Tour guide loopholes

I've read the previous posts on how to become a tour guide in Japan. I have a few questions, just in case something has changed in the past few years.

1. If I get the license, must I open my own business and register my company too? Or can I work independently as a freelancer?

2. If I operate as a freelancing photographer, yet I am also guiding, is that a loophole from the government? Does a photographer need a license too?

3. If I do not need to register my business, as I'm working independently, I must still be qualified to pay taxes? It seems a bit extreme to invest 5 million yen if I'm working on my own. How can I register to pay for income taxes?

4. Is a Humanities Visa good to be a tour guide? How can I sponsor my own visa? If I'm on a spouse visa, is that allowable? My husband is soon to be a permanent resident.

5. Where and how can I take the tour guide license test? I'm a native English speaker, so will I still need to take an English test? Perhaps the Japanese test is required?

Thank you so much!

Are you talking about the guide interpreter?
http://www.jga21c.or.jp/jga_guideinterpreter2_e.html

If you qualify for the spouse of permanent resident, you will be able to work as one once you pass the exam, on a freelance basis. I don't know what you mean about the 5 million. If you work freelance you will get hired on spot assignment basis.

Hi, I work in inbound travel in Japan and I can tell you there is no one single non-Japanese person among all the ’Ê–óˆÄ“àŽm (interpreter guides) we work with, which are more than 100 throughout the country. The exam simply is not designed for foreigners to take. There is no Japanese examination because it is understood that you must know Japanese perfectly; you have to prove you speak English, which is understood to be a second language. Additionally, I am not aware of your level of Japanese fluency, but there is a lot of history, geography, culture etc. to be studied (basically by heart), all in Japanese.

You may have better luck with getting a —·’öŠÇ—�ŽÒ qualification. This is for a tour escort (what in Japanese is usually called a “Y�æˆõ) and many foreigners have it. It is not an easy exam either but it is not designed to exclude non-Japanese, and it is a fun and exciting career as well. With a spouse visa, you could be a freelance tour escort without problems (and actually if you get the license, our company might want to assign you jobs lol)
More info on this exam here: http://www.anta.or.jp/exam/kenshu/ryotei_setsumei.html

I wish you best of luck!

I assume you mean "There is no English examination" in your answer :)

They said it's assumed you know perfect Japanese. So the examination would be in English to prove your English ability.

Sorry, I have been unclear in my answer. What I meant by "there is no Japanese examination" is that Japanese language is not a subject of examination as it is assumed everyone who takes the exam is a native. The exam is entirely in Japanese, with the exception of one of the parts which is an English (as a second language) language test.

I think the OP is confusing the requirements for self-sponsorship and the requirements of the guide-Interpreter test (which essentially requires native Japanese language AND a life-long immersion in everything Japan - which is why foreigners do not sit/pass the test.)

I saw recently that there are 14,000 issued licences, but more than 70% are never used - it's something people do. So the pool of active guide-interpreters is less than 4,000 and of those the vast majority only do part-time because for a lot of people they can not make a full-time job out of it.

As for the self-sponsorship, that is more the Business/Investor visa and there are more requirements than just the investment.

Japanese is not a subject of examination, because it is assumed that each person who examination is a native of people is. But English as second language) language testing part, the examination is completely in Japanese in a part of.

Thanks for your answers.

After talking with my friend, a Japanese tour guide who also took the test, she said that I may not have to take the test since I'm not Japanese. Plus, the government is thinking about eliminating the requirement, since there aren't enough licensed tour operators, and the Olympics are near.

She mentioned as a freelancer, I can do as I please. However, if I ever advertise myself I would need a license.

Just so I wouldn't get in trouble for tax evasion, I looked up how to pay taxes for my income. It turns out I can just send in the ŒÂ�lŽ–‹Æ koujin jigyou form, then keep all of my payments on record, including expenses.

Let me know if I'm missing any information.

The next step is figuring how to sponsor my own visa. Any ideas?

If I can't, the spouse visa is the next best thing I suppose.

Thanks again for your help!

To krr

Thank you for the link. You mentioned it qualifies foreigners wanting to guide in Japan, yet looking at the link, it talks about travel agents and training them. Are these the same travel agents you would see in JTT?

Sorry I am confused on what this license allows me to do.

Just to be clear, the law says that, irrespective of where you come from, if you get paid/compensated for providing guide services in Japan you must have a guide-Interpreter licence.

The future changes (which have been promised for more than five years), is not a loop-hole or way around the requirement.

Thanks, JapanCustomTours.

Would you know of a license foreigners can use in Japan? Or is a foreign license sufficient?

Foreign license does not apply - if you are compensated for showing people around in Japan (even if you speak no Japanese, provide no interpretation service), you must have Japanese license.

But there is a loop-hole.

Also, the huge majority of people I see advertising and conducting tours for money are operating illegally. I worked hard to make sure we comply with all relevant laws.

Interesting, which laws are those?

To krr and JapanCustomTours: I have the national license for a guide-interpreter. And I personally know several other foreigners who have it. What you're saying is simply not true. If you bother to check the official data you'll see that there are foreigners passing the exam every year. It's particularly convenient for native speakers of the language you want to become a guide in (for example, French people taking the exam to become guides in French - also because in the less popular languages you compete with fewer people, as opposed to the English exam. Of course, the Japanese parts of the test are the same for everyone). It's a bit rare to have someone who's not native in either Japanese or the foreign language pass the exam, yet I'm an example, so it's not impossible at all.

To the OP: It is illegal to guide without a license but there are many loopholes, among which are:
- guides for shopping tours
- guides for bar-hopping tours
- guiding by reading text prepared in advance from a paper (confirmed this with the Tourism Agency)
In general, the "guide-interpreter license" applies mainly to explaining stuff related to history, culture and architecture. If you take a guest around the shops in Ginza (without explaining the history of the place) or around izakaya bars in Shimbashi, you do not need to have the license. That's because you don't really need expert knowledge for such tours.

It is true that the government is thinking of gradually abolishing the system (mainly under the pressure of one huge travel agency that desperately needs more and more guides), hence why local-only licenses were introduced. In the future maybe the entire license system will be dismissed. The latest suggestion I heard is to implement "validity period" of the license and make people go through refreshment courses or additional exams every 5 years in order to fight with the large number of people who don't practice.

Thanks Alexander - a few out of 14,000 is useful to know. Well done passing the exam.

The loopholes you mentioned and the "in general" might apply, but the way the law is written is that even is you do not need specific knowledge or are not explaining history, you still need the license if you get paid for showing people around. Ultimately it depends on the application of the law, and with only one recent case that I know of, it does not appear to be enforced.

Plus, like many things in Japan, checking with an official or office gets a different answer every day, it is the written statute that applies.

Thank you Alexander.

How did you study for the test?

Do you have further information on the local test?

JapanCustomTours: You are right, and I don't encourage illegal guiding. However, I also don't encourage hiring a professional licensed guide-interpreter for the specific tours I mentioned in my previous point. The reason is that guides charge *a lot* exactly because they are supposed to provide specific services with expert knowledge on history and culture. No one wants to hire a guide and pay them around 15 000 JPY for half day shopping in department stores or an evening in a local pub. This would damage the tourism significantly if it was compulsory, therefore the law is not being enforced especially in these cases.

To the OP: I think someone gave a link earlier, you can easily find more information about the test online. There are some test books about the exam in some book stores (I recommend Junkudo in Ikebukuro). Overall, if you travel a lot and are interested in Japanese history and culture, you can pass with a little preparation before the exam.