Top 6 most needed services for foreign residents in Japan?!

Living in a country where the main spoken language is not your mother-tongue can be stressful and at times challenging. Not only do you have to deal with the cultural differences, but also the lack of support in English.

At Anytimes, an idea to a launch services targeting foreign residents living in Japan has been brewing on the back burner for a few years. In the past 9 years, the Anytimes platform has found success providing life-style related help to Japanese speaking users. With close to 100k users on the platform, it has turn into the go-to market place for C2C skill sharing, especially for those looking for handyman type work such as furniture assembly, moving, cleaning, cooking etc.

As we put the plan to launch into action, we have also conducted a pre-market survey to better help us, and our bilingual supporters on the Anytimes to understand what kind of services is needed by the English speaking foreign community in Japan.

Social Media Survey Results

We have asked simple survey questions on facebook groups with mainly English speaking foreign residents, such as TEN, Startup Lady Japan, Sisterhood Japan, etc. and we aggregated the results. Although it is unclear how many individuals voted on the social media survey, the number of tallied votes totalled 738.

All survey participants were asked the following question

As a foreigner living in Japan, what kind of help do you wish you have when going about your daily life?

The participants were given the following option, and also the option to add “others” for services not mentioned.

Moving / Packing

Furniture Assembly

House keeping / cleaning

Cooking / Meal Prep

Restaurant Reservation (Phone call in Japanese)

Dealing with other administrative calls in Japanese

Someone bilingual to tag along when dealing with administrative matters (banks/loan, house hunting, ward office etc)

Pet sitting

Tour guide for friends coming from overseas

Photography / Video Shooting or Editing

Hobbies

Language Learning

Mechanics (Repairing electronics, bikes, cars)

The results didn’t come too much as a surprise:

The top 6 services needed by foreign residents of Tokyo are:

1Someone bilingual to tag along when dealing with all administrative matters (ward office, bank loan, house hunting, etc) – Language Assistant (Physical)
2House keeping / cleaning
3Dealing with other administrative calls in Japanese – Language Assistant (Virtual)
4Cooking / Meal Prep
5Moving / Packing
6Learning Japanese

The first item on the ranking was in someways expected. Japan is notorious for its complicated and convoluted systems and rules. Navigating the administrative, financial, and judiciary system in Japan can be a nightmare even for Japanese, let alone residents who are not fluent in the language. Having someone bilingual to tag along while dealing with the bank, the ward office, the dmv, or other tasks requiring advance Japanese vocabulary can bring such comfort. At least you’d be confidence that you are filling in the right form with the correct kanji.

Detail Survey Results


A total of 26 participants filled in our detailed survey.

Here are the results in infographics form.

One interesting thing to note from the comprehensive survey is that most of our participants can speak Japanese to some degree (intermediate to advance levels). Yet the need for language assistance (someone bilingual to tag along for banks, ward office, schools, or someone to check their Japanese writing virtually) remains very strong. This could mean that being able to speak at a high level doesn’t always equal written / reading literacy. It could also be that navigating technical jargon while making important changes that could affect your life can be daunting, and having someone to ensure the accuracy of such matters can be key to feeling more confident. ie. Buying or renting a house, or enrolling a kid into a school for the first time, going to the doctor, changing your drivers licence, etc.

Where there are needs, there are jobs.

At Anytimes, we are actively looking for bilingual or English speaking supporters to offer their services to foreign residents in Japan as well as travellers visiting Japan.

Be specific about the type of service you can offer. For example, if you wanted to offer language assistant service, make sure to create your title that is specific to the job & the area you are servicing. An example title can be “Language support – I can go with you to ward office, school, hospital etc and help you interpret, translate, and fill out forms (Shinjuku, Shibuya Area). ” Then also consider how much you’d like to get paid per hour for the amount of time spent there (including transportation and the time needed for transportation).

Here’s how to get started officially on Anytimes:

1. Read the survey and think about what help foreign residents need and what kind of service you can offer within your capacity 

2. Register for an Anytimes account. Only takes a few minutes!

3. Write up service tickets in English and make sure to include the hashtag #EnglishOK in order to get a chance to get featured on our English landing page. Setup your own pricing per hour.

4. Promote your new services on Facebook groups or other sns platforms where there’s a large number of English speaking expats in Japan. 

5. Become a certified supporter! A certified supporter on Anytimes has the privilege of having their service ticket ranked higher in the top page of each service category. To become a certified supporter you must satisfy the following:

a. Upload a clear front-facing photo of yourself

b. Have your ID & Phone verified

c. Have 5 or more accumulated good reviews

d. Have been active (logged-in) over the past 3 months

e. Has written a detailed profile introducing yourself and what you are good at