Language school vs Just moving

So i've been exploring my options for moving to Japan. My language skills are pretty basic, I have limited Hiragana and Katakana and kanji skills. But my conversational skills are better. I have a language partner who lives in Chiba near Tokyo, and I was talking to him about it. with language school I will be taught all the grammar and conversational skills for attending a college there. But it is very expensive around 600,000 JPY to 800, 000 JPY just for school expenses for the year! So I was thinking about just moving there and working and living and studying with my friend who lives there. I help his english and he my japanese. But I may not be ready for college with this level of knowledge. Really I just want to go to japan for a year to see if ill like it. Which do you think is the better choice? and why? I could save the money for the school, but living would be very hard, i would need to find a job right away, and the other way i can save the $7000 for school and use it as my living costs.

What kind of visa are you intending to come to Japan? Unless you are from a country with which Japan has Working Holiday Visa agreements, your options would be as follows.

- If you enrol in full-time language school, you will be eligible for Pre-college or College visa status. You need to have paid in the tuition, and you need to be able to show that you have sufficient funds for living expenses. You can only do part-time job (you need to apply for a separate permit to work, and you can apply only after a few months' of good attendance and good grades).

- If you get employed by a company in Japan, who likes your skills and is willing to sponsor you for a visa so you can work for them, then you can stay on one of the many different types of work-permitting visa. But note that that requires you to have a bachelor's degree or several years of relevant work experience. If you are a native English language speaker, you could be eligible without a degree if you have 3 years of teaching experience.

You cannot just move to Japan and start working.

If you go as a language student you can get a "College Student Visa" (pre-college student visas and college student visas were recently merged by immigration into one single visa category). Which will allow you to come to Japan legally live and go to school.

To work in Japan you need a proper visa that allows work. The process generally speaking requires you to be hired by a company, be sponsored by the company etc then you go through the applications process to get the visa. If you do not have a bachelors degree then the odds are slim you can get a working visa.

What country are you from?

I am from canada so I know we are eligible for a working holiday visa. I also have a friend in Japan who is willing to help me find work. I'm just exploring my options. Also My language skills are on the intermediate level. I would go to language school if i was planning on going to a japanese university or college, to improve my kanji knowledge. I'm not really knowledgable on all the government stuff, so thats why i'm asking. So on a working holiday, I cant just go their and live and work at like an Izakaya for 6 months?

if your hiragana, katakana and kanji skills are limited i somewhat doubt that your language skills are at an intermediate level, i think you are overestimating your japanese ability. you will probably not be able to communicate efficiently until you have been here for a while.

finding easy work is possible at just about and ramen shop or foreign food shop (lots of students do this). if you have a working holiday visa i would not waste time entering a school. spend all your time working and saving money. then when your working holiday visa is up in a year (time flies) you should use the money you saved to pay for school.

by the time a year has passed your japanese really will start to be at an actual intermediate level. make sure to study kanji more during your initial stay as it will not improve simply by you simply being here, you have to make a serious effort to learn it or it will stagnate. trust me i know this from personal experience.

Yeah, my hirigana Katakana and Kanji are still fairly bad, but speaking wise I get regular practice now. I have a friend who lives in Japan and hes studying english so I talk with him frequently. My whole plan is to go there on the Working holiday visa, Study the language on my own with his help. Work and save money. Then if I choose to at the end of that year, I will apply for language school in hopes of passing the JLPT's and writing the entrance exam for a college or university. so to be clear. My reading skills are beginner but my listening speaking skills are intermediate.

I just want to be clear that on a working holiday visa, I can just go, find work, work and save and then see where it goes? And that it does not involve being sponsored by a company and going their like that. This all all on my own, and I will live off the money I've saved here in canada.