Housewife Earns ¥1 Million a Year Through a Secret Side Job Requiring Only 3 Hours a Month
Earn even more money by introducing friends and taking videos of the undergarments worn!
“How much is a housewife’s monthly pocket money?”
Prices keep rising, but household income does not. In many families today, the husband’s income alone is not enough, and some housewives have secret side incomes they can’t tell anyone about.
Working only three hours, earning 50,000 yen—what is this woman’s secret part-time job?
A housewife selling used underwear
Yumi (40, pseudonym), living in Tokyo, earns about 1 million yen a year from a secret job she cannot tell her husband about. She says the job requires no more than about 3 hours a month, and since it’s paid in cash, it can’t be traced. When asked for details, she smiled and said, “I sell underwear.”
“I sell used underwear with videos included. It’s basically like what used to be called ‘burusera.’ I have regular customers, and I sell them once a month or once every two months.”
A set of used underwear (bra and panties) is sold for 10,000 yen. If the customer pays extra, she also includes photos or videos of her wearing them.
“I wear C-cup, so during sales I can buy a set for around 1,980 yen. The profit is about 8,000 yen. Underwear is basically consumable goods, so turning it into money feels amazing. Sometimes I include items like heat-tech shirts, socks, or stockings as bonuses, but I don’t charge for those. It’s just a service.”
At first, she only had one regular buyer. She met him more than 20 years ago.
“When I was a university student, I was broke from being involved with hosts all the time, so I used to look for men who would give me money on dating bulletin boards. Basically what people now call compensated dating. I would write descriptions of being a female college student and my looks, and post things like ‘h-betsu 3’.”
“‘h-betsu 3’ means 30,000 yen excluding hotel fees,” she explains.
The person who responded to that post was the customer, A, who still regularly buys her underwear today.
“A messaged me saying, ‘Instead of compensated dating, would you sell me your underwear? I’ll pay 10,000 yen per set.’ I had a pile of unused underwear, so I immediately agreed. I thought it was great that trash could turn into money!”
The two exchanged messages on the bulletin board and eventually met at a karaoke box near Hachioji Station.
“I wasn’t scared at all. I used to do compensated dating anyway, so I figured if it turned into something like that, as long as I got paid it was fine. A was about five years older than me, wore a wedding ring, and was in the good-looking category—more like an average attractive guy. I remember wondering, ‘Why would a normal guy buy used underwear?’”
Their first meeting involved selling seven sets of underwear for 70,000 yen in cash. When she accepted an offer of an additional 10,000 yen to watch her undress and put them back on, she earned a total of 80,000 yen.
“It felt kind of ridiculous—taking them off and putting them on again—but hey, that extra 10,000 yen was totally worth it. No sex, and I still got paid that much? I thought, ‘I can’t let this person go!’ So I gave him my email and phone number. And that relationship has continued for 20 years.”
30-second video: 10,000 yen
During their long relationship, things like this also happened.
“There was a time I spent so much money on host clubs that I couldn’t even pay my phone bill. I had just sold some underwear and had nothing left to sell, so I asked A-san, ‘Could you support me?’ but he said, ‘No, I’m not really into that kind of thing’ and refused (laughs).
But it seemed like he still wanted to help me financially, so we went to a hotel together, and I repeatedly put on and took off three sets of underwear he had bought, and got 30,000 yen for that. After that, he asked me, ‘I want a video of you urinating,’ so I filmed about a 30-second video alone in the bathroom and received a total of 40,000 yen. It’s such high cost-performance, right?”
At the end of the year and beginning of the new year, she receives proper greeting LINE messages, and around the 5th of every month she gets a phone call asking, “How are things this month?”
Even after she got married or became pregnant, he continued requesting underwear purchases, saying, “Congratulations. I look forward to working with you going forward.”
“We usually meet about once every two months at a station near my home or in my car. My husband is the type who says, ‘Don’t work, just raise the kids!’ but his salary is low, so purely on his income we’re in the red every month. A-san really helps us. My husband has no idea, but thanks to A-san, our household is running.”
When she was pregnant and only had maternity underwear, A-san made a proposal: “If you have friends who want to sell underwear, could you introduce them?”
“For maternity bras and large maternity underwear, he even negotiated for the first time, asking, ‘Is 7,000 yen okay?’ but he still kept buying them. If I introduced friends, he paid me a 10,000 yen referral fee per person, and for each set they sold, I would receive 2,000 yen.”
However, he did not accept just anyone. “Maybe because I’m slim and a C-cup, he said, ‘People with large breasts or average body types with around F-cups are better.’”
“When I told my friends, they all said, ‘I want to do it!’ The conditions were basically that they had to meet A-san in person at least once, and that he would only buy up to five items per transaction. Many of my mom friends were short on money, so they were really happy.”
She wonders whether constantly changing underwear wouldn’t make her husband suspicious.
“They’re cheap underwear, so he doesn’t really care. If they were luxury branded ones, it might be different. But lately I mainly earn through referral fees and video payments.”
She records videos wearing a mask—undressing in used underwear, everyday changing clothes, and sometimes urinating—and receives 5,000 to 10,000 yen per video. The videos are usually filmed with a mask on, but regarding what happens after purchase, she looks down and says, “Honestly, I don’t know.”
“I’ve always wondered what he does with the dozens of sets of underwear he buys every time, so I asked him once. A-san didn’t seem flustered at all and said, ‘I enjoy them myself.’ It seems he rents an apartment for storage purposes.
Even if they are resold, that would be one thing, but the problem is the videos. My friends and I sell them believing it should be fine, but sometimes there are detailed instructions, so there’s always a bit of anxiety that maybe they are being sold somewhere.
Because I have a family, I can’t go to the police. I have no choice but to trust A-san. If this money disappears, the only future I can see is having to rely on consumer loans. My husband absolutely won’t let me work, and if I say our income isn’t enough, it would hurt his pride.”
For now, she says she will continue this secret job, which carries both high risk and high reward, for the time being.
Photography and text by： Sari Yoshizawa