I explain here the procedure from application to move-in with points you should pay attention to. The following procedure process is the same as most of a shared house.

  1. Check availability
  2. Room Inspection
  3. Booking
  4. Screening
  5. Payment
  6. Conclusion of a contract
  7. Moving in

Things you need to know prior to applying for a room

Move-in screening is done for anyone who desires to move in equally regardless of Japanese and others. There is no special screening which is harder to pass for foreigners than Japanese discriminatory.

In case you’re ignored one-sidedly in spite of making a call for an application, there is high possibility that you might contact to a shared house which restrict foreigners to move in and a staff doesn’t understand what you are talking about in English.

Just make sure if a shared house you are going to apply for accepts foreigners beforehand. Don’t jump to a hasty conclusion like suspecting a shared house that rejected you unjustly that you are racially abused by a staff in a shared house because you are a foreigner.

Please remember the following things down below.

  • There are so many Japanese who don’t understand English.
  • There are some share houses available for only Japanese.
  • Basically, whether or not foreigners are welcomed is mentioned on a website of shared house specification

Rarely, there is a case where a shared house manager show a reluctance to rent you a room although it says foreigners are acceptable. So prior to applying for any rooms you could find from a website or something, before asking concrete application method to a person in charge, you politely ask if a foreigners can move in or not.

If you don’t understand Japanese, you just check this thing through a website manager on behalf of you.

Concrete procedure until you move in

Check availability

Check which room is vacant now. Fill your information in a form completely or make a call directly to a share house management. Things you need to pay attention to are

  • whether or not foreigners are accepted
  • whether or not you can settle there for a term that obliges you to stay


If you can’t complete minimum stay term after you move-in, you may be claimed to pay the rest of month as a penalty, that you are expected to stay

The shortest period of minimum stay term is 3 months in shared house industry. You just look carefully into a shared house with your circumstances. If your job style is like a wandering life, you should stay in a gust house that doesn’t require you a guarantee of minimum stay term.

Room Inspection

Room inspection is available when business day of a shared house management. Usually, inspection time is from 10 a.m. to 6;00 p.m. on ordinary day. A thing you pay attention to for room inspection stage is a number of room inspection. There is limitation to a number of room inspection. So you should grab a atomosphere of a share house from pictures of a website.

A share house is very popular among young generation from 20s to 30s in Japan. Shared houses located in urban area of Kanto areas like Tokyo, Chiba, Kanagawa tend to be occupied very soon.

If there is a vacant room, a room is going to be musical chairs sooner or later. So shared houses located in these areas restrict a number of room inspection because a room may be booked for a contract by someone while you are inspecting.

A number of room inspections are 2 to 3 times and one room can be inspected one time. You can look 3 rooms.

Booking

Fill in application form you can download from a website and submit it. After submission, contract, a contract guide will be sent to you. Things you pay attention to are

  • Preparing a copy of passport with your portrait
  • Preparing a resident card
  • Preparing a phone number of a familiar friend or your family who can guarantee your unpaid rent just in case you fall behind in rent

A resident card

There are a lot of shared houses that require you to submit a copy of a resident card as one of conditions for booking. This is going to be a problem for those who are informed at the airport that a resident card will be sent to them in 10 days.

To go through a procedure smoothly, you have to arrive at airport at Kasai, Haneda, Narita, Chubu airport where you receive a resident card on the spot.

a phone number of a familiar friend or your family

Japan has a culture that if you fall into contingent circumstances like you fall behind in rent or something, a lessor require someone to look after your mess. You may have to rely on someone who is willing to become your rent supporter.

Screening

You are screened with your filled application form. You are not guaranteed to be accepted in the result of screening. You may fall the screening. A shared house will choose people to accept. Inevitably, a person who already have shared house living experience tends to be accepted easily. In contrast, a person who lease a room for the first time tends to be difficult to be accepted.

But don’t worry. There are some criteria points you should pay attention to for passing screening. Please check the following points by yourself.

Your revenue

Whether your revenue covers monthly rent stably is a very important point that a shared house management decides to accept you. Concretely, whether your revenue still remains sufficiently to make a living even after a rent is deducted from your revenue is the point to be looked into.

Reporting how much your revenue is basically self-reported but some shared-houses requires you to submit a certificate of income and withholding tax for the purposes of accuracy. The more expensive the rent of shared house is, the stronger tendency to demand accuracy of your revenue becomes.

For easy-to-understand criteria, the ratio between your living cost other than a rent and a rent should be 7(other living costs and savings ):3 (a rent). For example, if your monthly revenue is 200,000, your money for rent should be 600,000 yen and your money for your savings and other living costs should be 140,000 yen.

However, as a matter of fact, a shared house with the above screening standard is high class shared house. You can find a shared house for people coming to Japan for working holiday with easy screening standard that doesn’t force you to submit certificate of income and withholding tax. If don’t work at the time you apply for a room, you need to tell if you plan to work or not.

Your occupation

Your occupation is also subject to screening. If your life pattern is very different from other resident’s life pattern, it will cause a trouble. For example, if you go to work when other residents go to bed, your daily life noise will interrupt other resident’s sleeping.

A shared house management wants to keep as much harmonious space as possible to avoid any troubles. In addition, it wants to collect people with the same sense of values.

So as the point to look for a shared house, you should find a shared house that makes you sympathize the concept and accept your life pattern. Birds of a feather flock together

Your character

A shared house has a extraordinary atmosphere that strangers live in the same house. To integrate yourself into the community of a shared house needs your courage and effort. No matter what kind of shared house you choose, you are preferred to involve with others proactively. A shared house management require applicants to be cooperative enough.

Your gender and age

For example, you must feel wrongness if a woman moves in a shared house where most of the residents are male and if 40 year-old applicant tries to move in a shared house where all the residents are 18 years old.

A landlord or shared house manager look if biased ratio of boys and girls, and generation gap has harmful effect on the community. You should check generation of residents and ratio of boys and girls beforehand

Payment

If you pass the screening, you pay a deposit and first month rent
You have following payment methods.

  • Paypal
  • Credit Card
  • Bank Transfer (You need to have a savings account of Japanese bank)

There is a case where your paid initial payment is not returned back when contract is cancelled.

Conclusion of a contract

Sign or stamp seal on a contract and your payment is confirmed. Your lease contract is concluded.

Moving in

You are to be present for room setting with a landlord or a shared house manager.
You must check room damage inspection. Take photos of damages of a room at the time you move in to prevent unjust claim for damage when you move out.

After you receive a facility guidance, a room key is handed over to you.

How many days it takes until moving in

It takes 3 days to one week. When you come to Japan for working holiday, you should stay in a guest house for a couple of weeks to spend your time for looking for a shared house and going through this procedure.

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