Side hustle.

[Tomthumb16]

Hi Guys,
I run my own business which is great but I would like a side hustle to supplement my income.
Any suggestions?
I have JLPT Level 2 so online translating may be a option....I have been running my own 飲食店 for the past 4 years so consulting in this field is another option.
Thanks in advance,

[RetireJapan]

Part-time private English teaching can be lucrative (I have charged up to 8,000 yen an hour). Writing books or online resources offers a chance to scale.

I think translation requires better language skills as well as specialised software, etc. in order to be productive enough to make it worthwhile...

Anyone else?

[DragonAsh]

I guess teaching English would be an option, but - and take this with a grain of salt, I managed to almost entirely avoid the English teacher stints my entire time in Japan - by all accounts it can be a painful, soul-crushing experience. Imagine sitting in a class for an hour with six middle-aged house-wives unwilling to actually say anything, so you're dying inside minute by minute desperately trying to think of a way to pass the time. I understand that kids can be quite fun, but to do it properly you need to prepare materials or some sort of lesson plan every time (week).

I have my doubts that JLPT Level 2 would really be sufficient to translate professionally - but it's something that would really improve your language skills at the same time, so maybe give it a go, focusing on your area of expertise (food & beverage service / restaurants, or other areas if you have experiences in other fields) since that gives you a built-in advantage in the critical area for translation (ability to write in your native language). Heck offer to properly translate menus and such, given the numerous spelling / grammatical errors...companies may be keen to do that ahead of the Olympics and Osaka Banpaku etc.

Translation absolutely does not require specialized software. There are tools that can (significantly) improve your productivity, but it's about as complicated as using MS Word. No, the limiter is language ability. At JLPT Level 2, it's hard to build up speed since you'd still need to be looking up so much in Japanese. You want to be translating 1,000+ Japanese characters an hour for it to be worthwhile, or find a field that pays Y15+ per character (or, if you're lucky...get both <g>).

Do you play an instrument or a sport well enough to teach?

If you run a restaurant...catering events maybe?

[goodandbadjapan]

I guess teaching English would be an option, but - and take this with a grain of salt, I managed to almost entirely avoid the English teacher stints my entire time in Japan - by all accounts it can be a painful, soul-crushing experience. Imagine sitting in a class for an hour with six middle-aged house-wives unwilling to actually say anything, so you're dying inside minute by minute desperately trying to think of a way to pass the time. I understand that kids can be quite fun, but to do it properly you need to prepare materials or some sort of lesson plan every time (week).

I do understand what you're saying here, but the people that have that soul-crushing experience are very often precisely the ones that don't prepare well. In other words it is a job that you have to put a bit of effort into - same as any job, really. It can be not a bad side hustle, though - just one group of 6 students each paying 8,000 yen for a month (4 one-hour lessons) and you have 48,000 yen a month for one hour a week. That's within the standard eikaiwa rates so quite possible and with a good bunch it can be really enjoyable. But, appreciate that it definitely isn't for everyone - just showing the other side of the coin. And of course, you have to have a good place to teach them which isn't always easy to find.

[RetireJapan]

The wedding priest thing, although that is much less lucrative than it used to be (I used to get 15,000 yen per wedding, and could do up to eight a day in peak season -I think it's hard to get half that now).

https://www.retirejapan.com/blog/only-i ... elebrants/

[Tomthumb16]

Thanks for the advise guys.
The private lesson rout seems to be the only real viable option for me.
I’m in my own bar/restaurant from 11am-midnight 5-6 days a week,2pm-5pm is my down time so I thought a online source of income would be the best option for me.
Or I could get potential students to have the lessons in my place!
Regards.

[concerned]

How about looking for something in your home country that you think will sell in Japan. Maybe creaate an online store and resell this item in Japan.

[robster]

It is my considered opinion that the person who succeeds in making Easter a "thing" in Japan will retire very rich. It has all the kawaii elements to appeal widely to consumers, and is maybe the last major western holiday that has not yet got a foothold here. Might take more than your 2-5pm downtime, but when it happens it will be big. I recall that 10 years ago, Halloween was virtually unheard of and certainly not well commercialized.

Either that, or be the first to import and distribute Blu Tac. They need this in Japan but just don't know it yet.

[greedisgood]

I have charged up to 8,000 yen an hour

What kind of class was this? Was it very specialized?

I'd love to be able to charge that much

[RetireJapan]

I have charged up to 8,000 yen an hour

What kind of class was this? Was it very specialized?

I'd love to be able to charge that much

Nope, just normal one to one eikaiwa. The trick is to find wealthy people that value their time and are happy to pay for effective lessons that maximise the benefit to them.

I don't do that any more, but I'd charge more if I did