Is finding a job in Japan with 2 years experience and a work visa doable?

[jonyfox67]

hi,

just came across this website a few days ago and it seems very helpful. Wandering if anybody can give me some advice on my situation/plan.

Some background: I've got a BSc and an MSc from two different UK universities (both in informatics/CS). Been working in UK for just over a year now as a software developer. I want to move back to Japan.
My Japanese skills are shit. Started taking evening classes same time I started working. I can say/understand some basic stuff and can read/write hiragana. On the plus side, I've got a permanent residence visa because my mother married a Japanese national. Also I lived in Japan for 5 years before uni (totally hated learning Japanese back then and I regret that now). Based on what I read in other threads the second largest problem (after lack of Japanese skills) seems to be the Visa issue which is not a problem in my case.
I should mention that my mother lives in Japan, and for the past 6 months I've been in a long distance relationship with my girlfriend who is Japanese and lives in Tokyo.

My current plan is to work in UK for another year (so I've got 2~2.5 years experience) while looking for a job in Japan. Thinking I can apply online and if they want to do an interview I can always just grab the next flight (yeah it is not cheap, but will probably be worth it). After that I'll come over and start the search full-time.

What do you guys think? Is finding an IT job in Japan in the current economy, doable with ~2 years experience, basic Japanese, and a work visa?
I want to try and avoid the language teaching route as much as possible because a: I would hate it, and b: it won't increase my IT experience and the larger gap I've got the harder it is going to be to find the next job.

The other alternative I've considered is trying to sell apps for iPhone/Android. Basically going freelance over the internet working remotely from Japan. But to go this route I would need to start spending some serious time with these platforms and I doubt they will earn much money. Most likely it would just be something I can put on my CV while searching for a Job when I come over.

Some keywords: VB/C# .Net, Python, sql, C++, php.