Best way for me to end up in Japan?

Hello guys.

27 years old, male, Swedish national.
I am an IT professional and have been for the last 8 years. I do however not have a degree in IT, I got started in it anyway.

Looking to somehow be/live in Japan during some point in my life and am a bit lost as to how to do this. I currently have no desire to get a bachelor degree in Sweden taking 2-3 years though, so what are my options?

* Visa sponsorship, would I be granted a visa based on experience or is that a no go?
* Marriage
* Study in Japan, is Language school an option? How intensive are they? Can I maintain an IT job remotely while doing language school?

Thank you so much for any suggestions.

* Visa sponsorship, would I be granted a visa based on experience or is that a no go?
http://visa-japan.jp/work-visa/highly-skilled-professional
see the link for the requirments

* Marriage
Always good to use a woman to enter the country (being sarcastic)

* Study in Japan, is Language school an option? How intensive are they? Can I maintain an IT job remotely while doing language school?
Language school is an option to start. How intensive depends on your requirements, if full time student it can be intensive. I do not know if you can keep your job and study full time. Depends on you

Visa sponsorship:
A bachelor's degree is the minimum requirement. Otherwise, 10 years of experience. So if you wait 2 years more, you'd be eligible. Anyway, that's what the book says. I've seen some people getting the work visa with a bit less than 10 years if their experience is considered very valuable (if migration officer is in a good mood). As long as you find a company willing to sponsor you and to go through the process with you, there's no harm in trying. But you first need to find a company that wants to offer you a job.

Marriage:
Technically speaking, yes, you'll get a visa to reside here if you marry a japanese citizen. But remember to do it for love ;)

School visa:
Yes, you can get a student visa and reside here if you enroll in a language school. But with a student visa you'll have limitations with the amount of hours that you can work. Keeping a job overseas and working remotely is ok. It depends on you whether you'll find the time to do both things at the same time.

work visa: I am not an expert on this, but you essentially first need to find a job and then your company needs to prepare the documents for your visa.

marriage: well, it gives you the second best visa that is available for Japan. You can essentially work in anything. (the best visa is probably "permanent resident", but you cannot get that immediately. It takes a few years of living and working in Japan before you can apply). But marriage obviously requires a Japanese girlfriend willing to marry you. So you first need to meet her... and that is probably easiest in Japan. Then you also need to convince her to marry a guy without a job... and obviously falling in love wouldn't be bad either ;-)

student visa: a student visa is much easier to get, you need to sign up for a language school, apply through them for your visa (takes about 4 - 6 months!) and then study. For the student visa to be effective, you need to actually study. I.e. you need to have certain (quite high) attendance rates to the classes and your school needs to offer intensive classes. It has the benefit that you actually learn Japanese, which if you want to live in Japan is highly useful and a N2 or better N1 level will also help when searching for a job. At the same time you are already in Japan, so you can start searching for a job (or a future wife or both). As student you can apply to work part time (up to 28 h / week). I think as a part timer you can work in practically anything, so that could be a door opener to an IT job, if you can find a part time job.

You excluded getting a university degree and I understand why, however Japan is a country very focused on written proof of knowledge. It will be easier in the long run to get visa and permanent resident status in Japan with a university degree.

Besides finding a Japanese wife for a visa (a rather pathetic thing to do), you can be married to anyone, and if they have a good reason to be in Japan (unlike you), you can get a dependent visa, allowing part-time work.

If you can do your job in Japanese (speak/read/write) better than a local, then you might get a job.

If you have money, you could self-sponsor - set up a business, prove you know what you are doing.

Why do you want to live/work in Japan? Have you been here?

Hey sorry guys, I was not getting updated on this thread!

So first of all, the marriage thing isn't something I'm doing. I just included it because it's a valid way of getting a visa.

Secondly, checking my contracts I can only "prove" on paper about 5.5-6 years of IT experience, as the first company I worked for is now defunct and I no longer have the contract.

Third question. If I go language school and work IT at the same time, 28 hours a week. Would that really count towards my 10 years? I feel like the immigration board would say it needs to be full time?

Thanks!

" If I go language school' or Language school an option:
I strongly oppose this,I think it is totally waste of time and waste of money.
If you have 12 years of Education,then you can study Bachelor programme in japan conducted in English.Following university has programme in English:
Kobe university
Keio university
Tsukuba university
Hiroshima university
Meiji university
Yamaguchi university
Yokohama National university
International university of Japan and Hundred more(such as waseda U)
Language school has no such infrastructure,club activity,what you get in university .You will make Friendship with thousands of Japanese nationals and Foreign students while study in university.
Small number of students in Language school in comparison.

To Paul.

How is learning Japanese a waste of time and money and how is going for an English course at a university any better? They're usually much more expensive than language schools and I've never met a single graduate of that kind of course who could speak even a lick of Japanese. Best way to get trapped in an English bubble for the rest of your stay.

English programs at Japanese universities are only good if you
1- Don't plan to stay in Japan for long after your studies
2- Need a degree

None of these apply to OP

You might want to also look into a cultural visa as a stopgap measure, as an alternative to language school. AFAIK the time requirements if you're studying kendo, say, aren't quite as intensive as at a language school, so it might be easier to work remotely.

Too bad you're not Danish or Norwegian - there are working holiday arrangements between Japan and those countries.