Best Way to Move to Japan Without a Sponsored Work Visa?

Hello 🙂
I'm an EU citizen looking to move to Japan, but I know getting a job with visa sponsorship is tough. I see a few possible strategies:

  1. Go on a tourist visa (90 days), network, apply to jobs, and hope to find a company willing to sponsor me. But since I wouldn’t have a visa, I feel like companies might ghost me just like they do when applying from abroad.

  2. Get a student visa, work part-time, and job hunt while in Japan. This seems safer, but at the end of the day, I’d still need a company to sponsor a work visa. Would this actually improve my chances, or would I still end up stuck?

  3. Freelance or other visa options, like self-sponsoring, but I’m not sure how realistic this is.

Has anyone here successfully transitioned from a tourist visa to a work visa and stayed long-term? If so, how did you do it? Which approach is more realistic? Any advice would be appreciated!

by North_Yesterday_1948

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