Yorozu is a small bilingual team in Tokyo. Message us on WhatsApp or LINE and ask anything about your trip — questions are always free. When something needs a phone call in Japanese, we make it for you. If it doesn't work out, you don't pay.
Because most Japanese restaurants never joined an online booking system. Tabelog, Japan's largest restaurant directory, lists roughly 890,000 restaurants but offers instant online reservations at only about 70,000 of them — around 7.9%. The rest take bookings the way they always have: by telephone, in Japanese, often during a narrow window in the afternoon. Many also decline reservations made through automated calling apps. That is the gap Yorozu fills — a person who speaks Japanese, calls on your behalf, and takes responsibility for the booking.
Read the full guide: six ways to book a phone-only restaurant in Japan →
Translation apps are excellent — right up until somebody has to pick up a phone and speak Japanese.
The restaurant I have wanted to visit for a year only takes phone reservations. In Japanese.→ We call them for you today.
I left my bag on the train and the lost property line does not speak English.→ We track it down and arrange delivery to your hotel.
My child has a fever and I do not know which clinic will see a tourist.→ We find one that works in English and book it.
I have tattoos and I cannot tell whether this onsen will let me in.→ We phone and ask, before you travel there.
No accounts, no forms, no waiting on hold. Just a message.
Tap the button and your messaging app opens with a message already written for you. Nothing to install and nothing to sign up for.
⏱ 10 secondsTrains, menus, etiquette, opening hours, what a sign means. Ask as much as you like for your whole trip. It stays free.
⏱ A human replies in minutesWe tell you the exact price first and wait for your yes. Then we make the calls in Japanese and report back. No result, no charge.
⏱ Usually within the hourNo subscription, no minimum, no surprise charges.
Unlimited, for your whole trip.
Quoted upfront in the chat. You approve before we start.
If we cannot get your booking, cannot recover your item, or cannot solve what you asked us to solve, the fee is released in full — automatically, without you having to ask. We would rather lose a fee than your trust.
Between free and ¥5,000 per person, depending on how hard the booking is. We tell you which before you commit.
A hotel concierge desk serves its own guests only, during its own hours. A private guide in Tokyo runs ¥30,000–50,000 a day. Yorozu is here for the one thing you actually need, at the moment you need it — starting at free.
Some restaurants do take online bookings in English — you just have to know which. If yours is one of them, we send you the link and how to use it, and charge you nothing.
The most common case, and the one that stops most travellers. We call, we book, we send you the confirmation. We try up to 3 places or 30 minutes.
Anything needing back-and-forth in Japanese: dietary requirements, a party of five or more, a counter seat, a booking inside 48 hours. Up to 5 places or 1 hour.
Counters that release seats at a fixed time each month, places that take hundreds of redials to reach, venues that screen out agents. This is hours of work, so it is priced per seat. One release window, or up to 3 hours.
Some of Japan's most famous seats go only to guests brought by an existing regular, or through a concierge relationship built over years. Nobody can shortcut that. We tell you on day one rather than take your money and fail.
Restaurants hold seats for you, so most have a cancellation policy — and we place a temporary hold on your card for that amount. A hold is not a charge: no money leaves your account, your bank may show it as pending, and it is released once you have eaten. It only becomes a real charge if you do not show up and the restaurant applies its fee. We do not invent the fee — it is the restaurant's own policy, and we tell you exactly what it is before you say yes.
Any shop, venue, taxi company or hotel. Changes, cancellations, questions, complaints.
We join you on a three-way call, or speak to the person standing in front of you.
We call the train lines, taxi companies and venues, then arrange delivery to you.
We find a clinic that will see you in English, book it, and send you the directions.
Small tasks unlimited for 7 days, plus priority replies. For trips with a lot of moving parts.
Every booking fee is released in full if we cannot get you in. We do not charge for trying.
Tap what you need. We open WhatsApp or LINE with it ready to send — you just press send.
Not sure yet? Skip it — a plain hello is perfectly fine.
Sending costs nothing and commits you to nothing. If your question turns out to need paid work, we tell you the price and wait for your answer.
You will not find a wall of five-star reviews here, because we do not have any yet. We would rather show you nothing than show you something invented. That is exactly why everything is free during our launch week — we want the first people who use Yorozu to have no reason to hesitate, and we want to earn the reviews rather than write them.
We are a handful of bilingual people who live in Tokyo. When you message us, one of us reads it. We will tell you honestly when something is not worth paying for, and we will say so when we cannot help. That is the whole business.
Yorozu is operated by SpiderWave Inc. (株式会社SpiderWave), Toranomon, Tokyo · Open 9:00–18:00 JST · Payments handled securely by Stripe · We never sell your data
Booking restaurants
Lost items
Medical
Language and etiquette
Using Yorozu
You are one message away from never being stuck again. Ask us something — anything — and see how it feels.
💬 Ask your first question — it's freeNo app · No sign-up · No card · Takes about 10 seconds