Message from Adam
I really want to add more to this list because hobby jobs are not only fun, but they make pretty good money. For me, making jewelry is what I enjoyed the most on this list. It is really easy to do and there are infinite ways to be creative. Even if you dont sell what you make, you can make really cool birthday gifts for your friends and family!
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8 Hobby Jobs in Japan
These ideas will take some time and effort but they are a great for turning a hobby into profit. Make extra money with these hobby jobs in Japan!
Hobby Jobs #1: Teach Private English Lessons
Sorry! This is on every other list on the internet for making extra money in Japan. But it really cant be helped because this is a fantastic way to make some good money.
You don’t have to open a school, but there are always people in Japan that are looking to learn English. Many of those who want to speak English, want to learn with a private tutor and not in a classroom with other people. Being a private tutor can be a lot of fun depending on your student.
Charge by the hour and meet at a coffee shop or at the library. I suggest you avoid renting a room for classes because that just digs into your profits and speaking at a café is more relaxing for both teacher and students.
Look online to compare prices. Gaijinpot or JMTY are good places to see what other people are charging per hour near you. Another good place to look at prices is at a passport center or an international center. There are always fliers for teachers looking for students as well as students looking for teachers. These are good places to put up your own fliers as well. Of course, word of mouth is still the best way to find students. Let the people around you know that you are looking for students.
It can be a fun idea for hobby jobs and it offers a real possibility for great money. Consider if you charge ￥2,500 for an hour and teach 5 hours a week….that is a great return for the time put in.
Here is a good article from Gaijinpot about the pros and cons about teaching private classes in Japan.
Hobby Jobs #2: Make Jewelry
It is a lot easier than you think! Jewelry is not only limited to gold and diamonds. This is one of my favorite hobby jobs in Japan because it is fun to do and you can make money!
There are craft stores all over Japan and all the resources to make jewelry are readily available online. Epoxy, hemp, leather, bone, wood and soft metals are all great options for a jewelry making hobby job. Try them all and see which one works best for you.
Epoxy offers one of the best options. The possibilities that epoxy offers is almost limitless and it is easy to use. At the most basic level, all you need to do is buy some molds, put something like glitter, stones, or anything that you want to be encased in the epoxy into the mold. After that, pour the epoxy in and let it dry. Then you are finished and have made jewelry that is unique and wonderful!
No matter which meadium you choose, it is fun to do and you can make some extra money. Sell to your friends or set up a small booth at a festival. If you really enjoy making jewelry, you can open an online store on ETSY or you could even start your own website.
Starting your own website is something I will always recommend and I have written a long post on how to make a website.
Making jewelry is a great hobby and once you find your style, you can start to make money in Japan.
Hobby Jobs #3: Sell on Etsy
If you’ve never been to the ETSY website, I highly recommend that you do so. It is a great website and online community. It is a place where artists and creative people can get paid for their skills. This is one of the hobby jobs in Japan that could be turned into a full time job.
It is easy to set up an account, so if you can draw, make jewelry, make clothes, toys or anything else creative, then you should try to sell your talent.
You just said “I don’t have any talent”, didn’t you?
Don’t lie to yourself!
The world is big and with the internet we are all connected. So you don’t need to have the skills to carve the Statue of David, all you need is to be unique. Which of course you are!
An idea that is commonplace in your hometown, may be exotic in a different country. Etsy is a place that brings buyers and sellers from all over the world together. Even if you think your craft is subpar, you should try to sell on Etsy.
One thing I have learned about art, is that the artists opinion doesn’t matter. It’s the audience`s (buyer`s) opinions that matter and there are buyers for every kind of art imaginable.
Do whats fun for you and put it on Etsy. You’ve got nothing to lose and a big chance to make some money.
Hobby Jobs #4: Publish an eBook
Publishing an eBook is a fantastic way to make money on the side! The whole process has been made easy, with programs like Amazon Kindle Direct Publishing.
In a nutshell, write a book, follow the easy instructions on their website and then start to collect money.
Ok ok…it’s not that easy. It takes a lot of work to write a book and there is no guarantee that people will buy your book. But the process of publishing eBooks is actually pretty easy these days so it is worth looking into.
All of you reading this, come from radically different backgrounds and have a ton of different experiences. Everyone could be considered a specialist of something. Why not write a book about something you know a lot about or just write some interesting stories about things you have experienced.
It would be fun to write and people love a good story. Even if you don’t make a lot of money, it still sounds cool when you say “I published a book”.
The possibilities for you to write about are endless. Write a self help book, a how-to book, fiction or a children’s book. Maybe write a children’s book in English and use it in your English classes.
After you write and publish the book, it will be available online so you will continue generating a passive income long after you finished working on the book. If you keep writing more books, that income adds up!
I believe it is a really good way to make money and I have a lot to say about it, so make sure to subscribe to The Yen Pincher so you can be notified when my post about eBooks is finished.
Hobby Jobs #5: Online Translator / Freelance
This option requires a good level of language ability but it can be very profitable. Making money while sitting on your couch at home listening to music is possible! This might be one of the most common hobby jobs in Japan (besides private English lessons)
There are several options online but the two I recommend are UPWORK and GENGO. These are the two that my wife and I use, but I have heard some good things about UNBABLE as well.
These online translator jobs can be really easy if your language ability is high enough. Starting the process is easy enough, but to start making consistent money is more difficult.
First, set up an account and create a profile. Make sure to list your qualifications and make yourself look professional. One of the good points of Gengo is that you can take qualification tests on their website. The more of their tests you pass, the better and more appealing your profile looks. These tests are free to take as well!
After setting up your profile, You can start browsing through the “help wanted” areas. The job options are very diverse in length, difficulty and how much you can make. Sometimes it is just one person who needs to have their love letter translated or sometimes it’s a major company seeking a translator to translate a weekly newsletter.
Getting a weekly job is the best way to get money. Having a weekly job also adds credibility to your profile, so you will be considered for more work. On these websites, creditability is everything, so it may take a while to work your way up the ladder, but keep at it and you will start to make great returns for your time.
Hobby Jobs #6: YouTuber
Do a Google search on the wealthiest YouTubers and you will be blown away by how much they make. In this day and age, being a YouTuber is a legit job.
You don’t have to make it your full time job, but if you start a YouTube channel, you give yourself a good opportunity to make money. The best part is that you can talk about anything you like. Make it a funny channel or talk about fashion. Getting money for talking about things you like is fantastic!
Buy a camera, make some videos and put them on YouTube. That’s all it takes to get started. Once you start, you will find that there is a large community of YouTubers that are great to talk to for advice and you will most likely make many friends.
Even your videos don’t go viral, or you don’t really make a lot of money from YouTube…it’s fun to do!
The only real start up cost is the camera.
I am by no means an expert when it comes to cameras and mics, but as a huge fan of Canon cameras, I would recommend the Canon Rebel SL2.
But that is not why I chose this camera. I have done a lot of research for my wife`s youtube channel (coming soon) and this, is in my opinion, the best camera for vlogging. It is powerful and perfect for first time vloggers (like my wife) because it is fairly easy to use. The learning curve for this camera was fairly painless and I will be writing a full review article about it soon. Until I finish my review, you can read reviews about this camera by searching Google. I am not the only one who thinks that this camera is amazing.
Amazon has great package deals, so with one purchase you can get everything you need to start a YouTube channel. So keep your eyes out for a good deal and get your channel up and running!
Hobby Jobs #7: Fake Priest 偽牧師 (Nise bokushi)
This is one of the greatest hobby jobs in Japan if you can find it. It’s really simple and pays very well.
In Japan, having a westerner as the priest is considered オシャレ (fancy/exotic). Christian style weddings are in fashion in Japan, which is interesting because only a small percent of Japanese people are Christian. Therefore, you don’t have to be a real priest in order to do weddings in Japan. Some Japanese ability would come in handy, but you don’t need to be fluent to do this job.
The job itself is pretty easy. First go to the rehersal and practice your lines (and the couple’s names) and explain to the couple how things will go during the actual ceremony. Everything is well scripted and if you can remember your lines, then it is all fairly easy.
For about 90 minutes of work, you can make around ￥20,000 (payments will vary). Most of these weddings are on weekends, which means that your summer weekends will be full of weddings. But that would be a great way to make a lot of money! ￥20,000 per wedding and if you do 3 or 4 weddings in a weekend….cha ching!
Look on GaijinPot for these jobs or even find the local chapels in your area and ask them directly if they need a fake priest. For more information about this job, this is an excellent article written in 2016.
Hobby Jobs #8: Detail Cars
I did this in high school and made a ton of money! This is a job that could work in any country.
Some people love their cars as much as they love their family. However, many people are too busy in Japan to keep their car as clean as they would like it to be. A car detailer will make their car look (and smell) new again.
The car gets washed thoroughly inside and out and the carpets get shampooed. The tires even get a special rubber cleaner to make them look new.
A car detailer, as the name suggests, pays attention to all details of the car. Toothbrushes are used in the vents and hard to reach places. Toothpicks are used to clean all the lines and creases inside the car.
There are special cleaning products the seats, carpets, dash, glass, tires and rims. This job takes a lot of time to finish, therefore a premium price can be charged for this premium service. Charging between ￥10,000 to ￥30,000 per car would not be considered too expensive for a full, in detailed cleaning of a car.
If the job is done well, you will get a reputation and your hobby jobs will grow. Buy all the cleaning supplies and start to advertise in your town. Use fliers, JMTY and word of mouth to start this side business.
The startup costs aren’t too bad at first. Things you will need are (but not limited to): buckets, rags, sponges, cleaning solutions (for carpet, leather, glass and etc.), brushes, toothbrushes, toothpicks, microfiber cloth, tire cleaners, wax, vacuum and water.
Amazon has everything you need and even has some package deals. Or you can go to a car store in Japan and get started.
Stores like:
Autobacs
Yellow Hat
Jms Car
Don Quixote
Up Garage
And just a reminder…the best way to make money is to start your own website. Having a website is the ideal hobby job. You can work from anywhere, set your own work schedule and talk about the things that interest you. There is huge money making potential as well. Not everyone will get rich with a website, but the possibility is there for everyone! And even if you don`t get rich, making passive income online each month really reduces the stress of living from paycheck to paycheck.
Check out my article on how to make a website. I will walk you through the steps and it only takes 15 minutes to start! I will also give you a discount code that will help you save a ton of money off of your start up costs.
