, there's no saying what might happen in the years ahead.

Anyway...

I worked in the fields of advertisement, web-design/graphics, e-commerce (in the widest sense) and telecommunications. I am currently doing online product/content management/administration. I've been working for the same company for the last 7 years.

My unfinished B.A. is basically a mixture of east asian area studies , sociology, political science & Japanese. (Yes I know...worst decision ever). I learned a thing or two (not only about Japan) but that doesn't have much value for any job I might take anywhere.
I studied next to my job and of course that was a constant struggle especially because both are completely unrelated.

I guess I simply want to have a better idea about how the odds might be, which options (theoretically) exist and if they would make sense in my case.

I am not sure if I am good at what I do in Japanese as I have never done that in Japanese :) But I can say that my Japanese is not perfect yet. I'd put myself somewhere in intermediate level, so there's still a lot left to study.

the flexibility leads to the current disaster of UK and EU.

No, the current disaster is due to the hordes or racist thugs in England who voted leave. To blame it on immigration (and, thus, on immigrants) is to blame the victim; a very common game, sadly.

Well, with that CV, it sounds like you might be able to get a visa for a job in marketing. However, given that your Japanese is not at a (very) fluent level yet, I can't imagine many companies rushing out to hire you.

Firas is right.

I rushed to judgement last time. You said a decade of experience, but only list 7 years at that company. What about the previous 3? In the same industry, or...? 10 years in the industry is generally the rule, I believe.

That's what I'm also asking myself. How does one define "similar industry". Basically I always was in the field of (online) marketing/web related work. In the earlier jobs (at much smaller companies) I did various things in that area.

I think in the end I will have to do a lot of explaining and hope to be able to talk to people who can understand it.

To Firas: I'm actually torn between your point of view and a more critical one. In general black/white thinking does not quite reply here. But mismanagement and misinformation by governments is a huge problem. Whether it was a good idea by our chancellor to simply let 1,x million of refugees in...from a humanitarian perspective: without any doubt, but what this does to society...nobody can say at the moment.

Concerning UK/Brexit: this is simply a tragedy and didn't need to happen.