Getting started with point activity 2026 — A complete roadmap to seriously aim for ¥30,000/month

Poikatsu basics Published：2026-05-29 14 min read

What point activity even is — an income stream that "doesn't change your daily life"

"Point activity" (Japanese: poikatsu) is the umbrella term for saving up points (effectively cash) through shopping, services and sign-ups routed via point sites. Awareness spread from the late 2010s, and today it's not unusual for people to earn 30,000–100,000 yen a month from it.

The big difference from a side job: you start simply by "rerouting your everyday spending". No new skills, no selling your time, no equipment. If you usually buy on Amazon or Rakuten, just tapping a point site before you shop creates a difference of tens of thousands of yen a year.

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Bottom line first: 10,000 yen a month is reachable for anyone through "habit alone". 30,000 a month becomes realistic by cycling "card sign-ups + brokerage account openings" at roughly one a month. Over 50,000 a month needs a mix of "referrals", "FX offers" and "self-back". This article gives beginners a concrete roadmap from zero, split into these three stages.

How point activity makes money — a win for "user, site, advertiser"

If you think "a system that hands out free money has to be shady", this is the part to understand first.

The advertiser (Rakuten, Amazon, card companies, etc.) spends "ad budget" to acquire each new customer Outsourcing "one card issued" for 10,000 yen of ad spend, for example, is normal in the industry.
That ad budget is paid to the point site as a "completion reward" It's supplied to each point site as an offer, via an ASP (affiliate ad agency).
The point site returns part of it to users as "points", keeping the rest for operations The return rate is roughly 60–80%. The remainder covers operations, ad sales and profit.
User applies → advertiser gains a customer, the point site takes a fee, the user gets cash-equivalent points A three-way win for "advertiser, site, user". Not shady at all — just an ad business.

In other words, point-activity users are simply receiving part of the ad budget the advertiser paid. It's not a pyramid scheme or an investment scam. The question is "does the mechanism satisfy advertiser, point site and user alike", and point sites run by listed companies are exactly that answer.

What to prepare first

A phone or PC: ideally both (some high-payout offers are PC-only)
A dedicated email address: one Gmail just for point activity. Notifications pile up, so separating it from your main email is a hard rule
A bank account: for cash-outs. Online banks (Rakuten Bank / SBI Sumishin / GMO Aozora) are better on fees
One credit card: "how many you hold when you start" affects later strategy
ID documents: My Number card or driver's licence. Needed for FX / brokerage openings
A dedicated calendar app: turn "free-trial cancel dates" and "card billing dates" into something you can never forget

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A "dedicated point-activity email" is critical. Once you register on point sites, campaign emails arrive daily. Receiving them in your main inbox buries important mail, so always separate it. A Gmail takes three minutes.

The first 3 sites to register — Moppy, Hapitas, Pointtown

There are countless point sites, but the "first 3 to register" are settled. The reason: "rates differ by site for the same offer, so with 3 you can grab the top rate on 90% of offers".

Site	Strength	How a beginner uses it
Moppy	Best in class for cards / FX / brokerage	The main site for "30,000/month on high-value offers"
Hapitas	Rakuten / Yahoo! / overseas hotel booking	The "don't miss everyday shopping" auto-savings site
Pointtown	Furusato tax / surveys / family OK	The "cash out from 100 yen" easy entry point

The recommended order is Moppy → Hapitas → Pointtown. Get a feel for high-value offers on Moppy, habituate routing everyday shopping through Hapitas, and add Pointtown once you have room.

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Always register via an invite link. Going through pointnavi's invite-link list gets you about 5,000 yen of welcome bonuses across the three. Register directly and you forfeit this.

Roadmap to 30,000 yen a month

Month 1 (5,000–10,000 yen) — habit-building phase

Week 1: register Moppy / Hapitas / Pointtown (invite link required) → ~5,000 pt in welcome bonuses
Week 2: free trials of two video services (Hulu + U-NEXT, etc.) → ~3,000 pt
Week 3: habituate routing Rakuten Ichiba / Yahoo! Shopping
Week 4: issue one annual-fee-free credit card (Rakuten Card / Epos recommended) → 5,000–8,000 pt

Months 2–3 (20,000–30,000 yen) — high-value offer phase

Keep issuing one card a month (within limits, no multiple applications)
Open one FX account + minimum trade (if you'd rather not take risk, hit the minimum trade for the extra) → 10,000–30,000 pt
Open a brokerage account (SBI / Rakuten Securities) + first-deposit / trade campaign → 10,000–15,000 pt
Furusato tax (a big boost if you rush at year-end)

Month 4 onward (30,000–50,000 yen) — systematization phase

Manage cancel dates by calendar → rotate video / magazine free trials each month
When you run out of new cards to issue, with family consent have family do point activity via family referral (you also get recurring rewards)
Start publishing "for point-activity beginners" content on a blog / X / Threads to monetize referrals
Seriously combine in self-back (an ASP's self-affiliate)

Building a routine that sticks — killing "I forgot" and "what a hassle"

For people who give up on point activity, 9 in 10 quit because "it doesn't stick". It's not a lack of skill or luck — just a missing routine.

① Centralize calendar / reminders

Free-trial cancel dates, card billing dates, FX-campaign completion deadlines — register them all in Google Calendar. "Charged before I noticed" is point activity's number-one enemy.

② Set up one dedicated point-activity browser

Separate from your everyday Chrome, dedicate one of Edge / Firefox / Safari as your "point-activity browser". Doing point activity in an everyday browser whose cookies aren't clean breaks completion tracking.

③ One "dedicated point-activity credit card"

Point activity often leaves payment details — FX deposits, brokerage deposits, video trials — so it's safer to separate the billing account. A budgeting app then instantly shows the "provisional spend from point activity".

④ A monthly "point-activity check day"

Spend an hour at month-end checking every site's "passbook / history / un-credited offers". If something's un-credited, query it immediately. Six months later is too late.

⑤ Bookmark "pointnavi"

Always compare across sites on pointnavi before applying. View the three side by side and apply on whichever pays most at that moment — this small step is worth tens of thousands of yen a year.

Taxes & filing (the 200,000-yen threshold)

Money earned through point activity is, in principle, taxable as "miscellaneous income". However, salaried workers have a rule: no tax return is needed up to 200,000 yen a year.

Case	Tax return	Residential-tax filing
Salaried × point earnings ≤ 200,000 yen	Not needed	Depends on municipality (may be needed)
Salaried × point earnings > 200,000 yen	Needed	Needed (done via the tax return)
Homemaker / student × ≤ 480,000 yen	Not needed (within basic deduction)	Not needed
Homemaker / student × > 480,000 yen	Needed	Needed
Sole proprietor / freelancer	File as business / miscellaneous income	Done via the tax return

Taxed "when earned" or "when cashed out"?

Per the National Tax Agency's view, points become taxable at the point they're exchanged into "cash / goods / another company's points". An un-cashed Moppy balance is treated as "unrealized". Remember: "not cashed out = not taxed".

Tax-saving basics

If you're "about to exceed 200,000" at year-end, deferring cash-out to next January is one option
A dedicated point-activity card / bank account makes year-end aggregation vastly easier
Don't miss receipt-free expenses (a prorated share of comms costs, etc.)

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"No filing needed, so I'll do nothing" is dangerous. Residential-tax filing criteria differ by municipality, so "call city hall to confirm" is safest. Cases of "they won't find out → left it → hit with a lump-sum back-tax later" show up on social media every year.

7 traps beginners fall into

① Forgetting the invite code

You forfeit 1,000–2,000 pt of welcome bonus. Once registered, it can't be added afterward. Always go through an invite link before registering.

② Doing offers with cookie-blocking / private mode on

Completions aren't recorded. 9 in 10 "applied but not approved" offers are caused by this.

③ Applying for 3+ credit cards a month

Multiple applications cause cascade rejections → recorded in CIC for 6 months → other cards get rejected too. Stick to one a month.

④ Opening an FX account without reading the minimum trade volume

The condition is "1 lot or more", but you settle for a demo trade → miss it → zero reward. Always read the offer-page conditions carefully.

⑤ Forgetting to cancel a video / magazine free trial

Earn 3,000 yen of points → forget to cancel → 1,000 yen/month charges start → leave it six months and the profit is wiped out. Add it to your calendar the moment the trial starts.

⑥ Misjudging via Pointtown's "20 pt = 1 yen" rate

Mistaking "2,000 pt!" for 2,000 yen and applying on Pointtown, when another site actually paid more — a common error. Always compare the yen-converted figure on pointnavi.

⑦ Adding too many sites and losing track

"Maybe there's a better site" → register ~10 → passbook management collapses → un-credited offers left unattended → you don't actually earn. Start with 3, up to 5 once you're used to it is the realistic ceiling.

FAQ

Can you really earn 30,000 yen a month with point activity?

If you narrow the conditions, yes. The combo "1–2 card sign-ups a month + everyday shopping via Rakuten Ichiba + 1–2 video trials" hits a 30,000-yen/month pace from month 2–3. But 30,000 in the first month is tough (card sign-ups take 1–2 months to credit), so a six-month plan is realistic.

Will issuing many cards blacklist my credit?

One a month is fine. Beyond "6+ in six months", screening tends to tighten. Family cards and ETC cards are sometimes counted separately and don't add to your card count. Checking your own CIC credit file once every six months is the safe move (1,000 yen to disclose).

FX offers' risk scares me

With the "do just the minimum trade volume and close immediately" strategy, the loss stays within a few hundred yen of spread. Even subtracting a few hundred yen from a 10,000–30,000-yen reward, you're well in the black. But beware if FX trading tempts you to keep playing. If you can't keep the rule "hit the reward condition → withdraw your deposit immediately → leave it alone", give it a miss.

I want to start but have no time

Just the habit of "tapping the Rakuten-Ichiba routing button every time" is 1,200 yen a year if you spend 10,000 a month; 2–3 video trials add 7,000 a year. That alone equates to an hourly rate of thousands of yen. No need for serious FX or referral operations. Try just "search Hapitas before Rakuten Ichiba" for one month.

I want to do point activity without my family noticing

A "dedicated card + dedicated bank account + dedicated email", fully separated, keeps it invisible to family. But exceeding 200,000 yen a year triggers a tax return, and there are patterns where your employer finds out via residential tax. "Earn a million yen without your company / family knowing" is technically possible, but requires tax-handling knowledge.

Start with a Moppy invite sign-up → Compare offers across sites

This article was written from publicly available information on each point site as of May 2026. Cashback rates, campaign terms, and redemption rules can change without notice — always check each site's official page for the latest. This site uses each point site's referral program, but going through a referral link never changes the rate you receive.