With the yen being so bad and expectations for it to continue dropping, I am looking into picking up a side job to make some extra cash.
My Japanese is still very low, and I am hoping to improve that to open some more doors. But for now just curious to hear what people are already doing to make some extra cash.
Thanks for sharing!
25 comments
Why would I want a side hustle? Isn’t my main job work enough?
I live here I spend my money here. Why do I need another currency or side gig?
I think the best side hustle at this point is to go home and get a better job.
Import some items and sell those items.
>what’s your side hustle?
ｅＭＡＸＩＳ Ｓｌｉｍ 全世界株式（オール・カントリー）
I’ve started a YT chanel…
Teach english, business lessons pay well and can be done online
See what is currently in demand (overseas). Then see what is available to you (locally).
Buy local, sell overseas, and profit. For example, I know people who made money selling used CDs (Japan >>> USA) and used Levi’s jeans (USA >>> Japan) about 20-25 years ago. Do some market research on websites like Mercari to see what’s hot right now.
Moonlighting for tech companies
I lure unsuspecting gaijin into my bar with the promise of pretty gals then spike their drink and empty out their bank account.
I have a few side gigs like live streaming and video shooting, video editing, sound engineer, and music performance. They earn me a bit of extra pocket money from time to time.
My main gig only takes about 15 to 20 hours a week so I have plenty of time to experiment with other things.
Super old U.S. clothing sells for way too much at certain stores; any kind of vintage 輸入品（yunyū-hin/imported good) is possible to strike gold. 👍
I just try go get better at what I do and better connected, so that I can work less hours.
Side hustles tend to be inefficient or inconsistent by definition.
Only Fans
First make sure you’re even allowed to have a side hustle.
I’ve made some cash doing things for myself and later realizing I could make more than I spent. Built an eth mining rig, mined until I made all my money back and a little extra, got bored, realized the new version gpus were locked, sold mine for twice what I paid.
Bought some cameras, wanted English menus, burned the non Japanese firmware on them, then when it came time to sell them, sold them for more then I paid and got better gear.
One of my hobbies is growing plants and trees I can’t find in Japan, occasionally someone will ask to buy some or want the seed stock. Have made some cash off that.
Sorry OP, people are being dickheads in this thread, kind of par for the course among expats in Tokyo online (they’re too chickenshit to be dickheads in person). To be the person that tries to answer your question. Well, I can’t tell you my side hustle (as it’s just a hobby that I get paid for and don’t want competition). I can tell you a few things:
You’re probably going to have to get some higher level skills, and use that to market yourself, to either get a better job, or freelance. you’ll have to google to find skills that you coudl learn that won’t make you bang your head against the wall.
once you got those skills, make a portfolio of projects showing off those skills, then start freelancing or apply to jobs that pay more.
Or think about starting a business.
whatever you do, don’t do dropshipping.
i sometimes help my parents at the restaurant as a waitress but im hoping to find ideas for a more consistent part-time job here
OK. Here’s what I did years ago. I had ads printed up for teaching English (or another language). I stuffed the ads into mailboxes around my place in Katsushikaku ( a real dive). I charged about 2000 yen an hour up to 4 students at a time, 3 times a week, based on everyone’s work schedule. I made friends this way as well. Lonely people, people who really wanted to learn, people who were merely interested in a gaijin in their neighborhood, whatever. I might have actually taught a thing or two and we had lots of fun.
i make around 2k usd reselling clothes from mercari on foreign sites because of the usd to yen difference as of late
I do art commissions sometimes when I’m short on money. When I was moving last year I made enough drawing in my free time to cover a month of rent.
Unfortunately, I haven’t been doing as many lately since the AI art boom has dropped a lot of the demand :’)
I sell stuff on eBay, which usually makes me between 5,000 to 10,000 yen a month (sometimes much higher, such as when everyone was getting stimulus checks in America) and have a YouTube channel (retro gaming reviews and retrospectives) that makes around 3,000 to 5,000 a month, though I have a few evergreen videos that occasionally get pushed by the algorithm and have made around 200,000 yen in a month when that happens.
I sell succulents and cacti and random other plants
UK property rental.