Quickest way to long term visa from scratch?

I've been to Japan a few times as a tourist, and I'm looking to move there permanently or at least get a VISA for a couple of years minimum. I have no valuable qualifications so I accept starting there's no 'quick fix', what would be some options I have? Thanks :)

You want to move there to do what?

Have you tried to do any research yourself into this very large life decision that should not be trusted to strangers on the Internet?

Get married to Japanese National and then move to Japan on Spouse Visa and work your way to Permanent Resident or apply for citizenship.

Or

If you are under 30 , you can apply for Work Holiday Visa and stay up to 1 year. Use that as your stepping stone and see whether you like it or not. Then try to get a proper work visa sponsorship or marry a Japanese, get spouse visa.

I'm 30 now so just missed out on the working holiday VISA option. I just want to 'live there', based on the 12 months or so I've spent already, I've travelled quite a bit and Japan is where I want to be. I believe one option would be study Japanese and get to a certain level with that, then I can apply for a student VISA to 'master' Japanese at a university there, and that can get me up to 2 years? But while 2 years is quite long it's not 'permanent' so I'm looking for employment options. I'm not particularly picky, just looking for a path with the least amount of years taken studying to then be able to apply for work in Japan and more than likely find work quickly

Yes lets get married to get a visa.
This makes life so easy. I mean getting a job and get a decent life.

Lets marry Japanese because without we do not know another way.

Marriage is not about love but about visa which is so easy.
There is no divorce when you marry someone quickly. Everything will be perfect.

Serious grow up

Die & be reincarnated Japanese? I mean it's a risk but. . .

Seriously if there was an easy way then a lot of us would probably do it. The best advice I can give is probably to get a job with a Japanese company in your home country, work on your language skills and hope for a chance of a posting there.

"Seriously if there was an easy way then a lot of us would probably do it. The best advice I can give is probably to get a job with a Japanese company in your home country, work on your language skills and hope for a chance of a posting there."


Yeah, sounding a dick I'm sure, but I'm pretty sure there's better options than hoping and praying. I never used the word easy either I used the word 'quickest', quickest I accept is still going to take several years or more. I'm in a position of being able to study full time, just trying to find out that as long as I'm willing to put the effort in, what the best paths to take would be, with the main goal just being able to work and live in Japan.

I have no valuable qualifications
Invest a few hundred thousand dollars starting a business and they might let you stay a year (if you know how to run a business.) But if you have no valuable quals (or experience by implication), why would Japan want to grant you a visa?
Remember, Japan deliberately does not have an immigration policy because politically the people that vote do not want immigration. And that makes it difficult for people with skills and ability, let alone someone without skills.

Few ways to "fast", but long term, many ways to stay forever.

1. Marry the princess. Instant visa. And the imperial palace ~
2.Marry a Japanese. Takes up to a year or so.
(Worked for one guy who married a ryokan daughter. Both run it today.)
3. Job offer from Japanese company (Boston career forum and the like. Many binliguals here).
4. Job offer from a Japanese branch of a usa company or transfer to Japanese branch.
(What friends did for English translation of Japanese video games)
(Hotels, too)
5. Come over on technical training programs (ie. Low wage slave labor).
6. Open a business. Bring $$. (If even foreigners can run soft ice cream shops in Hokkaido, you can! Tour operator, etc)
7. Apply and teach at english schools.
(Can be better than #5 because you can get summers off at some schools, still lower wage. Berlitz charges more, so potential of better pay at the higher end schools.)
8. JET program - not technically a long term visa, but let's you be here to explore job/marriage/own company options.
9. Become a professor
(Assuming you've got a phd and skills).
10. Find a rare cultural heritage craft that absolutely needs trainees or the craft will die out. You can later become an invaluable cultural heritage person yourself when you take over.

I would not try for the "quickest" route. You run a high risk of ending up in a job that you hate just to be in Japan. You need to put some work in to this.

Go to university or college in your home country and study something that you enjoy and is in high demand in Japan. Then you can apply for a work visa with your degree. You could study Japanese at the university or college at the same time, or in your own time, to further increase your marketable skills.

Getting a visa to live in japan is not hard and there are loopholes that allow you stay indefinitely on a fixed term visa so long as you have work or are looking for work

I don�ft know why everyone on here says it�fs so hard to get a Japanese visa. It�fs not. The USA is much worse.

It is not about how hard is to get a visa. It is hard to maintain a life if you do not organize well.
If you check the statistics which you can find on the immigration or other site, many foreigners are leaving Japan because jobs are hard to get (except the jobs nobody wants) or marriage ends etc.

It is not just getting a visa, it is all the things after that