Roavi · Japan
Become a Local Friend in Japan
Japan receives record numbers of visitors who want more than a guidebook — they want someone who lives there. Create your free Roavi profile and let travellers heading to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto or Fukuoka find you.
Free to create. You choose when and who you meet.
Roavi · Japan
Become a Local Friend in Japan
Japan receives record numbers of visitors who want more than a guidebook — they want someone who lives there. Create your free Roavi profile and let travellers heading to Tokyo, Osaka, Kyoto or Fukuoka find you.
Free to create. You choose when and who you meet.
No commission · keep 100%
You set your rate
Free to publish
Quick check
Is this you?
Tap the ones that are true.
Try it
See your card
This is what travellers will see. It stays on your phone until you decide.
Your name
Your city · Local Friend
★ What you’re great forYour numbers
You set the rate. You keep all of it.
Travellers pay you directly. Roavi takes no commission and never touches the money.
Your hourly rate
Hours a week
Example, a month
$650
Your choices, not a promise. How many travellers write depends on your city and your profile.
What people worry about
Good. A Local Friend spends time with someone as themselves: no tours, no driving, no groups. Guiding is licensed in many countries; an afternoon with someone isn’t.
You choose who you reply to and where you meet. Say no to anyone, any time, and report anyone who crosses a line. Meet in public places.
Set the days and hours you’re free, and pause your profile whenever you’re busy. There’s no minimum.
No. Your profile, being found and messaging are free. Verified Local ($9.99 a month) is an optional badge with an ID check, never needed.
Everybody gets in. A person reads every profile and may ask you to fix a photo or add a few words before it goes live.
What happens next
Three short parts. A bar shows how far you are, and you can stop and come back.
- About youYour city, and what you’re great for.
- Stand outTwo real photos and a few lines in your words.
- FinishWhen you’re free and your rate. Then a person reads it.
I’m Roa. I’ll be there on every screen.
Your city, the way you know it
A Local Friend isn't a tour guide or an agency — you're a person showing the Japan you actually live in. The standing bar under the tracks, the shop with no English menu, the walk along the river you take anyway. Visitors ask for that precisely because they cannot find it themselves.
A trust badge, not a requirement
You can publish your free profile straight away — verification is optional. It adds a badge so travellers feel comfortable messaging a stranger in a country they don't know. It builds trust faster; it isn't a condition of joining.
Roavi is a platform that connects locals and travellers — it isn't an employer, and it doesn't guarantee income or messages.
Guides to get started, city by city
Good to know before you begin
A few honest answers, so there are no surprises.
No. The revision to the Interpreter Guide Act that took effect in January 2018 removed the business-monopoly rule, so paid guiding no longer requires the national qualification. You can't call yourself a Nationally Licensed Guide Interpreter without it, but the work itself needs no licence.
No. Roavi doesn't employ Local Friends or assign work — it's a platform that connects you with travellers. What you arrange with them, and on what terms, is between you and them.
Enough to arrange a meeting time and answer simple questions. Most travellers coming to Japan aren't native English speakers either, so slow, simple English usually works better than fluent English. Plenty of people use a translation app alongside.
Yes. Creating and publishing a profile is free, and there's no cost to be discovered by travellers.
Your profile appears on Roavi's Japan and Tokyo pages, where travellers already come to research their trip — so you're visible where they're already looking.
For a company employee in Japan, income beyond salary above 200,000 yen a year generally requires a tax return, and residence tax must be declared even below that. The threshold is income after expenses, not revenue. Check with your local tax office for your own situation.
Yes. Creating and publishing your Local Friend profile is completely free — there’s no cost to appear in the directory or receive messages.
No — and that is the point. A Local Friend is not a tour guide: you spend time with someone as yourself, you do not run a tour. Professional guiding is a licensed profession in a number of countries; spending an afternoon with someone is not. And if you do hold a guiding licence, put it on your profile — travellers look for it.
Yes. You set your own hourly rate, and you can change it anytime from your profile.
No. Roavi doesn’t process payments or take a commission on what you arrange with a traveler.
No. You decide who you respond to, and you can say no to anyone, for any reason.
No. Verification is optional. It’s completed through Stripe Identity and adds a verified status to your profile, but your profile, visibility, and messaging stay free either way.
Travelers message you directly through Roavi once they find your profile in the directory. You choose whether and how to reply.
Yes. You can pause your visibility or delete your profile at any time from your account settings.
Your city, your rules
Your card is one form away.
Free. No commission. You say yes or no to every message.
18+ only · Every profile is read by a person