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Working Holiday in Tokyo & Japan

 
NWork and Travel Tokyo
 
With the Working Holiday Visa you can stay in Japan for up to one year (Australians even 18 months) and have an income through a Working Holiday job, allowing you to finance your entire stay in Japan. World Unite! runs a support office in Tokyo for Working Holiday travellers from all over the world as well as our own sharehouse in which you can stay. Our international team in Tokyo will support you throughout your year in Japan, even if you decide to travel to other cities or regions of Japan after your initial time in Tokyo.
 
New: On March 1, 2024, we are opening our support office and sharehouse in Kyoto. If you book our Working Holiday support package, you will receive support for a full year at both locations (Tokyo and Kyoto). In our Kyoto sharehouse, both dormitory and double rooms are available at the same affordable rental rates as in Tokyo.
 

Watch our brief introduction to a Working Holiday in Japan:

 
 

Who can participate in Working Holiday in Japan?

 
You need to be able to be able to get a Working Holiday Visa for Japan. It can be obtained through the Japanese Embassy in your home country, if you meet the following conditions:
 
  • You are a citizen of UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Hungary, Poland, Slowakia, Czech Republic, Lithuania, Estonia, Argentina, Chile, Korea, Taiwan, Hong Kong, Germany or Austria (please see options for other nationalities below)
  • You are 18-30 years old
  • You have evidence of funds (bank statement), typically of around 200,000 yen (about 1800 USD; exact amount differs depending on nationality)
  • You possess proof of booked flight ticket (needed for most nationals; some need return ticket, others only one-way flight booked)
  • You are in good health and have no criminal record
 
Participants of other nationalities or age can be in Japan on a STUDENT VISA, but to get the visa they need to enroll in full-time language lessons and are then allowed to do fully remunerated work in Japan for 28 hours per week. They can also book our Working Holiday Package. Please find details about this option here.
 
 

Which Working Holiday jobs can I do?

 
As part of this support package you will find a job while in Japan, as you have to attend a job interview on the spot, and you need to have a Japanese tax number and bank account first (that you only get while being in Japan with the Working Holiday Visa). Therefore we cannot give you details about a particular job during the completion of your booking and before your arrival to Japan (please scroll down to the end of this page for options of pre-arranged jobs). However rest assured: With our on-site support, almost all participants can find a job within one month, if they are serious about it and follow our preparation and advice. Japanese language skills are not absolutely necessary.
 
Typical jobs for the holder of a working holiday visa are:
 
  • Work in restaurants, cafes and fast food chains
  • Working in (english-language) kindergartens and day care centers
  • Nanny & Childcare
  • Sale in shops (if language skills are sufficient)
  • Language Teacher (not only at formal language schools, but also for instance at language cafés or conversation clubs (also possible for French, Spanish, German, Chinese...)
  • Photo model for advertising and Performer for television
  • Farm work
  • Work at hotels, ryokans, ski resorts
  • Light factory work, packaging goods
  • Moving companies

Important Information:
 
  • Even though it is generally also possible to find a job if you don't have any Japanese language skills, it is considerable easier to find a job if you have at least basic Japanese language skills. You can learn some Japanese prior to your trip to Japan and/or you can attend an intensive Japanese language course in Tokyo during your first month (or longer), while at the same time already looking for a job. We can arrange language lessons for you at a language school. Later, you might consider continuing with less intensity and relatively inexpensively at a community centre that we can show you. 
  • The hourly wages for such jobs are about 890 to 1500 Yen/Hour (about 7.40 to 12.40 €). There are full-time and part-time jobs.
  • If you have a higher level of Japanese and/or you have professional qualification, you can find jobs with a higher salary per hour
  • Read our FAQs Working Holiday in Japan about more information on jobs, finances etc.

 

What do we offer you as a participant of Working Holidays in Tokyo?

 
Work and Travel Tokyo PackageWorking Holiday Package TOKYO & Japan:
Per person 800 EUR

Book Now!
 
The Working Holiday Package in Tokyo includes:
 
  • Access to our mobile-friendly Knowledge Base incl. videos and texts about your life in Japan
  • Preparation Session via zoom prior to your arrival
  • Arrangement of accommodation (See Below; rent not included)
  • On arrival, pick up from Haneda or Narita Airport by public transport and drop to accommodation (for flights landing Fridays 8am-8pm)
  • On-site assistance including:
    • Immigration Department (Residence Card)
    • Residence Registration
    • Tax number
    • National Health system registration
    • Opening a bank account and mobile phone contract
    • Japanese Language Course (Details Below; course fees not included)
    • Local orientation
  • Assistance with finding a job (Details Below)
    • Help with job application in Japanese (preparing your CV/resume in Japanese)
    • Comprehensive group job counseling session (every Monday at our office) including important information about working in Japan and practising Japanese job interviews (role play)
    • Joining you to the employment office or alternatively, one-to-one job support session at our office
    • Sharing many job offers with you
  • Bilingual Contact person on site (English and Japanese) for any assistance
  • Use of PC and printer for researching job offers and creating application documents
  • Support at our office or remotely (line, whatsapp, phone, email) during your full year in Japan!
  • For the CO2 compensation of your long distance flights, we plant 10 indigenous trees per participant on the slopes of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania

 

Watch our Video about Working Holidays in Japan!

 
In our video, participant Judith is answering some FAQs about Working Holidays in Japan. She is also telling about her experiences and the experiences of other participants about jobs in Tokyo, and she is showing us around our accommodation in central Tokyo. The video has English subtitles.
 
 

 

Pictures of our office and our services in Tokyo

 
Our office is on the 2nd floor of our own sharehouse near Kiba Station. If you stay at our sharehouse, you can always easily reach us in person. At the office we carry out the introductions and job support. During the opening hours (Monday-Friday) you can simply enter if you need any kind of support. There is also a corner with a PC and printer that you can use to research jobs and print out your resumes.
 
 

Details about our Services

 
1. Travel preparation
 
  • Prior to your travel you can of course communicate with our experienced team who will answer all your questions and help you plan your year in Japan.
  • We also have an extensive mobile phone-friendly online Japan Working Holiday Knowledge Base, in which you will find answers to most common questions in the form of explainer videos and texts. It is not only helpful for travel preparation, but also as a reference while you are in Japan.
  • The Knowledge Base also includes intercultural preparation materials - which is very important in order to better understand the way many people in Japan think in their professional and everyday lives
  • Prior to your trip, you will be invited to a zoom session that primarily answers questions from attendees
  • We can arrange your accommodation (rent not included)
 
2. Formalities and orientation in Tokyo
 
  • After your arrival, we will go with you to the city hall to do your residence registration, to apply for your tax number and register you for the Japanese health system (mandatory).
  • We will take you to the Japanese pension fund office and apply for your exemption from compulsory pension contributions
  • We also accompany you to a bank where you open a bank account and also help you complete a mobile phone contract.
  • We show you around the local area, get you a subway card etc., to help you during your first days in this huge city
 
3. Finding a job
 
  • We help you create a CV/resume and application documents in Japanese (and optimising your English CV/resumes for the expectation of Japanese employers)
  • Every Monday, we host a Job group job counseling session at our office, providing you with a lot of useful information about working in Japan. We will also practice a Japanese job interview with you in the form of a role play.
  • If you have a basic knowledge of Japanese, we will make an appointment with a counselor at the employment office and accompany you there. The employment office has a very good placement rate.
  • If you do not yet have a basic knowledge of Japanese, we will give you a one-to-one job consultation in our office instead
  • Several times per week, we are sharing available suitable job offers
 
4. Language Courses
 
If you do have no or only little knowledge of Japanese before you arrive, it is recommended to acquire some knowledge through attending language lessons. The following options exist:
 
  • World Unite! Conversation Course for Beginners. The course is designed for beginners and starts once a month. The intensity is 4x45 minutes per day, 5 times per week (Monday-Friday). You can book any duration from 1-8 weeks. For Working Holiday program participants, the tuition fee is 16,000 JPY per week, plus a one-time fee of 10,000 JPY for teaching materials. Read more about this course.
  • An external language school is offering intensive language courses of all levels (beginner to upper intermediate) in groups. 20 hours per week are 18,000 JPY (plus one-time 20,000 Yen inscription fee + 10,000 Yen teaching materials).
  • Remote individual language lessons that you can book with us.
  • Online Learn Community that our program participants get a discount for.
  • At no additional cost, we organize a monthly online tandem language exchange between foreign program participants who want to learn Japanese and Japanese individuals who are traveling with us to English-speaking countries.
  • Community centers that exist in all districts, where volunteer teachers like pensioners and housewives teach Japanese once or twice a week for 90-120 minutes each. You are grouped with students of comparable knowledge levels; if there is no other student with a comparable level of knowledge, you have individual lessons until you can join a group. July and August are usually summer vacation. One lesson costs around 700-750 yen. In order to maximize the learning, you can combine two such centers in different parts of the city and then do 3-4 days/week of lessons. We will show you the nearest community centres.
 
5. Accommodation
 
The rents in Tokyo are among the most expensive worldwide. We are running our own house at a central location, where we offer affordable accommodation for our Working Holiday participants.
 
The house in the district of Koto-ku,in which also our support office is located, has 13 rooms: 6 for double occupancy and 7 Dorm Rooms for 4-8 persons each, depending on the room size. There are two communal lounges with kitchens, 2 bathrooms (separate for men and women), 5 showers and 4 toilets, and a large rooftop terrace. There is also WiFi internet. All rooms are fully furnitured and have ACs (for cooling and heating).
 
More beds are available at 4-share dorm rooms and twin rooms at our partner sharehouse in Warabi.
 
Rates (2024): A twin room bed is 1800 JPY per night (about 12 USD/11.40 EUR) per person, dorm beds (4-8 beds in the room) are 1500 JPY/night (about 10 USD/9.50 EUR). The minimum rental duration is 5 weeks; maximum rental duration 11 months.
 
We can also arrange single rooms at other sharehouses. The rates depend on the room size and location. We can send you details of available rooms.
 
Furthermore, we can arrange host family accommodation.
 
 
If you prefer, you can of course also stay in accommodation that you organize yourself. It is not compulsory to use the accommodations we arrange. However, if we have to do the local orientation (registrations at the town hall, bank, etc.) in another part of Tokyo, we charge a small surcharge.
 
6. Support for a full year in Japan!
 
During your entire year in Japan, you can take advantage of the support of our multilingual and Japan-experienced international team. Our office in central Tokyo is open Monday through Friday. If you are in another place in Japan, you communicate via phone / Whatsapp / Line / Email. Questions about working? To travel? How do things work in Japan? Communication problems? Our team will help you!
 
 
Work and Travel Tokyo PackageWorking Holiday Package TOKYO & Japan:
Per Person 800 EUR

Book Now!
 
Note: Start of our Working Holiday program is always on Fridays. You should arrive on a Friday between 8am and 8pm at Haneda or Narita Airport from where we will pick you up. You can arrive on other days, but in this case we would charge an extra fo 80 EUR for the airport pickup.
 

How free or bound am I when I book this package? What do I commit to?

 
All the services included in the package are an offer that you can use, but do not have to. You don't have to work, live in our sharehouse or take any Japanese classes. You don't have to stay in Tokyo either, but you can travel to other places in Japan. However, if you do not want to make use of some of the services included in the package, there are no discounts or refunds.


Can I organize Working Holiday in Japan myself?

 
Theoretically, you can do this, BUT it is much more difficult than for instance in case of doing Working Holidays in Australia, New Zealand or Canada.
 
Reasons:
 
It is uncommon: Working Holiday in Japan is not a mass phenomenon as in Australia, New Zealand or Canada. There are few job offers that are specifically for Working Holiday participants. For the same jobs, Japanese and foreigners who are on other visa categories in the country also apply. Many employers do not know the type of Working Holiday Visa and first have to be convinced that it is legally fine to employ you - we will assist you with this.
 
Language barriers: English knowledge is limited in Japan. Even at government agencies, banks or larger stores, there are few staff who speak English well. The communication is difficult and sometimes impossible, especially if you have no knowledge of Japanese at all. We help you with the various legal formalities that are required at the beginning of your stay and also afterwards, when you need it. Banks, mobile phone providers etc. usually don't have any English telephone support.
 
Cultural differences: At first glance, Japan may appear relatively western, but the cultural differences are huge. This can lead to difficulties, particularly in a job, when you're unaware of these differences. We provide a basic training in cultural differences using the Hofstede model before you begin your stay in Japan.
 
Huge, different and expensive city: With 35 million people, Tokyo is the largest metropolitan area in the world. It is difficult to "quickly explore" the city, as it takes a lot of time to understand it. Through our preparation, this is much faster and saves you money, too: You can spend an incredible amount of money in Tokyo for everyday things such as food. For instance, in normal supermarkets, prices for the same products often change several times within one day. You have to know the supermarkets and the time at which you get things for cheapest. There are also large wholesale markets for which one needs a yearly membership. We buy food in bulk for our Working Holiday participants there, which you can take advantage of. Hence, you save significantly on the cost of living.
 
The proportion of western foreigners is low - you will not so easily connect to a Western "community" as in other countries. We give you tips on how you can meet people, if you require it.
 
So go ahead and book your Working Holiday year in Tokyo and see how we make it easy for you!
 

Aren't there any jobs that can be pre-arranged prior to my arrival?

 
We can arrange Working Holiday jobs at farms, Working Holiday jobs at ryokans, the traditional Japanese hotels at several cities and regions of Japan if you have basic Japanese language skills, at ski resort jobs and Working Holiday jobs on Sado Island (agriculture, fishing, tourism) prior to your arrival to Japan. Then you have a fully remunerated job right from the moment when you arrive. Our farm work, ryokan job, ski resort and Sado Island packages include all support services in Tokyo, making it possible for you to experience all aspects of Japan!
 
 
    BOOK NOW OR INQUIRE!
 

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