How I Found My First Apartment in Tokyo
I moved to Tokyo in 2014, a huge mega city of more than 13 million in its central area.
This was the first time I would hunt for a place to live in Japan myself. I lived in a 2-bedroom apartment when I worked in Fukuoka prefecture but it wasn’t one I picked out for myself.
Finding an apartment in Tokyo was, of course, a bit different from my experiences finding ones in Los Angeles and San Francisco.
DIFFERENCES & DIFFICULTIES:
Residency/visa issues - Because non-Japanese don’t have typical paperwork like a koseki (family registry) and jūminhyō (official address registration), it’s difficult to run a background check. It’s unclear how you’re able to live in Japan, what your job situation is, how long you’ll be in the country, if they can collect if costs are unpaid, etc.
Communication hurdles - There are very tedious documents and requirements, and many agents in the process aren’t capable of any language besides Japanese.
Non-Japanese restrictions - Many buildings aren’t open to non-Japanese citizens due to reasons such as inability to communicate in emergencies, incompatible behaviors, previous bad experiences or simple stereotyping by the owner or tenants.
Agency-centric - Almost all rentals are managed and rented out by agencies rather than a landlord managing their properties themselves, so there’s automatically 4 parties involved in which you have to deal with: The rental agency, property owner, credit verification company and insurance company.
Luckily my company helped me with the move. I had a couple of weeks or so to find an apartment, a Japanese colleague came with me and my company vouched for me to help with any potential residency hurdles.
1. CONDUCT AN INITIAL SEARCH ONLINE
One of Japan’s largest residential developers, Sekisui House, was a client of ours and they just had started their rental platform, Sha Maison [J]. Like most apartment search sites, they give the option to search by factors like price, area, train line, train station, walking time from the station, size, etc.
Other search sites include SUUMO, LIFULL HOME’S [J], Good Rooms [J], Village House and Oak House, with the last two being the most foreigner-friendly.
Sha Maison website
At the time, I was relatively unfamiliar with areas in Tokyo besides the major hubs and tourist spots, so I didn’t have much of an idea about where to actually live.
The things I cared about in my search were:
West side of Tokyo (I was concerned about being too close to the ocean)
1K (Studio)
Had a balcony
1 transfer or less to/from work
Ideally within a 7 minute walk from the station
Less than 100,000円 (~$1,000 USD)/month
Just as a note, Japanese tend to be particular about things like auto-lock (building security system), bathtub, and having the toilet separate from the bathroom.
After finding a couple of apartments I was interested in, we put in a request.
2. WORK WITH THE RENTAL AGENCY
Sekisui House and Sha Maison are tied to one main agency: MAST [J]. We went to one of their locations to discuss what I found.
MAST website
Unfortunately my first choice, a studio in the Kagurazaka area, had just been taken. They went through a list of available rentals (they had a lot more than what was listed on the site) and I picked out 4 available units that best matched what I wanted.
The 4 choices were 1K studios in Asagaya, Higashi-Nakano, Shimotakaido and Gotanda. Over the course of 2 days, an agent met us and we went to take a look at them. I narrowed my choices down to the apartments in Shimotakaido and Gotanda before picking the prior.
Luckily I moved in September. During peak moving season (February-April because it’s when schools graduate, job relocations happen and work contracts start and end), you have to be lucky and extremely fast to get a decent place as it’s very competitive.
3. COMPLETE ALL THE PAPERWORK
Once you decide you want a place, it’s not guaranteed that you’ll get it. The agency needs to check your credibility. As mentioned, they use another agency to do this.
HOW CREDIT IS CHECKED
In the US, credit is often checked by running your social security number. Japan implemented a similar “My Number” system a few years ago but as of right now in 2019, it’s basically meaningless as there’s no system on the backend that connects people’s information.
Credit is checked by methods such as confirming the company you work for, how long it’s been around, its capital and your position there. Definitely different.
JAPANESE DOCUMENTS AND FORMS
The paperwork is tedious and completely filled out by hand in Japanese. It’s often not prepared and printed out so that all you have to do is check the boxes, sign and date. It’s multiple copies where you have to write basically everything out by hand over and over again, and stamp them using a hanko (Japanese name stamp which is also required).
To be honest, if I didn’t have my Japanese colleague’s help, I probably wouldn’t have been able to do it on my own.
There’s a high chance that this process will take multiple trips and you’ll be running errands gathering all the necessary forms needed. That’s how it was for me.
4. MOVING IN
An agent met me in front of the building on my move-in date and handed me the keys, paperwork and contacts for questions or maintenance needs.
UTILITIES AND APPLIANCES
Unlike a lot of rentals in the US, apartment rentals in Japan come with nothing more than the room with light bulbs in the fixtures. Refrigerator, washing machine and any other appliances or furniture that you may need will have to be purchased on your own.
You will also have to contact utility companies to either connect to you apartment or put the account in your name. Electricity, water & sewer, gas and internet are the typical utilities.
The first few days were hard. My things hadn’t arrived yet so I was living out of a suitcase. I bought a cheap blanket and a towel, and slept on the hard floor with no curtains or anything.
I did better on my next move, but this was my first experiencing finding an apartment to move to Tokyo.