How to apply for the Tokyo Zero Emission Points program 🌏

I’m currently hanging out in Taiwan 🇹🇼 this month until it gets too hot, then will be back in Japan and the US for the summer! First up, tech jobs and life tips in Japan 🇯🇵!

Tech Positions Available in Japan

MoneyForward is a widely used personal finance app for Japan. They have several engineering positions available along with salary ranges, which you can check out on TokyoDev. They are transitioning to an English only engineering team culture.

TableCheck is a popular restaurant reservation site as well as table inventory management system for restaurants. They have several engineering positions as well as product positions available, but unfortunately no salary information available.

MeetsMore is a local services platform to get quotes for customer job requests. They have a Site Reliability Engineer position listed on TokyoDev that requires no Japanese, as well as a few other positions on their career site.

Life Tips: Getting Housecleaning and other tasks done

I’ve recently been using ANYTIMES, a new peer to peer task marketplace, to find cleaners for my house in Tokyo. Many people may know Kurashi no Market, which is the bigger player in this space. For Kurashi no Market: if you search for ハウスクリーニング you end up at this page, which is actually full deep cleaning for the purpose of moving in / out, and has a correspondingly higher price starting from ¥15000, which may not be the service or the desired price range for simple house cleaning. You actually want to search for 掃除, which gets you to this page for housekeeping. Kurashi no Market has prices set by hour for housecleaning (minimum 1.5 hours), which tends to end up with higher prices overall, whereas ANYTIMES quotes by the overall service, and it’s very easy to find ¥300 off coupons that you can use each time. ANYTIMES is online payment only, pre-authorized at the time of booking, whereas Kurashi no Market is either cash or online payment if the provider supports that option. There are various other tasks that you can request on both platforms, so you can check out both when needing some odd jobs done.

Tokyo Zero Emissions Points

The Tokyo Zero Emissions Points program (東京ゼロエミポイント) is a program to encourage consumers to replace inefficient appliances with greener appliances, by giving rebates. This ranges from LED lighting, to refrigerators, to water heaters and air conditioners. The program is still running for appliances purchased until September 30, 2024, with applications being taken until October 31, 2024 or whenever the budget for the program runs out, so there is still time to apply!

I stumbled onto the program when shopping for SwitchBot Smart LED ceiling lights to replace my regular ceiling lights, with a notice from Amazon of the incentive program. Here’s an Amazon page with all the other appliances you can buy that qualify for the program.

The information on how to apply for this program can be found in the full application guide linked from the main web portal, but unfortunately it is a PDF fully in Japanese. Kakaku has a web guide that is translatable though. Here are some of my tips:

First, you need to go to this page to issue an account for the application portal. From there you’ll get credentials in your email to login to the portal. It’s not obvious where the application portal is if you just Google for Tokyo Zero Emission Point, as there is no Login link on the main web portal, but it is located at https://portal.zero-emi-points.jp/tzep/portal/

Each type of appliance has different application requirements. In general, you’ll need:

• An identity verification document

• A manufacturer’s warranty (except for water heaters)

  • You can find the manufacturer’s warranty for SwitchBot LED lights at this page.

• A copy of the receipt

For larger items like air conditioners / refrigerators: proof of recycling, to disincentivize improper disposal. You also need copy of the delivery note to show it was delivered within Tokyo.

For water heaters, you need a product certificate filled out by the contractor, as no recycling proof is generally give, as well as a copy of the delivery note as well.

For LED lighting, you need a before/after installation picture. My first application was rejected for not including this.

It seems like you can’t get multiple incentives for purchasing multiple of the same type of item. Even though I bought 3 LED lights, I was only able to apply for an incentive for one of them.

The rebate comes in the form of JTB Nice Gift ¥1000 vouchers. They came by registered mail, so unfortunately I missed the first delivery when I was out, and had to get them redelivered when I was actually back in Japan. These vouchers can be used at many chain stores across Japan as well as tourist facilities including hotels, you can check the list here or check if the store has a JTB Gift symbol to see if they take payment via these vouchers.

Conclusion

The Tokyo Zero Emissions Point program is a nice incentive for people living in Tokyo and looking to upgrade home appliances. I was able to get ¥4000 in JTB gift vouchers from it, which I’m looking forward to using on upcoming trips. If you have any other questions, feel free to reach out at [email protected]. Remember, you can also support this publication by becoming a paid subscriber or a Patreon.