When you rent a room, types of a room you can rent will differ depending on what kind of purpose to stay in Japan and what circumstances you are in in Japan and whether you make a rental contract for yourself or not also differs depending on your purpose to stay in Japan and your circumstances in Japan.
For example, in accordance with a term of stay in Japan which your acquired visa grants you, whether you live in a share house or an apartment is decisive and in accordance with where you work in Japan, whether you should find a place to live by yourself or company would provide it for you is decisive.
At first, you need to consider which type you belong to and decide your action plan.
Contents
- 1 The case where you don’t need to make a contract by yourself
- 2 The case where you need to make a contract by yourself
- 3 Minimum rental contract term in Japan
- 4 The difference of types of a contract between an apartment and a share house
- 5 Types of an apartment differ depending on the period of stay that your visa status grants you
- 6 Conditions to pass through tenant screening of Apartment
- 7 Conditions to pass through tenant screening of “share house”
- 7.1 Preparing your trustful person’s contact number or adress
- 7.2 Submiting your identification documents
- 7.3 Having solvency
- 7.4 Having a Paypal account
- 7.5 Agreement: rental contract shall be terminated when contractual period expires
- 7.6 Agreement, midterm cancellation shall be not allowed basically
- 7.7 Deposit and gratuity fee
- 8 If you are rejected to move in by an apartment owner
- 9 Conclusion
The case where you don’t need to make a contract by yourself
If you are NGO staff
If you are sent to a headquarter office or a branch office is located in Japan in Japan, it will provide you a place to stay in advance. Of course, you need to confirm your circumstances in Japan first, but mostly company house or an apartment provided by NGO support group will be available for you to live in.
If you work abroad
If you are a full time employee of a company and you are sent to a headquarter office or a branch office located in Japan, a company will make an arrangement for a place to live or you can live in an apartment designated by a company with simple signature on a contract.
If you join a education support program such as JET
If you join a education support program such as JET led by the Japanese government as a teacher or something, you can enjoy the benefit of living in teacher’s house provided by JET support group.
If you study abroad
You can participate in a home-staying program supplied by a study abroad agent and you also can live in student house of a college or a university you are going to, or you can also have another choice to find an apartment or share house by yourself in order to save a fixed cost.
The case where you need to make a contract by yourself
If you come in Japan for working holiday
A person who comes in Japan for working holiday is really isolated. There is no backup from any groups or any companies so basically you need to look for where you live by yourself. However, if you join in home-staying program supplied by a language school you are going to or working in a company providing worker’s apartment.
If you are locally employed
If you are not loaned employee working abroad in Japan temporarily but directly employed by Japanese company from your country, except for the situation where a company provides a place to live, you need to find where you live by yourself.
If you are self-employed in Japan
If you start your business in Japan without any background that you work in Japan before, the situation is pretty much same as the working holiday maker’s. You don’t have any back-up from a specific ground or a company so you need to take care of yourself in everything on living in Japan.
If you don’t have any experience living in Japan before, there are so many cases that a property manager will show reluctance on renting you an apartment so in constructive manner, you should build as much credibility as you can persuade the property manager to be allowed to live in from living in share house in Japan
If you come in Japan for sightseeing for 3 months
A person who wants to stay in Japan for the longest possible days that sightseeing visa grants you, you have a choice of an apartment hotel or guest house to stay in. With any luck, you can rent a share house but mostly, minimum contract term of a share house in Japan is from 6 months.
Minimum rental contract term in Japan
To begin with, in most cases, a contract shows its minimum rental contract term as 2 years
This contract term have existed in Japan since long ago conventionally so actually this 2 year term contract is not absolute contract condition but there are some apartments that regulates minimum rental contract term for less than 2 years.
However, article 29 of Leased Land and House Lease Law says ” if you sign a rental contract whose period is for less than 1 year, this contract is regarded as the one without a definite period.”
In short, if contract term is set to 3 months or 6 months which is less than a year, this contract becomes “a contract without definite period” = “non-updatable contract”.
If a contract is not updatable, an apartment owner will not be able to collect money in the name of “renewal fee” and reduce a chance to negotiate raising house rent with a tenant. This is a disadvantage of an apartment owner.
For that reason, an apartment owner will not conclude a contract holding good for less than a year without exceptional special occasion.
The House Lease Law allows us to make a contract holding good for less than a year, but there are no apartment owners who nods their head yes nowadays.
Rental apartment contract
A rental apartment contract is called normal lease contract here in Japan. This contract prohibits an apartment owner from rejecting contract renewal offer from a tenant if a tenant desire to live in an apartment without justifiable reason in terms of protecting tenants.
For example, an apartment owner need to have a justifiable reason that is unavoidable circumstances to displace a tenant from a room which is like an apartment is going to be put on the market.
Moreover, in a case where an apartment owner demand a tenant to displace a room or reject renewal contract offer, an apartment owner needs to pay compensation for eviction to a tenant. Once he rents room to someone, considerable resolve is required for an apartment owner.
For the above reason, there is a fact an apartment owner’s passive attitude towards accepting new tenants resulted in increasing vacant rooms and it doesn’t allow those rooms to use effectively.
As a result, a fixed lease contract was introduced in 2000 by the Act on Special Measures concerning Promotion of Supply of Good Rental Housings, etc which regulates a lease system that a contract expires forcibly when contract term reaches expiry date.
The point of this contract is
- You can stay in a room for even less than a year.
- You must move out when contract term is expired.
- If you want to live in an apartment continuously, you have to conclude a “recontract” with an apartment owner.
In regard to cacellation, it is general to enter into a special agreement that regulates the conditions about cancellation when concluding a contract .
However, in a case where there is no special agreement on your fixed contract, if you have justifiable reason enough to cancel the contract, you can make a cancellation offer to an apartment owner. (only for an apartment with its floor space: 200㎡)
| Fixed lease contract | Normal lease contract | |
|---|---|---|
| Contract Method |
|
Apply either in writing or in person |
| Contract renewal | a contract shall terminate when the contractual period expires and cannot be renewed and | a contract will be renewed unless there is justifiable reason |
| Effectiveness of contract term of less than one year | Less than one year contract is available | Less than one year contract is regarded as a non-definite period contract |
| Effectiveness of specail agreement for increasing/decreasing rent | Rent shall be subject to special agreement | You and an apartment owner can claim to increase or decrease rent regardless of special agreement |
| Mid-term cancellation |
|
If there is specail agreement about mid-term cancellation, you shall be subject to it |
Types of an apartment differ depending on the period of stay that your visa status grants you
All rental properties have contractual period. So you need to think about what apartment satisfy the period of stay that your visa status grants you.
If you are granted permission to stay in Japan for 1 year or less, your choice will be Guest House or Share House. If you are granted permission to stay in Japan for more than 3 years or more, the range of choices for you is extended. You can live in an apartment and guest house, and share house.
Needless to say, for the longer term you are granted to stay in Japan, the more choices you can make.
Conditions to pass through tenant screening of Apartment
If you have visa status that grants you to stay in Japan for 3 years or more and plan to live in the same place in Japan for 2 years, it is possible for you to rent an apartment in Japan. However, there are some conditions you need to clear before concluding a contract. If you don’t satisfy the conditions, you cannot move in an apartment .
If you have studied abroad here in Japan and already experienced living in student house or home-staying before, it is pretty much easier to find an apartment which accepts you.
Some countries have Japanese school for students who want to work in Japan, that teaches Japanese history, society. Those students who have been educated to work in Japan tend to be accepted easily.
1. Being able to communicate in Japanese
The most important thing is that you can communicate with real estate agent and an apartment owner in Japanese. You must have a skill of understanding detailed regulations and contractual conditions in Japanese.
About 90% of rental properties in Japan is assumed to be rented by Japanese and its contract is also written in Japanese. Likewise, detailed regulations and conditions regulated by a contract with which you need to agree is of course written in Japanese.
Investing your time and effort to find a real estate agent and an apartment that are understandable to foreigners is good idea. However, realistically, think about how many of those real estate agents and apartment owners there are who post advertisements in English in Japan. There are not as many apartments as you have a room to think about an apartment which meets your conditions.
Of course, you can find a website which introduce apartments for foreigners in English but most of them introduce high-class apartments which is probably hard for you to rent continuously without certain level of income. And those agents who are setting a net on the internet claim payment in the name of various fees if you apply for it.
The reason why they don’t decrease rental price is because there are few competitors who join in this market. The further away from the metropolitan area where you stay is in Japan, the rarer the apartments introduced on a website in English become and as a result, rental price goes up naturally although an apartment is located in rural area.
You should change your way of thinking. You don’t try to find an apartment which meet your condition but you try to make effort to become a person that meet apartment conditions. If you do that, your choices will be extended. Learning Japanese is the first step to solve this problem.
2.Having solvency
As I said, the House Lease Law prohibits an apartment owner from rejecting contract renewal offer from a tenant if a tenant desire to live in an apartment without justifiable reason in terms of protecting tenants.
In a case where you fall behind in rent for a couple of days, to demand a tenant to displace from a room legally after some troubles, an apartment owner needs to take legal proceedings against a tenants through a court. Therefore, your solvency is strictly screened.
A person who is defined as the one having capacity to make a stable payment without falling behind by real estate agents or an apartment owners is the one who is full-time employee of a trustful company.
So a person who work in a part-time job which is no wonder when you are discharged without notice by a company and which you can’t schedule your job regularly is difficult to be accepted.
I think types of visa status that allows foreigners to work part-time is special activity visa (working holiday) & study abroad visa.
Mostly students rent a share house or student house belonging to the educational institution and if you are a student and try to rent an apartment independently, please understand 90% of real estate agents reject your offer because of your income level primarily.
If you are a working holiday maker, your offer is also turned away in terms of your regular income and period of stay which your visa status indicates.
If you are full-time worker, you should require your company to issued Certificate of employment. Submitting this certificate to real estate agents, the probability you are accepted to stay in an apartment will rise up. This is very persuasive tool for tenant screening.
3.Whether your visa status meet contractual term or not
An apartment owner needs to address the risk that you go back to your country and never come back again even in the middle of a contract period so an apartment owner needs to check your visa status that qualifies to stay in Japan for as long as a contract demands.
If the rest of your stay in Japan turns out to be less than 2 years, there is high possibility that your offer will be turned away even before screening you.
Before you plan to rent an apartment, you just make sure whether or not you have sufficient period to stay in Japan by checking your visa status.
4.Finding guarantors
Just in case you are in trouble that makes you difficult to pay a rent continuously, an apartment owner will require you to find someone who pay the rent as compensation instead prior to renting you a room.
It is not that a guarantor who you need to find must be Japanese but Japanese guarantor is much more credited than any other nationalities, which is highly rated when you are screened. If you don’t have any intimate Japanese friend who you can ask for guarantor, you can use Guarantee Company specialized in rental apartment. Of course, you need to pay some fees though,
5.Having a bank account
For a case where you are rejected although you have almost reached concluding a contract, the cause you don’t have a bank account can be considered.
Most of you who desire to make a rental contract of an apartment has visa status that you are granted to stay in Japan for a certain amount of years so there is no problem about satisfying contractual term but Japanese bank has tendency to put period restriction on foreigners opening a saving account.
Each banks set unique conditions that a person who is eligible to open a saving account need to stay in Japan for more than 6 months to one year. This is because Japanese government take warning towards financial crime such as money laundering. So you have to prove that you came to Japan not just for the purpose of opening a bank account by staying in Japan for the term designated by each banks. Please check this article “How to open a bank account in Japan?”
For the reason, even though you formally stay in Japan after passing through visa inspection, you get stuck at unexpected place before signing on a contract.
If you were caught in screening because you didn’t have a saving account in Japan, you should consider staying in a share house until you open a formal saving account.
6.Deposit and gratuity fee
This two types of fee is directly related to whether you have solvency or not. Basically many apartments make it condition that a tenant should pay those two payments in advance prior to moving in.
Deposit is money depositing to a landlord or apartment owner as a gurantee for liability. This has the strong characteristic of security money. When you are in trouble which makes you difficult to pay a rent continuously for some reason. The amount of rent in which you fall behind is compensated from this deposit.
When you move out of an apartment, your restore burdens by the obligation to restore the site to its original condition on a contract will be compensated from this deposit too.
Gratuity fee or Reikin is remuneration to give a landlord and an apartment owner with the gratitude that you will be helped with something during your say in an apartment in the future.
Traditionally, Japanese parents used to give remuneration for their son’s trouble to a owner of a boarding house because their son who serves as apprentice will be in owner’s care a lot in the future.
Just the formality that a tenant who plans to move in an apartment pays this remuneration to a owner beforehand has remained as a custom in the present time.
The quotation for both deposit and gratuity fee is as much as 1 to 2 months rent. Lately, I have witnessed an apartment ads that says no deposit and gratuity fee should be paid when you move in.
You think those offers are great deal at a first sight but remember, too attractive offer has a system to collect benefit from other cash points. As a result, you end up making as much payment as you pay expenses including deposit and gratuity fee in total or more.
For example, it may be considered that an apartment owner has a scheme to raise a basic rent for the next month at the first stage or to claim you extortionate prices for restoring expenses when you move out.
You should think out those sweet ads that expresses your advantage strongly in a calm manner.
Share house contract has pretty easy conditions for those who make a living in Japan for the first time. You don’t have to find a guarantor and the minimum contract term is from 3 months to half a year. Even if the rest of your stay in Japan is less than 1 year, you can sign on a contract.
As I said, this type of contract doesn’t allow you to renew and terminate when the contractual period expires. If you want to live in a share house continuously, you need to make a re-contract.
Preparing your trustful person’s contact number or adress
A share house usually require you to provide contact number or contact address instead of demanding a guranter. Its owner is obliged to contact to a person whom you told when you suffer from serious illness and serious injuries, when you are caught up in a serious trouble and when you fall behind in rent frequently and you don’t pick up your phone from its owner.
Submiting your identification documents
You are supposed to be required to provide the following docoments below prior to screening
- Resident card
- A copy of your Japanese driver’s licence (if you have)
- A copy of your passport
Having solvency
Firstly, your income and occupation will be checked but you are not required to submit eomployment certification and other documents which evidence whether you have regular income enough to pay a rent on a regular basis.
Even in a case where you are a part-time worker or student, if you can explain you receive much salary monthly enough to cover the rent every months, you can pass through the screening.
Even if you don’t have a job, if you explain like “I quit job because I start up my business”, the screening relatively tends to be passed through.
A share house owner places importance of your stance instead of demanding you a condition to have regular job. If you are not full-time worker, why is that? Can you explain persuasive reason for that?
If you have objective to pursue, a share house is where support the achievement of your goal from the aspects of living. People who have the same circumstances as you do gather one place to live.
A share house cherish this mood. So if you are an unemployed person who is depressed from everything and nothing encourage you to do anything positively , the probability that your offer turns away is pretty high.
Having a Paypal account
You don’t have to open a savings account in Japan. For your payment method, Paypal or credit card is allowed. Of course, some places allow you to hand a rent directly but usually its owner requires you to pay through Paypal because your payment is recorded on a data.
Agreement: rental contract shall be terminated when contractual period expires
You need to agree that you move out when contractual period expires. The contactual expiry indicates automatically cancellation of a contract under fixed rental contract term. Which means you cannot renew the contract but if you want to stay in a share house continuously, you have to make a contract again with a share house owner.
If you squat your room without making the next contract, you will be sued for ” unlawful trespass”.
Agreement, midterm cancellation shall be not allowed basically
Once you sign on a contract, you are regarded as accepting that you will not cancel the contract in the middle of contractual period as a premise.
However, if you are in the situation where you are involved with unavoidable circumstances that you must be away from a room on a long-term basis such as job transfer, long-term medical treatment and nursing care for one of your family, your cancellation offer shall be allowed.
Deposit and gratuity fee
There are many tenants who think that contractual period conditions for a share house contract tend to be restricted compared with general rental apartment agreement so most of share house owners ease this condition and rent a room with much cheaper deposit than average quotation of apartment deposit.
A share house located in Metropolitan area mostly doesn’t demand deposit and gratuity fee. You can save your money.
If you are rejected to move in by an apartment owner
Even though you satisfy the above conditions perfectly, there is possibility that you are rejected to move in. Probable cause that can be considered is your credibility that an apartment owner feels. which may be whether you will stay continuously until contractual expiry or you cause no trouble with neighborhood or whether you make trouble from incomprehension of Japanese culture.
To begin with, you build your living experience by staying in a share house for a couple of months. If you can submit a contractual document of a share house as evidence that you made a living without difficulties or problems, the probability that an apartment owner accepts your offer will go up for sure because the biggest task for an apartment owner is to make every single rooms get full occupancy. If possible, he should be in the stance that anybody who comes will be welcome unless there is no risk that he has to take in renting you a room.
If those who are waiting to go to Japan haven’t experienced living in Japan before and are planning to live in an apartment, for the first 3 months, your first accommodation should be a share house
- to clear the condition that Japanese banks require you for opening your formal savings account
- to evidence that you have an experience living in Japan already to persuade an apartment owner to accept your offer.
Conclusion
Except for the case that a company or an organization provide a place to live, those who have’t lived in Japan will take a lot of time until signing up a contract.
The reason why Japanese landlords or apartment owners are so strict on screening for foreigners is because legislative system based on rental contract protects extremely the human rights of tenants.
Even if you fall behind in rent maliciously for a couple of months, unless owner takes legal proceedings against you, demanding you to displace from a room is illegal. As long as you desire to stay in an apartment, an owner is obliged to respond to a request and renew the contract for 2 years.
The risks that they take is two sides of the same coin with the credibility of the person who desires to move in an apartment. The only way to evidence your credibility is to submit your evidence you live in share house already.
In a share house, you are given a private room though, some of house rules to keep are set and you will spend communal living with neighbors. You can make the most of this experience to your apartment life too. Because even if you start living in an apartment, you are strongly required to have a cooperative personality in order to balance a harmony in the community.
I understand your annoying emotions that you are rejected from screening many times, you satisfy the conditions though. But please understand Japanese living culture is quite unique compared with other countries”.
Sometimes, I think the same with you although I am even a Japanese. However, complaining doesn’t solve any problems and grants your wishes to stay in an apartment. Consider why apartment owners and landlords are not willing to rent you a room except for the reason of racial discrimination.