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Volunteer in Tokyo Tokyo, the bustling metropolis that stands as the beating heart of Japan, is not only famous for its skyscrapers, neon-lit streets, and cutting-edge technology but also for its rich culture, traditions, and warm-hearted people. As Tokyo continues to evolve into a global hub, the spirit of giving back to the community remains a fundamental part of its identity. If you're a Tokyo local eager to contribute to your community and enrich your city, or a traveler visiting the city wanting to get closer to local community, volunteering is a meaningful way to do just that. You will find here the main opportunities ! Table of content: Second Harvest Tokyo Spring Homeless Patrol JOEE YouMeWe HandsOn Tokyo Tell Japan SEGO Initiative Tokyo River Friends Grama Seva Second Harvest Website: https://2hj.org/english/ Presentation As Japan’s first incorporated food bank, they are working with others to create a new public asset, a food safety-net, so that everyone will have access to food in their own community. How to volunteer There are 4 different type of shifts you can do: Volunteer driver: Volunteers use our vehicle to pick up food from a donor and/or deliver food to agencies as needed. A regular volunteer commitment is helpful for our planning, but not required. Care packages: We prepare care packages which are sent to households introduced to us by agencies and government welfare officials. Volunteers sort donations and pack boxes for shipment. Pantry: An activity that prepares food for afternoon pantry pickup. Pantry Pickup (Thursday, Friday, Saturday): An activity to provide food to those who come to the office to pick up food. Here is the calendar of the activities: https://2hj.org/english/volunteer/calendar/ For first timer, you will need to go through the registration process HERE. Tokyo Spring Homeless Patrol Presentation Tokyo Spring Homeless Patrol is a group of friends who have been volunteering with the homeless since October 2016. They conduct weekly patrols in Shinjuku, Ueno and one stretch of the Tama river. They distribute food (cans of fish, rice balls, bento, sandwiches, uncooked rice, bananas, sweets), batteries for portable radios and - upon request - sleeping bags, underwear, mosquito coils in summer and heating pads in winter, gas cassettes and more…to about 600 homeless a month. As well, their friends from YSHP Yokohama Spring Homeless Patrol patrol twice a month and serve about 250 people in Yokohama. How to volunteer You can join one or more of their weekly patrols as a volunteer. Ueno on Wednesday evenings and Shinjuku on Sunday evenings. They limit the number of volunteers for each patrol. To enquire about volunteering opportunities and availability for the upcoming patrols, send them a DM! Contact person: Brkić Sulejman Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tokyospringhomelesspatrol/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TSHpatrol JOEE Website: https://joee.jp Presentation The JOEE project launched in April of 2019 in Japan. They have been hopping along and providing fun and lively, puppet-enhanced English lessons to children in orphanages in Japan ever since! Your continuing support makes those lessons possible. Volunteer teachers and assistants are trained to provide lively, puppet-assisted English lessons to teach and delight the children using skits, songs, books and games. They focus age group is two to seven years old, when much of a child’s language learning happens. Currently, JOEE provides free English language lessons in five children’s homes in Japan: St. Francisco Children’s Home in Ota-ku, Tokyo Harukaen in Chiba – Matsudo ChofuGakuen in Chofu, Tokyo WakamatsuRyo in Nagoya Shinai Children’s Home in Kobe How to volunteer You can apply directly from Wanna Gonna platform ! https://www.wannagonna.org/requests-1/volunteer-english-teacher---for-kids-ages-2-to-7 YouMeWe Website: https://youmewenpo.org/ Presentation YouMeWe is a Tokyo-based non profit organization that is solely dedicated to nurturing and supporting local students from institutionalized homes. For a decade, their mission is to assist students in becoming fully independent as they reach the age of 18, such as gaining financial literacy. How to volunteer They are covering 12 skills to teach in the homes, if you are interested in one or several of those skills, I invite you to register on their website to become a volunteer ! https://youmewenpo.org/programs HandsOn Tokyo Website: https://www.handsontokyo.org/ Presentation Hands On Tokyo provides meaningful bilingual volunteer opportunities to foster volunteerism and develop leaders to serve the needs of our community in Tokyo and around. They are actives and organize activities/support on the following domains : Children and Youth in needs Special Needs Nursing Home Environment LIVE Project (inclusive society regardless of physical and mental capability) Youth Impacts Ukrainian evacuees support How to volunteer Step1: Register yourself as Individual Volunteer HERE Step2: Check the coming events with availabilities to volunteer for HERE and apply directly on their website Tell Japan Website: https://telljp.com/ Presentation TELL is a nonprofit organization that has been serving Japan’s international community since 1973. TELL offers free, anonymous, and confidential lifeline support via phone and chat, professional face-to-face counseling, and an extensive outreach program. How to volunteer There are 3 domains where you can volunteer: 1. As a Lifeline Support Worker All Lifeline Support Workers are required to undergo a thorough training and apprenticeship before going on the line. Click here for more details about the training. If you have questions about the training, please contact the Training Manager at supportworkerapp@telljp.com. Please find more information on their Wanna Gonna Request: https://www.wannagonna.org/requests-1/tell-lifeline-volunteer-support-worker-training 2. With TELL Events TELL’s events throughout the year are crucial to our fundraising and awareness efforts. They need people to help in a variety of ways, from set-up and registration, to take down and clean up. If you are interested in helping, you can send a message through WannaGonna. 3. In a TELL Office There can be opportunities for volunteers to help out in the TELL business office, especially at busy times of the year and when we have special projects in hand. If you are interested in helping, you can send a message through WannaGonna. SEGO Initiative Website: https://www.segoinitiative.org/ Presentation Their purpose is to raise awareness around the environmental challenges that face us and the ocean, their systemic interconnectedness, and socio-economic implications.​ SEGO Initiative is a platform for people who are passionate about making positive changes. They believe that solutions to global challenges start locally so we support grassroots activities that have a measurable positive impact on the community and the environment. When everything seems impossible, they look for the "what can be done" moments. How to volunteer They are always looking for skilled volunteers to help them in event management, communication, marketing and IT (WIX Website maintenance). The easiest way to propose your help would be to go on THIS page and click on the button "I want to help !" Tokyo River Friends Website: https://www.tokyoriverfriends.org/ Presentation Tokyo River Friends was founded in early 2017 by members of Jambo International in order to focus on regular monthly clean ups of Tokyo area rivers. They aim for people to experience the majesty of the rivers in and around Tokyo up close while engaging in productive and fun activities like regular river clean ups followed by picnics or barbecues along the rivers or Tokyo bay waterfronts. Their events will also be an opportunity for like-minded people to meet and make new friends. How to volunteer You can directly check their upcoming events on their website and contact them directly at yaesukita@gmail.com. Grama Seva Website: http://gramasevajapan.org/en/home?redirect=lng&lng=en Presentation Grama Seva (Village Service) Japan, officially initiated by a small group of volunteers, and continuously growing with love and support from all over the world, in a feeding program for homeless, currently centered in Yoyogi Park, Shibuya-ku. How to volunteer If you want to participate to a distribution on a Sunday, please contact them through their form HERE.

Tokyo Spring Homeless Patrol is a group of friends who have been volunteering with the homeless since October 2016. We conduct weekly patrols in Shinjuku, Ueno and one stretch of the Tama river. We distribute food (cans of fish, rice balls, bento, sandwiches, uncooked rice, bananas, sweets), batteries for portable radios and - upon request - sleeping bags, underwear, mosquito coils in summer and heating pads in winter, gas cassettes and more…to about 600 homeless a month. Our friends from YSHP Yokohama Spring Homeless Patrol patrol twice a month and serve about 250 people in Yokohama. Our activities have been featured in the Asahi Weekly (in Japanese): https://tokyospring.blogspot.com/2021/02/TSHpatrol.html and in the Japan Times (in English): https://bit.ly/3Va8h5f 3 ways to help us: - Food donations through our Amazon wish list: (it is updated regularly based on needs): Ueno : https://www.amazon.co.jp/hz/wishlist/ls/198BH0QX3XMIW Shinjuku: https://www.amazon.co.jp/-/en/hz/wishlist/ls/3VDYUJQBD9SRA - Money donations through our PayPal here: Sandra.le.du.pro@gmail.com This address is only used on PayPal for Tokyo Spring but please add a message/note as you send the donation saying it’s for Tokyo Spring. All donations are greatly appreciated and the food and daily necessities distributed are greatly received by those in need. - Joining a patrol: You can join one or more of our weekly patrols as a volunteer. Ueno on Wednesday evenings and Shinjuku on Sunday evenings. We limit the number of volunteers for each patrol. To enquire about volunteering opportunities and availability for the upcoming patrols, send us a DM! Please note that volunteers bring the food and items we distribute to the homeless so you will be asked to contribute and bring something to the patrol. For all enquiries, send us a message or an email! 🙂 Contact person: Brkić Sulejman Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tokyospringhomelesspatrol/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TSHpatrol

With Ekolokal, we are on a mission to make sustainability more accessible. This project was started at the end of 2020 by Helene and Noriko. Together with a small team, they created an eco-map connecting eco-consumers with small businesses and organised many community events to raise awareness about sustainability in Japan. Early 2022, they opened a vegan cafe and eco-community space in Otsuka. This space brought some amazing people together and allowed the community to explore alternative ways of consuming through the events held weekly (zero waste shopping, swaps, repairs, etc.). Unfortunately, they had to close the cafe in March 2023. In May 2023, Noriko quit the project and Helene decided to stay on this adventure and focus her efforts on growing the eco-map as a non-profit project.

More often than not, the world – and its problems – feel really, really big. We’re bombarded with a constant stream of heavy, hard things and although there is always good around us, sometimes it feels hard to find. Harder still, has been finding a way to contribute to that good; especially on a scale where we feel like we’re truly making a difference. Then COVID happened. The pandemic brought about a truly impressive switch to all things virtual. Concerts and movies were released directly to people on their couches; everything from pre-kindergarten to Doctoral programs moved to online; how we socialized and celebrated was reimagined. Why not doing the same for volunteering ? Couldn’t we make it more accessible too ? What do we do with that statement ? Sit on it, ponder it and let the opportunity to make a difference pass us by (as it so often does)? No, no. We say let’s start today; wherever we are, however we can, and get busy changing the world. The concept of volunteering virtually or remotely has been around for quite some time. The pandemic simply served as a catalyst to fine-tune the existing opportunities and to make other volunteer activities that had always been viewed as in-person work, now possible from homes around the globe. Take a look at just a few ways to remotely make a difference below: Youth Services: iMentor, Oakwood Educational Foundation Language Services: Translators Without Borders, Tarjimly, Disability Assistance: Be My Eyes Crisis Aide: I’m Alive, RAINN, The Trevor Project, Tell Senior Citizens: Caring Calls We won’t claim that every good option were provided; no, we just scratched the surface of what’s available to you! Still, if you’ve read and pondered, hemmed and hawed without finding an activity that really speaks to you, then might we suggest turning inward and asking yourself what are you good at? Graphic design? Why not offer your services to the nonprofits you love? Architecture? Consider offering your services to organizations building schools in developing countries. IT? Did you know that web design, coding and overall technical issues are some of the biggest – and priciest roadblocks that nonprofits face? Lend a hand where you can. The world is a big, big place with countless problems – and countless ways to lovingly fight back against those problems. We hope you’ve found some inspiration today to get involved wherever you’re at, with whatever skills you bring to the table, and we hope you’ve realized that you are needed as you are – from the serving line at a soup kitchen to behind the screen on your couch. Thank you for choosing to make a change.

Mission Statement: Educating and enriching the lives of the youngest children in Japan’s orphanages with drama, puppets, music and storytelling in English. History and Information: JOEE – Joyful Opportunity English Education – was established in 2018 as a nonprofit foundation, or an “Ippan Shadan Houjin.” Our organization consists of a founder, Ruth Gilmore Ingulsrud and an administrator, Hiroko Sasaki. We also have a Board of Directors and a Treasurer. We can send a profit and loss sheet to potential donors as requested. Our current donors include the Wesley Center, Tokyo Union Church and West Tokyo Union Church as well as several individual monthly donors. Volunteer teachers and assistants are trained to provide lively, puppet-assisted English lessons to teach and delight the children using skits, songs, books and games. Our focus age group is two to seven years old, when much of a child’s language learning happens. Currently, JOEE provides free English language lessons in five children’s homes in Japan: St. Francisco Children’s Home in Ota-ku, Tokyo Harukaen in Chiba – Matsudo ChofuGakuen in Chofu, Tokyo WakamatsuRyo in Nagoya Shinai Children’s Home in Kobe Email addresses are: ruth@joee.jp (English language) and hiroko@joee.jp (Japanese language). Website: https://joee.jp

Founded in 2007, Rainforest Partnership addresses the challenge of deforestation by centering the needs and rights of those on the frontlines of rainforest protection—Indigenous and local communities. From implementing conservation projects on the ground with rainforest communities to bringing the world together on World Rainforest Day-- Rainforest Partnership protects standing forests both from the ground up and the top down. ​ Location: Austin, TX - USA Website: https://www.rainforestpartnership.org/

TELL is a nonprofit organization that has been serving Japan’s international community since 1973. TELL offers free, anonymous, and confidential lifeline support via phone and chat, professional face-to-face counseling, and an extensive outreach program. Location: Japan Website: https://telljp.com/

YouMeWe is a Tokyo-based non profit organization that is solely dedicated to nurturing and supporting local students from institutionalized homes. For a decade, our NPO’s mission is to assist students in becoming fully independent as they reach the age of 18, such as gaining financial literacy. Our NPO creates programs that promotes: Digital literacy Communication skills Connectedness Location: Shibuya, Tokyo - Japan Website: https://youmewenpo.org/ Contact: hello@youmewenpo.org

SEGO Initiative grew from the very simple yet extremely powerful idea of giving back to the community. Hence was born the Fujisawa Beach Clean Project in 2009, a massive project that engaged corporate action and local volunteers to clean up the marine debris that plagues the Fujisawa Beach. A large community day of service, Fujisawa Beach Clean Project is now even bigger than its inception and is held twice a year in Spring and autumn. We formalized our aim of connecting causes to communities by incorporating (as an 一般社団法人) in 2014 and, with the constant support of our dedicated volunteers, continue in our quest to make the world a better place each day through dedicated action and inclusive projects. ​ We make family-friendly, immersive, grassroots experiences to help protect the environment by connecting hearts, minds, and nature. Come be a part of the change. Location: Fujisawa, Kanagawa - Japan Website: http://www.segoinitiative.org/