Renting an Apartment in Japan as a Foreigner: Contracts, Costs, Guarantors

The rent figure in the listing is the smallest number in the deal. By the time an agency hands you the paperwork, the cash you need on day one has usually grown to four, five, sometimes six times that monthly figure — and almost none of that difference is explained in the listing itself.

Nothing about this is designed to trap foreign tenants specifically. Japanese renters face the same stack of charges. What foreign tenants face on top of it is a contract written in a language they may not read, a screening process that weights employment stability heavily, and a set of move-out rules that are widely misunderstood even by people who have lived here for years.

Here is what each line item is, which parts are fixed by law and which are simply market practice, and what the national guideline actually says about the money you get back at the end.

The explanation the law owes you before you sign

Japanese leases are almost always arranged through a licensed brokerage, and the Real Estate Brokerage Act imposes a duty on that brokerage that works in your favour. Article 35 requires a qualified real estate transaction specialist to walk you through a written statement of important matters before the contract is concluded, not after. For a residential lease the statutory list includes the state of the fittings, the contract period and renewal terms, whether the lease is a fixed-term one, restrictions on use, how the deposit and any other money will be settled when the contract ends, who manages the building, and the cancellation terms. Restoration rules are not on the national list — Tokyo adds an explanation duty through its own tenancy dispute-prevention ordinance — so if you are outside Tokyo, ask about restoration explicitly rather than waiting for it. The specialist must put their name to that document. If someone slides a lease across the table and asks you to sign immediately, a required step has been skipped.

That explanation is normally delivered in fast Japanese. You are entitled to slow it down. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism publishes a complete set of rental documents in fourteen languages, including English, Vietnamese, Chinese, Korean, Nepali, Indonesian, Tagalog, Khmer and Burmese. The set covers the tenancy application form, the important matters statement, the standard residential lease in both its guarantee-company and personal-guarantor versions, and the fixed-term lease. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government carries the same fourteen-language set on its own site, alongside a room-search guidebook and the guideline on smooth private-rental move-in for foreign residents. Tokyo's separate tenancy dispute-prevention guideline, which is the one that covers restoration and repairs under the metropolitan ordinance, is published separately and in fewer languages.

Treat those translations as a reading aid rather than the agreement. The Japanese text is what binds you. Read the translated version first, then match it clause by clause against the document in front of you, and question anything that appears in one and not the other. Two places deserve unhurried attention: the restoration terms near the end, and any section headed as a special agreement, since that is precisely where obligations beyond the ordinary rules get inserted.

Where the money goes on day one

Only one item in the stack is capped by law. Under the fee notice issued beneath Article 46 of the Real Estate Brokerage Act — Construction Ministry Notice No. 1552 of 1970, last amended by MLIT Notice No. 949 of 21 June 2024 — the combined brokerage commission received from both parties to a residential lease may not exceed 1.1 times one month's rent, tax included. From one party alone the ceiling is 0.55 months unless that party consented to more when instructing the agency. Everything else below is market practice, and it varies by city, by building and by landlord.

That example totals roughly ¥404,500 — about five months' rent — and it assumes a mid-range deposit and one month of key money. In markets where key money has fallen away, the same apartment might open at closer to three months. Where the deposit runs to two months, six is realistic. Ask the agency for the itemised move-in estimate in writing early, before you get attached to a particular room, and check whether the key exchange charge and any cleaning fee are being billed at move-in or held back from your deposit at the end.

The guarantor company, and why it replaced your friend

For decades, a Japanese lease required a joint guarantor — usually a relative with stable income who would personally cover unpaid rent. That model has largely given way to commercial rent guarantee companies, which charge a fee to stand behind your rent instead. MLIT's compilation on rent guarantees, published in 2016 from a 2014 industry survey, put roughly 97 percent of lease contracts as requiring some form of guarantee and around 60 percent as using a guarantee company. Those are the most recent national figures the ministry has published, and the trend they show is still moving toward guarantee companies, so treat 60 percent as a floor rather than a current reading. The shift has been driven by the rise in single-person and elderly households and by the thinning of the family networks the old model assumed.

For a foreign worker with no relatives in Japan, this is usually good news: it converts an impossible request into a fee. The most common pricing pattern documented in MLIT materials is an initial charge of 50 percent of one month's rent, followed by roughly ¥10,000 each year the guarantee continues. Some companies charge a monthly percentage instead. What the guarantee covers also differs — unpaid rent almost always, and often restoration costs, litigation costs and removal of belongings left behind.

One point that surprises people: the guarantee protects the landlord, not you. If the company covers your missed rent, it will pursue you for that money afterwards. There are limits, though. In a judgment of 12 December 2022 the Supreme Court struck down two clauses common in guarantee contracts — one letting the company terminate the lease without any prior demand once rent was late, and one letting it treat the home as surrendered while the lease was still running — as void under Article 10 of the Consumer Contract Act. If a guarantee company tells you it can end your lease or repossess the room on its own say-so, that is the judgment to point at. Two public reference points are also worth knowing. MLIT operates a voluntary registration system for rent guarantee businesses, launched in October 2017, and publishes the list of registered firms — 123 companies as of 13 August 2026. Separately, the revised Housing Safety Net Act that took effect in October 2025 created a certification for guarantee companies that meet conditions such as not restricting emergency contacts to individual relatives. Foreign nationals are one of the categories designated as households requiring housing security support under that framework.

If you are in Japan on Specified Skilled Worker (i) status, housing support is part of your accepting organisation's mandatory support plan. Where a guarantor is required and you cannot find a suitable one, the accepting organisation is expected to act as guarantor itself or arrange a guarantee company. Ask before you start apartment hunting alone.

Papers the agency will ask you to produce

Screening runs on documents rather than conversation, and incomplete paperwork is the most common reason an application stalls. Assemble the set before you view properties, not after you find one you like.

Two practical notes. First, a residence card expiring in eight months does not disqualify you, but expect questions, and expect to be asked for the renewed card once it is issued. Second, if your name is written differently across documents — passport spelling versus residence card spelling versus katakana on a payslip — flag it yourself at the start. Sorting it out in advance is far easier than watching an application bounce back a week later.

Two years, then a renewal fee

The standard residential lease runs two years. What happens at the end depends on which of two contract types you signed, and the difference matters more than almost anything else in the document.

An ordinary lease renews. Under Article 26 of the Act on Land and Building Leases, if neither party gives notice between one year and six months before expiry that it will not renew, the contract is deemed renewed on the same terms — with one proviso: the renewed lease has no fixed term. A landlord's refusal to renew separately requires justifiable grounds under Article 28. In practice most tenants sign a renewal document and pay a renewal fee, commonly one month's rent. The Supreme Court considered renewal fee clauses on 15 July 2011 and held that a clause stated clearly and specifically in the contract is valid unless the amount is excessively high in light of the rent and the contract period. So the fee is generally enforceable, and you should budget for it every two years.

A fixed-term lease, governed by Article 38, does not renew. It ends on its expiry date, and continuing requires the landlord's agreement to a fresh contract. The landlord must give you a separate written explanation before signing that the contract carries no renewal, and for terms of a year or more must notify you between one year and six months before expiry that the term is ending. If the property is on the market cheap and the paperwork mentions a fixed term, understand that you may be moving again in two years regardless of how well things go.

Leaving early is usually possible under a notice clause — typically one or two months' written notice, sometimes with a penalty if you leave within the first year. Read that clause before you sign, because it is the one you will need if your job changes or your posting ends. In an ordinary lease those notice periods and short-stay penalties are contract terms rather than statutory defaults, so they differ from lease to lease. A fixed-term lease is different: under Article 38(7) of the Act on Land and Building Leases, a tenant of a fixed-term residential lease of a home under 200 square metres who can no longer use it as their base of living because of a job transfer, medical treatment, caring for a relative or another unavoidable circumstance may give notice, and the lease ends one month later. Article 38(8) makes any clause that overrides this to the tenant's disadvantage void.

What you can and cannot do inside the unit

Japanese leases restrict use more tightly than tenants from many countries expect, and the restrictions are enforceable because you agreed to them. Standard prohibitions include subletting or transferring the lease, allowing anyone not named in the contract to live there, running a business from the unit, keeping pets, and playing instruments. Those last two are frequently negotiable at signing and almost never negotiable afterwards. If a partner or family member will join you later, get them named on the contract now rather than explaining their presence to a building manager in six months.

Smoking is not usually banned outright, but it carries a financial consequence at the end. The MLIT restoration guideline treats a room where wall coverings have discoloured or absorbed odour from smoking as a case where cleaning or replacement across the whole room can be charged to the tenant — an unusual position, since most damage is assessed by the square metre. Nail holes and screw holes deep enough to require replacing the backing board are treated as tenant-caused. Picture hooks and thumbtack holes are not.

Building rules sit alongside the lease: garbage separation and collection days, quiet hours, bicycle parking, and rules about balconies, which are treated as emergency evacuation routes rather than storage. Most friction between foreign tenants and neighbours traces back to garbage timing and late-night noise, and both are avoidable with one careful reading of the building notice board.

One legal obligation sits outside the lease entirely. If you are a mid-to-long-term resident, Article 19-9(1) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act requires you to report your new address within 14 days of moving, at the municipal office covering the new address. Filing the move-in notification with your residence card in hand satisfies the immigration requirement at the same time; there is no fee. Failing to report can carry a fine of up to ¥200,000 under Article 71-5, item (ii). Separately, Article 22-4(1) lets your status of residence be revoked if you go 90 days without reporting an address, absent justifiable reason — item (viii) covers the first 90 days after a new landing permission, and item (ix) covers the 90 days after you move out of the address you had previously reported. Moving without filing is therefore not a paperwork slip; it is a revocation ground.

Moving out: the deposit, and what the guideline actually says

This is where most disputes happen, and where the widest gap sits between what tenants believe and what the rules say. Restoration to original condition does not mean returning the apartment to the state it was in when you moved in. Article 621 of the Civil Code, as amended, states the principle directly: the tenant restores damage they caused, but not deterioration arising from ordinary use and not aging. Article 622-2 defines the deposit and confirms it is returned after the lease ends and the property is surrendered, less what the landlord is owed.

MLIT's guideline on restoration disputes — first compiled in 1998, revised in 2004 and again in August 2011 — sets out how the split is calculated. Normal wear and aging fall on the landlord, because the tenant has already paid for them through rent. Where you are liable, your share is reduced according to how long you lived there. Wall coverings are depreciated on a straight line to a residual value of ¥1 over six years, so a tenant who scuffs a wall in year six owes far less than one who does the same damage in year one. Air conditioners, gas ranges and intercoms use six years as well; kitchen sinks five; toilets and washbasins fifteen.

Several specific items are worth knowing. Replacing the lock cylinder where nothing was broken or lost is described in the guideline as a management issue arising from tenant turnover, and reasonably borne by the landlord — meaning it should not be deducted from the outgoing tenant's deposit as restoration. That is separate from the key exchange fee an incoming tenant is quoted at signing, which is a contractual charge you agree to; query it at the estimate stage, not at move-out. Lose a key, however, and the full replacement cost falls on you with no depreciation applied. Professional cleaning of the whole unit is treated as the landlord's cost where the tenant has done ordinary cleaning — sweeping, wiping, degreasing the range hood and the wet areas.

The large caveat is the special agreement. A clause imposing costs beyond ordinary restoration can still bind you, and courts have upheld cleaning clauses. The guideline sets three conditions: there must be an objective, rational reason for the clause and it must not be exploitative; the tenant must have understood that they were taking on an obligation beyond ordinary restoration; and the tenant must have expressed intent to accept it. A specific amount written plainly in the contract is much harder to argue with than a vague one. Photograph every room on the day you move in, date-stamped, and complete the move-in condition checklist if the agency offers one. MLIT publishes a move-out restoration guide with checklists in fourteen languages.

UR, public housing, and who to call when it goes wrong

Two alternatives sidestep much of the private-market cost stack. UR rental housing, operated by the Urban Renaissance Agency, charges no key money, no brokerage commission, no renewal fee and requires no guarantor — which also means no guarantee company fee. The deposit is two months' rent. In exchange there is an income test. For a household, average monthly income must reach at least four times the rent where rent is under ¥82,500, with fixed thresholds of ¥330,000 for rents from ¥82,500 to under ¥200,000 and ¥400,000 at ¥200,000 and above. For a single applicant the pivots are lower: four times the rent below ¥62,500, ¥250,000 for rents from ¥62,500 to under ¥200,000, and ¥400,000 at ¥200,000 and above. Applicants who cannot meet the income standard may qualify instead through the savings route — savings of at least 100 times the monthly rent — or by prepaying rent in a lump sum. Foreign nationals are eligible if they are permanent residents, hold diplomatic or official status, or are mid-to-long-term residents under the Immigration Control Act.

Public housing is a different system again, provided under the Public Housing Act by prefectures and municipalities for low-income households in housing need. Rent is calculated from income rather than the market, but supply is limited and popular blocks are allocated by lottery. Eligibility conditions, income ceilings and application windows are set by the managing local government, so the only reliable answer comes from your city or prefectural housing division. The trade-off is consistent across both: far lower cost, considerably less choice, and a waiting period.

If a charge on your move-out invoice looks wrong, or a clause you signed is being applied in a way you did not expect, the route is a consumer consultation centre rather than an argument at the counter. Dial 188 from anywhere in Japan and you will be connected to the consumer affairs centre covering your postal code; call charges apply once you are connected. The National Consumer Affairs Center publishes a directory of every local centre. Many municipalities and prefectures also run multilingual consultation desks for foreign residents, and the Foreign Residents Support Center helpdesk in Tokyo takes calls on 0570-011000 on weekdays from 9:00 to 17:00 for immigration, employment and legal questions.

TreeGlobalPartners Inc. places foreign nationals into jobs in Japan, and for the worker that service costs nothing. Visa applications and registered support work are handled by our group company, Tree Administrative Scrivener Corporation. Neither company acts in rental disputes — for those, the consumer consultation centres above are the right first call.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can I rent an apartment in Japan without a guarantor?

Usually yes, but not for free. Most landlords now accept a commercial rent guarantee company in place of a personal joint guarantor, and you pay the guarantee fee — commonly around 50 percent of one month's rent at the start, then roughly ¥10,000 a year. Some properties still ask for both a guarantee company and an emergency contact. If you hold Specified Skilled Worker (i) status, housing support is part of your accepting organisation's mandatory support plan, and where a guarantor is required and you have none, the organisation is expected to act as guarantor or arrange a guarantee company for you.

Will I get my whole deposit back when I move out?

Rarely all of it, but more of it than most tenants assume. Article 621 of the Civil Code says you restore damage you caused, not deterioration from ordinary use or aging, and the MLIT guideline reduces even your legitimate share according to how many years you lived there — wall coverings are written down to ¥1 over six years, for example. Cleaning fees and other charges written into a special agreement clause can still be deducted if the clause is clear and specific. Photograph every room the day you move in; that record is what settles most disagreements without escalation.

What is the difference between an ordinary lease and a fixed-term lease?

An ordinary lease renews. Under Article 26 of the Act on Land and Building Leases it is deemed renewed on the same terms if neither side gives notice in the window from one year to six months before expiry — though the renewed lease then runs with no fixed term — and under Article 28 a landlord needs justifiable grounds to refuse. A fixed-term lease under Article 38 simply ends on its date, with no right to continue. The landlord must explain in writing before you sign that the contract carries no renewal — if you never received that explanation, or the contract says fixed term, ask directly before signing. One protection does run the tenant's way in a fixed-term lease: under Article 38(7), if the home is under 200 square metres and a job transfer, medical treatment, care of a relative or another unavoidable circumstance means you can no longer use it as your base of living, you can give notice and the lease ends one month later, and Article 38(8) voids any clause that takes that right away.

Do I have to tell anyone when I move to a new apartment?

Yes, and there is a deadline. Mid-to-long-term residents must report a change of address within 14 days of moving, under Article 19-9(1) of the Immigration Control and Refugee Recognition Act. Do it at the municipal office covering your new address, bring your residence card, and the standard move-in notification satisfies the immigration requirement at the same time. There is no fee. Missing the deadline can carry a fine of up to ¥200,000 under Article 71-5, item (ii). Separately, Article 22-4(1) allows your status of residence to be revoked where you go 90 days without reporting an address, absent justifiable reason — item (viii) covers the first 90 days after a new landing permission, and item (ix) covers the 90 days after you leave the address you had previously reported. That second ground is precisely the situation of someone who changes apartments and never files.

Can I use my own fire insurance instead of the agency's policy?

Fire insurance is not required by statute; it is required by your contract, and what the contract usually requires is cover of a specified type and amount — household contents plus tenant liability for damage to the building. Many agencies bundle a two-year policy at signing because it is convenient for them. Ask whether the contract names a specific insurer or only specifies the cover, and if it is the latter, you can generally compare prices. Raise it before signing rather than at renewal; changing later means proving to the management company that your replacement policy meets the same terms.

Summary

The money you need on day one is typically four to six times the monthly rent, and only one component is capped by law: brokerage commission cannot exceed 1.1 months' rent including tax from both parties combined. Deposit, key money, guarantee fee, insurance and key exchange are all market practice, so ask for the itemised estimate in writing before you commit to a property.

The guarantor requirement has largely been converted into a fee. The most recent national figures the ministry has published — a 2016 compilation drawing on a 2014 industry survey — put rent guarantee companies behind around 60 percent of leases, with the trend still moving that way, so treat that share as a floor. It removes the impossible request for a Japanese relative but adds an initial charge and an annual renewal. Remember that the guarantee protects the landlord — anything the company pays out, it will recover from you.

The standard two-year term is not the whole story. An ordinary lease renews under Article 26 of the Act on Land and Building Leases and generally carries a renewal fee the Supreme Court has upheld as valid where it is clearly stated and not excessive. A fixed-term lease under Article 38 does not renew at all, though Article 38(7) gives its tenant a statutory right to end a home under 200 square metres on one month's notice for a job transfer or other unavoidable circumstance. That distinction should be settled before you sign, not two years later.

Restoration on move-out does not mean returning the apartment to its move-in state. Article 621 of the Civil Code puts ordinary wear and aging on the landlord, and the MLIT guideline further reduces your share by years of residence. The exception is a special agreement clause, which can bind you if it is specific and you knowingly accepted it — so read that section slowly and photograph every room on move-in day.

UR housing removes key money, brokerage commission, renewal fees and the guarantor requirement in exchange for an income test — and the thresholds for a single applicant are lower than the household ones, so check the right column. Municipal public housing sets rent by income for eligible low-income households. Both trade choice for cost. And if a charge looks wrong at the end, 188 connects you to your local consumer affairs centre — that is the route, rather than a dispute at the agency counter.

This article reflects laws, published guidelines and public fee information as of August 2026, and is provided for general reference only. Fees such as deposits, key money, guarantee charges, insurance premiums and renewal fees are set by individual landlords, agencies and insurers and change over time; the terms of your own contract always govern your situation. Nothing here is legal advice on an individual dispute. For disagreements over charges or contract terms, contact a consumer affairs centre via 188 or your local government's consultation desk.