The Maid Dilemma

Yet again, the opportunity arises for me to hire a maid. An acquaintance is leaving town and is trying to help his maid find a replacement customer. Will it be me?
I am on the fence when it comes to having someone clean for me. I actually enjoy cleaning and I like a sparkling house. However, looking around, I can see that doing the cleaning and achieving a sparkling house is not high on my To Do list. Vacuuming, dusting…there is always tomorrow, right?
So in that regard, having a maid would be good for me and the house. But paying for something I can do myself and have time to do…difficult to justify. Worrying about legalities of visa and tax issues (possibly in two countries)…a bit scary.
Pros
The house would be clean at least once a week
I would be motivated to tidy the untidy parts before the maid came in
I would be directly helping someone earn a living
I could stop feeling guilty about not cleaning frequently enough
The apartment would be more pleasant to live in
Cons
It is expensive to hire someone to perform a service I could do myself
I don’t understand the possible visa and tax issues in Japan
I don’t know if hiring help here has any impact on my US taxes
Lots of “I think my cleaner steals from me” stories told among my acquaintances
I’m uncertain about how to interact with domestic help…
Neither list seems obviously stronger to me. What would/do you do?