Advice on moving to Japan with 10~ years of IT infrastructure experience

Hello all,

I will try to keep this short as I'm sure this sort of question gets asked often.

I am an American working in the IT industry, specifically in support, infrastructure, and administration etc. I have 10 years~ of experience in the industry and around 5~ in a mid-senior administration role.

Last year I spent 6 months living in Japan on a tourist visa due to wanting a break from work and being between contract jobs at the time. This was my 3rd time going to Japan, so I knew the country fairly well at the time. After spending more time there, I have decided that I would like to make it a long-term goal to move there.

I knew then and especially after those 6 months I know now what regular life in Japan looks like for most people, I have learned a (very) basic conversational level of Japanese from going out and speaking to people daily while I was there. In 3 months I could get by, and after 6 months I could understand the general idea of what people were talking about when eavesdropping on two Japanese people speaking normally, as well as hold basic conversations with most people I met. I am certainly not anywhere close to business japanese level, but I am willing to study to get there if it's necessary.

I will emphasize this because I imagine it's a common thing among this sub – I firmly do NOT have Japan idolization syndrome, and I realize that work-life balance, pay, etc is going to be strictly worse than my home country. Despite this, I still want to move there because I find the daily life more agreeable there than I do here, at least for now. I am even willing to take a step down in salary, title, or anything else to gain access to a visa sponsorship.

I do not have a college degree, so English teaching as a stepping stone is out of the question I assume. I spent a lot of time networking and applying to jobs while I was there but found no luck. Most people I spoke to (even those within the IT field themselves) said that most "IT" jobs are software dev, and most companies would only look at those with a college degree. I am an American and we do not qualify for working holiday visas, so that is off the table as well.

I'm hoping to get some insight from those more experienced with moving to Japan, and hopefully people who either are familiar with either the IT industry there or who moved there without being able to use a working holiday visa. If anyone has any advice or information to offer me, I would greatly appreciate it.

Thanks in advance!