Moving House in Japan: Address Change & Utility Procedures for Foreign Residents

Two separate legal clocks start on the day you move into a new home in Japan, and both run for 14 days. One comes from the Basic Resident Registration Act and applies to every resident of the country. The other comes from the Immigration Control Act, applies only to foreign nationals holding mid to long-term resident status, and — if ignored long enough — makes your status of residence itself revocable.

A single visit to one municipal counter usually satisfies both. That convenience turns on one small detail: whether your residence card is in your pocket when you reach the window. Leave it at home and one procedure becomes two.

Everything else — gas, water, electricity, driver's licence, mail forwarding, health insurance, and the deposit on the place you are leaving — arranges itself around those two deadlines, in the order below.

The Two 14-Day Deadlines

The Basic Resident Registration Act governs your juminhyo (resident record), which underpins residence tax, national health insurance, and almost every public service you use. Foreign residents are covered by this system alongside Japanese nationals, so the moving-in and change-of-address notifications work the same way for everyone.

The Immigration Control Act adds a second layer. Article 19-9, paragraph 1 requires a mid to long-term resident who changes address to notify the Commissioner of the Immigration Services Agency of the new place of residence within 14 days of moving in, at the municipal office covering the new address. Regional immigration services bureaus do not accept this notification.

A deeming rule connects the two. File the resident-registration moving-in or change-of-address notification and present your residence card at that moment, and the immigration notification is treated as made simultaneously. The Agency spells out the exception plainly: if the resident-registration notification goes through first because you did not bring your card, the deeming rule does not apply and you must file the notification of place of residence separately.

Before You Move: Lease Notice and the Moving-Out Notification

Give notice on your current lease

Notice periods are set by the lease contract itself, not by a nationwide rule. Find the termination clause and count backwards from your move-out date — late notice usually means paying rent for a month you will not live in.

File the moving-out notification

If your new home is in a different city, ward, or town, you file a moving-out notification with your current municipality. There is no single national rule on how early it is accepted; Hiroshima City, for example, states that it has no fixed number of days but generally accepts the notification from about 14 days before the move. Check your own ward office's page before you go.

You have three routes:

• In person at your current municipal office, where you receive a moving-out certificate to hand over at your new municipality.
• By post, which many municipalities accept — useful if you have already left the area.
• Online through My Number Portal. Since 6 February 2023 every municipality has accepted online moving-out notifications, and the same service sends advance notice of your visit to the new municipality. It requires a valid My Number card with a working digital signature certificate. This route removes the need for a moving-out certificate, but not the counter visit at the destination.

A move abroad also requires a moving-out notification, as the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications states explicitly. Filing it stops residence tax and national health insurance obligations from continuing to build against a record you left open.

One quiet consequence: moving out of the municipality automatically cancels any personal seal registration, as municipalities including Kodaira City and Kobe City confirm on their official FAQ pages. If you need a registered seal for a car purchase or a contract, re-register at the new municipality.

Moving In: The Counter Visit That Covers Two Laws

Within 14 days of physically moving in, go to the municipal office for your new address with the following:

• Your residence card, or a Special Permanent Resident Certificate — for every family member who is moving, not just your own.
• The moving-out certificate from your previous municipality, if you obtained one.
• Your My Number card, or the notification card, for each person moving.
• Identification for whoever appears at the counter, plus a power of attorney if a proxy is filing for you.
• Documents proving family relationships if you are registering a household with dependants — originals issued by your home country's government, with a Japanese translation.

Staff register the new address on your resident record and write it on the back of your residence card. That entry on the reverse side is your proof that the immigration notification was made.

One timing limitation is worth knowing. If your period of stay or your card's validity has already expired, the municipality generally cannot write the new address on the back. The exception is where the lower-right field on the reverse bears the stamp showing an application to change status or renew the period of stay is under examination — the entry can then still be made up to two months past the expiry date.

Moving Within the Same City or Ward

Relocating within the same municipality is a change-of-address notification, due within 14 days at the same city or ward office. No moving-out certificate is involved because you never left that municipality's register.

The residence card rule is identical, and this is where people get complacent: a move of three streets still changes the address on the back of your card, and the deeming rule still requires the card at the counter.

What Happens If You Miss the Deadline

Three separate consequences sit behind these deadlines, and they escalate.

• Basic Resident Registration Act. Failing to file without justifiable reason can result in a fine of up to 50,000 yen.
• Immigration Control Act — failure to notify. The Immigration Services Agency states that failing to file the notification of place of residence can bring a fine of up to 200,000 yen. Filing a false address is treated more seriously: imprisonment of up to one year, or a fine of up to 200,000 yen.
• Revocation of status of residence. Article 22-4, paragraph 1, item 9 makes it a ground for revocation where a mid to long-term resident, having left the place of residence on file with the Commissioner, fails to notify a new place of residence within 90 days — unless there is a justifiable reason for not doing so. Item 10 covers notifying a false address.

The everyday damage is quieter. A mismatched address delays health insurance documents, blocks bank and carrier updates, and leaves inconsistencies in the paperwork behind a future extension or permanent residence application.

The Other Things to Finish at City Hall

While you are already at the counter, several procedures can be completed in the same queue. Ask for them by name.

My Number card

Your card needs a change to the details printed on its face, plus a continued-use procedure. Two deadlines apply, and missing either invalidates the card: the moving-in notification within 14 days, and the continued-use procedure within 90 days of that notification. A lapsed card must be reissued, and reissue carries a fee.

National Health Insurance

If you are enrolled in National Health Insurance rather than an employer's scheme, you lose eligibility in the old municipality and enrol in the new one, both within 14 days. The paperwork itself has changed: new issuance and reissuance of paper insurance cards ended on 1 December 2024, and people enrolling from 2 December 2024 onward receive a shikaku kakuninsho or a notice of qualification information instead, alongside use of the My Number card as a health insurance card.

National Pension

Mostly automatic now. The Japan Pension Service states that an address change notification is in principle unnecessary where your My Number is linked to your Basic Pension Number. It remains necessary where the two are not linked, or where your actual address differs from the registered one.

Child allowance

Families receiving jido teate (child allowance) file a new claim at the destination municipality. The timing rule is unusual: apply within 15 days counted from the day after your move-out date and the claim is treated as filed in the month of the move. Applying later generally forfeits the months you were late.

Driver's Licence and Mail Forwarding

Driver's licence

Article 94 of the Road Traffic Act requires the licence holder to file a notification of change of recorded particulars with the public safety commission for the new address. In practice you go to a police station or driver's licence centre with jurisdiction over where you now live.

Bring your licence and proof of the new address. Prefectural police forces accept either a copy of your resident record issued within the past six months and printed without the My Number, or your My Number card showing the new address. A photocopy of the resident record is not accepted, and there is no fee when the change of particulars is the only procedure you file.

Mail forwarding

Japan Post's forwarding service redirects mail sent to your old address, free of charge, for one year from the date the notification is submitted — not from the date you want it to start. Apply through the e-Tenkyo website or the Japan Post app, at a post office counter, or by dropping the completed form into a postbox in the pre-paid envelope. Online applications need a verified Yu ID login, registration takes three to seven business days, and one application can cover up to six people.

Forwarding is breathing room, not a solution: it buys a year to update banks, insurers, and your carrier, but it updates nothing for you.

Electricity, Gas, and Water

Utilities split into the ones you can handle remotely and the one that requires a human being in the property.

Gas: someone must be there

Opening the gas supply requires attendance. Tokyo Gas explains that the technician confirms the condition of your gas appliances and their compatibility with the gas type supplied, so the visit involves opening the meter valve, a lit-flame check inside your home, and a safety briefing. Attendance can be delegated to a family member, a friend, or the landlord. Book early — weekend slots and late March fill up first.

Water

Water is run by the local waterworks authority. In Tokyo, the Bureau of Waterworks asks customers to apply about three or four days before moving, by internet, by phone through the Customer Service Center, or via the Bureau's app. The online form requires the customer number printed on your meter-reading slip or receipt; without it you have to phone instead. For moves within the Bureau's service area, the stop and start are handled as one procedure. Attendance is generally unnecessary.

Electricity

Contact your retailer to close the old account and open the new one, giving both addresses and the switch date. Retail electricity is fully liberalised, so the company to contact is whoever holds your contract rather than the regional utility by default. The moving procedures online service run through My Number Portal also links to participating electricity, gas, and water providers.

Leaving the Old Apartment: Deposit and Restoration Costs

The move-out inspection is where many foreign tenants lose money unnecessarily, because nobody explained where the legal line sits.

Article 621 of the Civil Code, as revised with effect from 1 April 2020, defines the tenant's restoration obligation and expressly carves out two categories: tsujo sonmo, wear arising from ordinary use, and keinen henka, deterioration through the passage of time. Damage for which the tenant is not responsible is likewise excluded. Before that revision the Civil Code contained no direct definition of restoration, which is precisely why disputes were so common.

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism publishes the reference standard used to settle these arguments, the "Guidelines on Troubles Regarding Restoration to Original Condition", last revised in August 2011. Its core position is that repair costs for aging and ordinary wear are treated as already covered by the rent, and therefore borne by the landlord. Restoration means putting right damage caused by the tenant's intent or negligence, breach of the duty of care, or use beyond what is ordinary.

Two limits deserve honesty. The guidelines are a reference document rather than binding law, and MLIT notes that for contracts already signed the contract's own terms are the starting point. Special clauses shifting ordinary-wear costs onto tenants need careful reading rather than being assumed either invalid or enforceable.

What tends to work in practice:

• Photograph every room — floors, walls, water fittings — on move-in day and again when you hand back the keys.
• Attend the move-out inspection in person, and keep the original lease and any move-in condition checklist.
• Ask for an itemised written estimate, and do not sign a settlement at the inspection if the figures are unexplained.

Where a dispute cannot be resolved directly, local consumer affairs centres and prefectural rental housing consultation desks handle exactly this kind of case.

A Practical Timeline

Mistakes That Cause Real Problems

• Leaving the residence card at home. The resident-registration notification proceeds without it, the deeming rule does not, and you leave believing an unfiled immigration notification is done.
• Assuming online filing finishes the job. The My Number Portal route covers the moving-out side and pre-notifies the destination; the moving-in procedure still requires you at the counter.
• Forgetting the My Number card's second clock. Filing the moving-in notification on time does not save the card if the continued-use procedure is not completed within 90 days of that filing.
• Signing a move-out settlement on the spot. Ordinary wear and age-related deterioration fall outside the tenant's restoration obligation under Article 621. Ask for the breakdown first.

Frequently Asked Questions