First you must complete our online application , pay your membership fee, and receive your own WWOOFer Permit to be able to WWOOF in Japan. Hosts will require that you present your WWOOFer Permit to verify that you and the people with you are current members of WWOOF Japan. Hosts record each person's WWOOFer Permit information in their Guest Book for monthly reporting to the WWOOF Japan office. 

All individuals must be a current member of WWOOF Japan before Hosts are contacted or visited. 

Please be sure to abide by WWOOF rules.  Penalties apply.

One membership for each adult over 16 years; half price for children 6 to 15 years WWOOFing with an adult; children under 5 no charge.
Each person who contacts (or for whom contact is made) or visits Hosts must be a member of WWOOF Japan BEFORE Hosts are contacted. If you are planning to travel with friends or family, those persons will each need join, pay, and become a member, before Hosts are contacted.  You may not take a friend with you citing them as a 'visitor' or other and not a WWOOFer.

Briefly, this is the process to join WWOOF Japan:

• (1) Send an online Membership Application Form.

• (2) Send payment of your membership fee by one of the several methods available. Be sure to let us know how and when you pay so that we may watch for the payment. You will find a reminder of this on the page "How to pay for membership". If you pay by credit card, your membership will be acitvated immediately.
  
  You may stipulate the date from which you want your one year WWOOF Japan membership to commence, so if you do not intend to begin WWOOFing until, for example, 3 months from now, you can stipulate that your one year membership should not begin until 3 months from the time that you apply and pay for membership. In other words, apply and pay now, get full access to our Host list, and start making your preparations now, so that when your actual membership period begins you are ready to make the most of it and START WWOOFing.

• (3)  Applicants who pay via credit card or PayPal online will have their membership automatically activated immediately. If you pay by bank transfer or other non online means, we will activate your membership and make available to you your WWOOFer Permit once your payment has been received.
• (4) You browse our Hosts and contact the Host that you are interested in visiting. When selecting and making contact with a Host, you should think about how long you want to go WWOOFing, if the Host can have you at a time that fits your time schedule, and generally check on things important to you. The list of Hosts contains comprehensive information on each Host including: the kind of people they are, some content on their values and motivations, what they do at their place, what kind of people they prefer as WWOOFers, how to get there, whether or not they will meet WWOOFers at nearby public transport, how they want to be contacted, if they are a farm: what they grow and some information on their methods, the help that WWOOFers will be asked to give, what WWOOFers should bring with them (ie. clothing, etc.), how long WWOOFers can stay, how many WWOOFers can stay simultaneously, some information about the surrounding area, whether or not children are accepted, whether or not they accept WWOOFers all year round, whether or not English and or Japanese language ability is necessary,whether or not they smoke, information on the food they eat and more.
• (5) Once you have made arrangements with a Host, you go there to live and help them, learn, engage with the Host, explore the beauty of the surrounding areas, and enjoy! In return for helping the Host, usually about 6 hours a day, you get food and boarding and the opportunity to share daily life with the Hosts, and learn from the lifestyle.

• All Hosts are different as are all WWOOFers, so you should take the time to check on all the things important to you and to learn what kinds of things are important to the Host.

WWOOF Japan does not sponsor or in any way support the issuance of visas for visiting or working in Japan.  Please navigate to the to the page at the link below for A Guide to Japanese Visas to check that your nationality will allow you to get a visa for Japan BEFORE SUBMITTING AN APPLICATION AND PAYING FOR MEMBERSHIP   http://www.mofa.go.jp