Working Holiday in Tokyo & Japan

Watch our brief introduction to a Working Holiday in Japan:

• You are a citizen of UK, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, Canada, France, Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Finland, 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

• 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.

• Support before your arrival in Japan
• Access to our Japan Working Holiday Knowledge Base – a mobile-friendly online reference system with videos, texts, and an AI chatbot providing a wealth of relevant information on working and living in Japan. It is constantly updated!
• Review of your visa application documents before you submit them to the embassy/consulate
• Arrangement of sharehouse accommodation in Tokyo, Kyoto, Okinawa, and host familiy accommodation across Japan (rental costs not included)
• Discounts for partner sharehouses and apartments throughout Japan!
• Airport pickup upon arrival at Haneda/Narita (in the case of Tokyo) or Kansai/Itami (in the case of Kyoto) via public transport to the sharehouse or host family accommodation (Tokyo, Kyoto) organized by us (on the day of arrival; in Tokyo every Friday; in Kyoto on a monthly arrival date; please see dates below)
• On-site assistance including:
  • Residence Registration
  • Tax number
  • National Health system registration
  • Opening a bank account and mobile phone contract

(details below)
• Translation of your resume into Japanese (rirekisho) and optimization of your English resume for Japanese employers
• Extensive group orientation in our offices on all important topics related to working in Japan, including a mock interview
• Registration at the employment office (if you have basic Japanese knowledge) or individual consultation in our office for job search
• Provision of job offers
• Bilingual contact person on site (English and Japanese) for any assistance
• Use of PC and printer for researching job offers and creating application documents
• You can visit our offices in Tokyo and Kyoto for any assistance, or communicate with us via Line, Whatsapp, Email, or Phone during your entire stay in Japan
• Luggage storage in Tokyo and Kyoto (if you want to travel around and not carry everything with you)
• Forwarding of letters and packages within Japan (if you are registered in our sharehouses)
• Participation in events/workshops either free of charge or at very low cost (depending on the event/workshop)
• For the CO2 compensation of your long distance flights, we plant 10 indigenous trees per participant on the slopes of Kilimanjaro in Tanzania

• 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. It contains answers to all common questions in the form of explainer videos and texts. This is not only helpful for travel preparation but also as a reference while you are there. To make it even easier for you, we have integrated an AI chatbot that has been trained with our content (and is constantly being improved!).
• The Knowledge Base includes 5 short explainer videos that explain the visa application process step by step. You will need to prepare the documents yourself, but you can send them to us, and we will review them before you submit them to the embassy or consulate. Guarantee: If we find your documents to be suitable and your visa is still rejected (which has never happened!), we would refund you completely.
• The Knowledge Base also includes intercultural preparation materials. They are important in order to better understand the way many people in Japan think in their professional and everyday lives
• Before your trip, you will be invited to a Zoom preparation session where we will again explain all the necessary steps and answer participant questions. This is also a chance to meet other program participants!

• 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.
• If you receive letters from authorities, we will let you know what to do. We will also inform you if there are any legal deadlines to meet (e.g., income declaration).

• We help you create a CV/resume and application documents in Japanese (and optimising your English CV/resumes for the expectation of Japanese employers)
  
• Once a week, we host a Job group job counseling session in 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 counselling in our office instead
  
• We share available suitable job offers in the LINE groups

• 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.
• External language schools in Tokyo, Kyoto, Osaka, and Nagano offer intensive language courses in groups for all levels from beginner to upper advanced. We will provide you with all options and prices, and you can book the language course directly with us.
• 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 cities. Usually, retirees and housewives volunteer to teach Japanese once or twice a week for 90-120 minutes each. July and August are usually summer holidays. A lesson costs about 700-750 yen

Rents in popular locations in Japan are among the most expensive in the world. However, we operate 2 sharehouses in Tokyo, one in Kyoto, and one in Okinawa, where we offer affordable accommodation for our Work & Travel participants.

Rates (2024; for all World Unite! sharehouses): A bed in a dormitory costs 1500 JPY per night; a double room 1800 JPY. The minimum rental period is 5 weeks; maximum 11 months.

You can book single room accommodation in our partner sharehouses by Oakhouse and Be Good Japan. As a World Unite! participant, you’ll receive a discounted price. Oakhouse also offers apartments.

Furthermore, we can arrange host family accommodation.

You can see pictures of the sharehouse and details about the host families here.

If you prefer, you can of course stay in accommodation that you organize yourself. It is not mandatory to use the accommodations organized by us. However, in other cities, as well as in other districts of Tokyo/Kyoto, we cannot accompany you to the town hall, bank, etc. But we will explain to you in detail what you need to do where.