Best course of action for visa?

Hey guys,
Got a bit of a question about how to move forward in my current situation of visa, moving to Japan etc.

Basically, my long term strategy is to learn the language, find work and live in Japan.

For now I applied at a language school in Kyoto for a 6 month course from October till March. Currently I'm waiting for the CoE to arrive and then get my student visa. Get an apartment, study hard and do part-time work to not kill my savings completely. After the 6 months I plan to either extend at the language school or, if I can find a job, switch to a working visa.
At the moment my language skills are pretty bad. Probably approaching N4. My goal was to be around N3 by next spring and can at least hold everyday conversations and then take it from there.

Now I read that my country added a 6 month working holiday visa program with Japan, starting July. So that gives me a few more possibilities. But I'm not really sure what makes the most sense.

1. Do as I planned, go to language school for 6 months and then see what happens. Either extent and stay on as a student, hope to have found work by then or go back home for a few months and apply for working holiday visa next July.

2. Apply for working holiday visa now, forget about language school, go to Japan on a working holiday visa, study Japanese by myself and do part-time work. And by the time my visa runs out hope to have found a job or attend language school from spring and change to a student visa.

3. No idea if this works. Probably not. Keep the student visa application going and additionally apply for a working holiday visa now with next March as departure date. Go to Japan in October on the student visa, study at the language school till March and then let the working holiday visa take over.

Basically why I don't know what's the most logical approach is if language school is really worth the money and if I can't get the same study results by studying myself while immersed in Japan on a working holiday visa. Cause school is pretty damn expensive. But then again, I have no idea just how hard it is to find an apartment and a job (part-time or otherwise).

I could survive on my saving without a problem - language school route or working holiday route - but getting an apartment should be harder without a school to sponsor it/act as guarantor.

Any suggestions what's better in the long run? And language school vs self-study? Apartment-hunt? バイト?

Country and degree status?

Without a degree, all this is moot.
If you can't pass JLPT N2, you are essentially limited to English teaching - but generally only if you are from a native English speaking country.

I believe that for Working Holiday Visa, there is some restriction such as that you need to have resided in your home country for six months or so before you apply for it, meaning if you are in Japan on "student" visa you cannot apply together and connect them together (I believe). Check the eligibility carefully. WHV is once-in-a-lifetime thing, so I hope you plan well to use it :)

Language skills: You need to be at least N2 level to be hired for any job that requires Japanese language at a working level. And note that people often enroll in a full-time Japanese language school for 1.5 - 2 years to bring up their language proficiency to N2 or better, so that they can enter a Japanese university.

So finding work right off in Japan after six months sounds a bit ambitious, unless you have some skills that are unavailable in Japan and that job does not require the language skills.

If you are here on "student" status, you can pick up part-time job, but full-time work on work visa would come with other immigration requirements such as either a bachelor's degree or many years in the field where you seek employment. So I hope you fulfill those requirements too.

Profile says Austria. He's a registered poster.

I am living in japan for many months now but my nihongo is still poor. Learning by immersion is not enough. Thats why i decided to finally enroll in japanese classes. Its hard to find a part time job without nihongo skills. Unless youre okay with factories.

You can choose cheap language schools or those who offer japanese lessons but not really schools. For me i study in city office. They have this international association and offers nihongo classes. Very cheap but only twice a week. Though the coverage per course is good. (I saw some that are only once a week, very basic coverage and very expensive)

Suggestion: get working holiday visa, study in cheap school, apply in factories then move on to restaurants after gaining some nihongo skills.

Thanks guys,

as for some of your questions:
I'm from Austria and have a MA degree in architecture (and many years in the field).
Teaching English might be a bit problematic. Well, at least getting the required working visa would be. Though there are a lot of non-native English speakers who managed. On a WHV it should be ok though as the company doesn't have to sponsor a visa.

Anyway, what you're saying is that even finding a part-time job is pretty difficult/impossible without better Nihongo skills. So if I were to go on a WHV I would struggle to get a job? But there are tons of foreigners on WHV. What are they all working? I'm not picky about the work. I have some savings and could survive on them alone if I had to. But I want to work something - just to be out in the city, be in contact with Japanese.

My issue is that I'm pushing 30, therefore I am only eligible for a WHV this and next year. My country didn't have WHV before, so I never considered it an option. But now that I do, I'm kind of inclined to do WHV first, get a part-time job, study, live in the country and get a feel for everything. And then change to student status or with a lot of luck get into English teaching or anything else until my Japanese is better.
But if you guys are saying getting part-time work with my language skills is pretty hard, then this way might not work after all.

But there are tons of foreigners on WHV.

There are not that many, actually. Although it may be difficult to understand if you are a "Japan fan", Japan is really not an attractive destination for the average person.

For most countries, only a limited number of WH visas to Japan are granted each year, but even then the quota is never reached anyway because there is not a lot of demand. On the other hand, for other countries such as Australia the quota of WH visas is exhausted in a matter of hours.

I fail to see the end game.

Giving up a career in architecture to move to a country half way around the planet, where you would struggle to get even the most basic job, sounds practically insane.

You might be able to get a job in an international architecture firm, but you can apply for those from Austria, and I suspect Japanese ability probably has little affect on your chances. Domestic firms, I seriously doubt.

English teaching is best described as a job, rather than a career. The majority of people burn out after a couple of years.

Long term, what do you plan to do? A career break in Austria could be career-ending or inconsequential - I don't know. However, I think you cannot count on coming to Japan and somehow magically landing on your feet.

I was wondering about the same thing - what do you want to long-term?

If you come on a WHV, there are some resort hotel staff type of job you can get by in English, or you might be able to find some English tutoring jobs (though you will be competing for positions against "native" speakers, or non-native but with experience). You can look into working holiday association website to see what kind of jobs might be available without Japanese language skills, but this means you won't really be immersed in the Japanese language.

If you want to experience a year or so in these fields, fine. But if you are eventually trying to further your career in Japan in architecture, I must say you don't really have a chance unless you build some fabulous portfolio in your own country and then aim for a transfer to its branch in Japan (if they have one) or for a project in Japan, for an international architectural firm, as the earlier poster said.

The reason why I say this is that it (usually) takes 1.5 - 2 years for non-Japanese people through full-time language study to get their language proficiency level to enter a Japanese university. If you want to work in architecture using Japanese, you will need to study business Japanese and further the architecture-related terminology , which would take longer.

You will not gain the proficiency you need in 6 months on a Working holiday visa to be sponsored for a job.
You do have a few options, though you may not be able to stay in Japan for a long time.

You can try to study for 6 months, then maybe extend the time. You can study for up to 2 years, and bring your proficiency up to N2/N1 level. Then you can see about being sponsored for a visa in your field (maybe not but I don't know much about it), or as an English teacher if you have previous experience working PT as an English teacher. Or, if you don't like it, after 6 months you can go home with the experience.

If you really want to utilise the WHV, you can apply for that first and apply for a change of residence status while in Japan to student, provided the school accepts you/you can show you are financially stable/ect. So after your WHV, you can start your studies and see where you go from there.

Well, you are right. It does sound insane to give up what I have.

Maybe it's an early midlife-crisis or something but I don't really care about my career. So far I've always done the "right thing" while ignoring certain passions. I've always wanted to go to Japan, study the language etc. But in the end I always thought "What's the point." Instead I did graduate high school top of my year, went on to university, graduated top of my year, got a job at the university, quit and got a good job at an office in the region - basically always playing it safe and spending my 20s focused on building up the ever-important "career".

Right now I'm just fed up with it, don't even know if it's architecture I want to do in Japan.
Only know that I finally want to pursue a passion I had for a long time - continue studying the language (which is a lot of fun), moving to Japan and get a job that keeps me afloat. In what field that might be, I don't know. Maybe I'll end up as an English teacher somehow, maybe I'll study Japanese and get back into architecture (I do have contacts, so with a decent level of proficiency I would definitely get a job in the field) or maybe I'll hate it and move back.

Getting a job in architecture in Japan would be very difficult visa-wise---unless you get spouse status.

You do not need to be in Japan to study the language.

Also, on the JLPT issue, it is not a very good test of how well you know the language and interact with people. You need to be able to listen and read, but there is not conversation or writing. My understanding (from a friend that passed N2 after five years learning and working in Japan) is that there is a lot of technical grammar which most people never use.