Part time childcare work in Tokyo

Hi everyone! It's a long one, bare with me!

If you don't want to read all the below basically my question is: Where is a good place for English speakers to find part time work with children?

I'm planning to go on my one year working holiday visa trip to Japan in March. Teaching English seems to be the go-to job for English speakers but I have -seriously- bad handwriting, so I doubt I'll be able to teach - And certainty don't feel confident about even trying.

My profession in England is childcare work, most specifically with 2-3 year olds, but I've worked with months old up to almost 5. I've been doing this for 7 years and have an N.V.Q level 3 qualification. I have a basic level of ability with spoken Japanese too. I'm also male, which at least in England, is a rarity in this line of work. That makes it pretty easy for me to find work here at home, but so far I haven't seen much work I could take in Japan.

One reason is a lot of jobs are full time, and my visa (And travel plans...) only allow part-time work, maybe up to 30 hours a week. Another is that often at least a bachelor's degree is required - which I don't have. There are some childcare provision websites that are all in Japanese too, which, guess what, I can't read. There are some English sites that folks like me can use and one of them requires a 60 USD subscription fee for a month and some haven't seen a post since 2011...

So! Where is a good place (Website or physical location!) for English speakers to find part time work (I guess, in general, but more specifically) with children? Are there any places in Japan I should visit to look for it? (Besides Hello Work, which I plan to go to.) I'm not sure I want to wind up working for 1000y an hour at a conversation cafe X_x

Thanks everyone!

Since you are not qualified in Japan to do child care (meaning working at kindergartens or child care centers, etc.), your chance will be limited to either English lessons for small children, or finding English-speaking families in Japan who need private child carers/home helpers.

One thing: working under Working Holiday visa arrangements means you don't have to have a bachelor's degree (for immigration purposes).

Have you checked the Working Holiday association's website?

The job listings ask for a degree and a visa, so I had assumed that they wanted the applicant to have a high level of education. Do you think they're only asking for immigration purposes?

Thank you for recommending the working holiday association! The Japanese Embassy page which gives British citizens information about how to apply for the working holiday visa tells you about Hello Work, but actually doesn't mention their website. (http://www.jawhm.or.jp/eng/service.html)

I was really hoping to work in a Hoikuen or maybe a place providing "International day care" - Here in England, Nursery seems to be a mixture of Hoikuen and Yochien. We provide day care and play activities, though we use a government issued guide to ensure all the activities have an educational basis without being set "Lessons." From what I understand, in Japan hoikuen is purely day care and play and yochien is more formal with structured lessons. Is that right?

These days, there is a whole range of hoikuen styles, both for government-subsidised and private. Some are more formal with uniforms worn and lessons with achievement targets. Others are entirely play-based to. A lot comes down to the head. There's at least one I know of that has a visiting english teacher round here. To be a hoikuen teacher as formal qualification is required , but helpers don't seem to need this, so as long as the english play is supervised, then anyone could probably do it. I should imagine that there are international hoikuens with full time foreign staff in foreign areas.

Yocihen are usually more formal, and many specialise. For example, a friend's children go to one run by an Olympic gymnast that specialises in dance and ballet. English lessons are generally done and many have an foreign English teacher visit. Probably there are language specialising ones. Again there is a massive range of types as they are small businesses. Basically, you are right in your distinction, but the lines are blurred these days,but fundamentally hoikuens are all-day day care (from 3 months) that provide lunch and both parents should be in work, and generally yochiens are for mothers who are housewives and have shorter days and are there to prepare children (usually 3 years+) for school. This leads to different sorts of kids, but this is changing as the types of working mothers change.

Lots of children also seem to do saturday english play classes. So there is scope for what you want to do. But People I've come across who do this, seem to do it for a bit of extra money as part of there normal english teaching job. Probably not helpful to your question, but a bit of background for you.