TATSUYA KAWASE
Based on my personal experiences in the U.S. and Europe, I started "babysitters & company" which offered the first English-speaking babysitting service in Japan. In the early day, there weren't as many babysitters as we have today so we had to have them work two or three shifts a day. Sometimes I also had to babysit to keep up with the demand when our clients desperately needed our assistance.
The following year in 2011, many of our babysitters left Japan after the Great East Japan Earthquake. However, thanks to the quick returns of our babysitters, we were able to continue our business. The following year 2012, we started to offer our services to more foreign travelers visiting Tokyo, then Kyoto and Osaka after. Due to the increasing demand, our market was extended to Nagoya area as well in 2019.
requests by families visiting Japan fell down to zero… We continued to face a difficult business situation for 2.5 years and we have shifted to focused on serving local families. Then in October 2022, the border were reopened for foreign tourists and the situation has now been back to what it was before the coronavirus.
Some of our foreign babysitters are family members or Japanese spouses working in Japan for a long period of time, while others are in Japan for a short period of time for working holidays, language study, or exchange programs, etc. Therefore, even if you like the babysitters we have assigned for you, they will eventually leave Japan… If you really like our service and plan to use our babysitters on a long-term basis, we would be happy to provide your children the opportunity to meet and experience different babysitters from various countries and backgrounds.
Although we receive many applications every day, the percentage of candidates whom we actually hire is less than 10%, and we are still operating with a small number of elite staff of around 30 people. Thus, it might take some time for us to get back to you with a suitable candidate sometimes. However, our philosophy is to respond quickly and flexibly to various requests so we hope we can continue to help many families in the future through babysitting.
Finally, we would like to encourage people of all nationalities, ages and genders who speak English and would like to get involved in babysitting to apply. We look forward to hearing from you.
Name | babysitters & company |
---|---|
Representative | Tatsuya Kawase |
Address | 4-27-33 Shin-Ishikawa, Aoba-ku, Yokohama City, Kanagawa Prefecture |
Office Hours | 09:00-18:00 |
Tel | +81.80.3475.8066 |
Foundation | May 2010 |
Number of staff | 25 (as of March 30, 2023) |
© babysitters & company