Getting Your Rental Deposit Back: What Japanese Law Actually Gives Tenants

Two months' rent goes to the landlord on the day you sign. Two years later an invoice arrives listing wallpaper, flooring, cleaning and a key, the total swallows the deposit, and sometimes there is a demand for the difference. The document is in Japanese, the deadline feels immediate, and the easiest thing to do is pay.

The law is more favourable to tenants than that invoice suggests. Since April 2020 the Civil Code has stated in writing that a tenant's duty to restore the property does not extend to wear from normal use or to the ageing of the building. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism publishes a guideline splitting the remaining costs, with a depreciation table that shrinks a tenant's share year by year, plus an English summary for foreign residents. None of it is automatic: it works when a tenant knows which line items are legitimately theirs and what to ask for.

What a Shikikin Is, and What It Is Not

Article 622-2 of the Civil Code defines it without regard to what the money is called: a security deposit is money the tenant hands to the landlord, whatever name it is given, to secure monetary obligations under the lease. A "guarantee money" line on a Kansai contract can be a deposit in substance. What matters on move-in day is the split between money that comes back and money that does not.

The ministry translates 敷引 as a "non-refundable restoration fee" and tells tenants to ask how much it is before signing. Move-in costs vary by region, with four to seven months' rent as a rough guide.

The Rule That Decides Your Refund

Article 622-2 also sets out when the money becomes repayable: the landlord must return the deposit minus the tenant's monetary obligations under the lease, once either the lease has ended and the property has been returned, or the leasehold has been lawfully transferred.

Read that ordering carefully. The obligation crystallises on handover, not when the term expires. The ministry guideline puts it plainly: unless the contract fixes a different time, a tenant cannot claim the deposit back until the building has actually been vacated, citing a 1974 Supreme Court judgment. Withholding the keys until the money arrives is not a lever — it delays the point at which your claim exists and can generate rent for the extra days.

The Civil Code sets no deadline in days. The ministry's model contract, the Standard Rental Housing Lease Agreement, fills that gap: the landlord must return the full deposit without delay once the property is vacated, less arrears, unpaid restoration costs or other obligations, and where amounts are deducted must clearly show the tenant the breakdown. That model is a template, not a legal requirement — the ministry states its use is not mandated by law — but many private leases follow it.

"Restoration" Does Not Mean "Like New"

The commonest misunderstanding is the meaning of 原状回復. Article 621 says the tenant must restore damage arising after taking delivery when the lease ends — then carves out, inside the article itself, wear arising from normal use and the ageing of the leased property. It adds a second exemption: no restoration duty where the damage is due to causes not attributable to the tenant.

The ministry guideline builds on that carve-out. Restoration means repairing the reduction in building value caused by the tenant's intent or negligence, breach of the duty of care, or use beyond normal use. Ageing and normal wear are treated as already paid for through the rent, so charging them at move-out would be charging twice.

Three consequences follow, and the Tokyo guideline states them in its worked answers. Returning the unit to move-in condition is not the standard. Repairs done to attract the next tenant, or replacing old fittings with newer ones, are an upgrade and the landlord's cost. Damage from causes outside your control — an earthquake, a structural leak, water from an upstairs neighbour — is not yours.

Who Pays for What

The ministry, with the Japan Property Management Association, publishes a short English leaflet for tenants on this question, dated March 2023. The allocations below come from it and from the table appended to the model lease.

Two entries account for a disproportionate share of disputes. In the ministry's November–December 2022 survey of management companies, the parts most often generating trouble were wallpaper at 73.5 percent of respondents and flooring at 52.4 percent, then carpet and cushion flooring at 33.4 percent and cleaning at 30.2 percent.

The Depreciation Rule That Shrinks Your Bill

Even where a cost is genuinely yours, you rarely pay all of it. The guideline applies a straight line down to a residual value of one yen over the item's service life, so the longer you have lived there, the smaller your share.

Where the building's own service life applies, the guideline uses 47 years for reinforced concrete, 22 for wooden construction, 20 for wood-frame mortar, 38 for brick, stone and block, and 34, 27 or 19 years for steel-frame by frame thickness.

The arithmetic is straightforward. Wallpaper replaced new at move-in, with you leaving after three years, puts your share at 50 percent; after four years and eight months, about 22 percent; past six years it hits the one-yen floor. If the paper was already three years old when you arrived, those years are added to your occupancy — which is why the last replacement date is worth asking about.

Scope is limited as well as price. The tenant's share is confined, as a baseline, to the minimum construction unit needed to repair the damaged part — square metres, or a single panel. For wallpaper the guideline accepts extending that to the whole wall face containing the damage, since a patch of new paper is visibly different. It does not accept charging for the whole room merely to match colours, with one exception: where smoking has discoloured or left odour throughout the room.

A Worked Example from the Ministry

A ministry case study from March 2023 shows how the pieces combine: a reinforced concrete apartment, 16 years old at move-in, a four-year tenancy, a ¥120,000 deposit, and repair works totalling ¥266,000.

The tenant's total is ¥92,170 against ¥266,000 of work, and ¥27,830 comes back. That gap is the point: an itemised bill is not the same as a bill you owe.

Special Clauses That Override the Default

Everything above is the default, and Japanese contract law allows parties to depart from it. A 特約 — a special clause — can place burdens on a tenant that the Civil Code would not. Cleaning and air-conditioner-cleaning clauses were the most frequently reported in the ministry's 2022 survey, usually at a fixed price set by the size of the unit. Such clauses are not free-standing: drawing on Supreme Court case law and the Consumer Contract Act, the guideline sets three requirements for one imposing a special burden to take effect.

• There is an objective, rational reason for it — a genuine need, nothing exploitative. The guideline's example is rent set clearly below the local market in exchange, and it says the category should be read narrowly.
• The tenant is aware of taking on repair obligations beyond ordinary restoration.
• The tenant has expressed agreement to bearing that obligation.

The Supreme Court, in a judgment of 16 December 2005 quoted in the guideline, set the standard for shifting normal wear onto a tenant: its cost is ordinarily recovered through the rent, so imposing it is an unexpected special burden, requiring at minimum that the scope of normal wear the tenant will pay for is specifically set out in the clause itself — or, where the contract is unclear, that the landlord explained it orally, the tenant clearly understood it, and it became part of the agreement.

Clauses do survive, though. Article 10 of the Consumer Contract Act voids terms that restrict a consumer's rights or aggravate their duties compared with non-mandatory law and unilaterally harm their interests contrary to good faith — yet on 24 March 2011 the Supreme Court upheld a clause deducting a fixed sum from a deposit for normal wear, where the amount was not extraordinarily high against market practice. For cleaning clauses the guideline lists the tests applied: whether the scope is stated, whether it is clear that normal wear is being shifted, and whether the sum is reasonable. Courts have gone both ways on similar wording.

Move-In Evidence and the Move-Out Inspection

Most deposit disputes turn on a factual question, not a legal one: was that mark already there? The ministry identifies uncertainty over whether damage predates the tenancy as a principal cause of trouble, and answers it with documentation created at the start.

• Read the restoration terms before signing. The ministry's guidebook for foreign tenants lists this among the items to confirm at the pre-contract explanation, with the deposit amount, any shikibiki and any renewal fee.
• Look for indicative unit prices. The model lease provides a form for recording restoration unit prices by location; a contract stating ¥1,200 per square metre for wallpaper leaves far less room for argument.
• Complete a condition checklist and photograph everything. The ministry publishes a "Confirmation of Current Conditions" form and asks tenants to report anything pre-existing. Photographs are objective evidence of when a mark arose: corners, skirting boards, behind appliances, window frames, wet areas, tatami, wallpaper seams.

Obligations run the other way during the tenancy. Renovating without written permission is prohibited under standard terms, and the ministry warns that unauthorised alteration tends to produce a very large restoration bill. An air conditioner you install needs permission in advance and must be removed when you leave. If a fitting breaks, contact the landlord or manager rather than your own contractor: where the landlord has designated a repairer, work you arrange that exceeds their estimate can leave you paying the excess.

At the end, the usual sequence is an inspection with the tenant present, a verbal indication of what needs repair, and a statement sent later — described by about 60 percent of management companies in the 2022 survey, while around 7 percent do not require attendance at all. If you will not be there, photograph the empty unit before handing back the keys.

The inspection is where foreign tenants are most exposed, because a Japanese document appears and a signature is requested. The guideline's answer bears repeating: if what you signed simply confirms that damage exists, it is not agreement to bear the cost; and even where you did agree, where the lease has no special clause on restoration, damage not caused by your intent or negligence was never yours to pay for.

When the statement arrives, work through it line by line. Is the item yours at all, against the table above? Has depreciation been applied, and from what replacement date? Is the scope the minimum repair unit, or a whole-room charge for damage on one face? Is anything an upgrade? Does a special clause apply? On unit prices the guideline is even-handed — costs differ by materials and method, and a rate normally includes labour — but you are entitled to the reasoning: the landlord must explain the costs deducted and make the basis clear, and you may request the breakdown.

If You Disagree: The Escalation Ladder

Discussion resolves most of these cases: in the ministry's 2022 survey, 96.1 percent of management companies reported settlement that way, ahead of lawyer-led negotiation at 11.9 percent, small claims at 10.5 percent, litigation at 6.2 percent and alternative dispute resolution at 3.2 percent. Go in with the guideline, your photographs and your contract, and ask for the basis of each line rather than disputing the total. In any formal proceeding the counterparty is the landlord named in your contract, not the management company — a point the Tokyo guideline makes explicitly.

Beyond ¥600,000, ordinary proceedings apply; summary courts have jurisdiction up to ¥1.4 million, averaging 3.7 months against 2.5 for small claims. Small claims is designed to work without a lawyer — 90.7 percent of such proceedings were run by the parties themselves — and the courts publish forms for deposit refund claims. It is still litigation: prepare the evidence, because there is one hearing and no appeal.

Tokyo's Extra Layer, and Why Location Matters

Deposit practice is not uniform across Japan. Key money is described by the ministry as common in the Kanto region; the shikibiki style of fixed deduction is associated with western Japan. Some prefectures also add rules of their own, and Tokyo is the clearest case. Under the Ordinance on the Prevention of Disputes Concerning Housing Leases in Tokyo, promulgated on 31 March 2004 and in force since 1 October 2004, a licensed broker must give a prospective tenant a written document and explain four things before the contract: the general principle on restoration costs at move-out; the general principle on repair costs during the tenancy; what the tenant actually bears under this particular contract, including any special clauses; and the contact point for repairs.

It covers residential rentals in Tokyo brokered or agented by a licensed broker — not business premises, contracts signed directly with a landlord, or renewals. Where a broker fails to comply, the Governor may issue guidance and a recommendation, and may publish non-compliance. The metropolitan government publishes a companion guideline, now in its fourth edition dated December 2022. The reason to sit through the explanation shows in Tokyo's numbers: of roughly 17,200 rental-contract consultations received in fiscal 2020, deposit settlement at move-out was the largest category at 37 percent.

Elsewhere the national framework still applies. Under Article 35 of the Real Estate Brokerage Act, a broker must have a registered transaction specialist deliver a written explanation before any lease is concluded, and the implementing regulation requires it to cover settlement of the deposit — money to be settled at the end of the contract, under whatever name it is paid. That is the moment to ask about shikibiki, cleaning clauses and unit prices, in any prefecture.

Frequently Asked Questions