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.

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10 Years Living in Japan - A Reflection

I officially made 10 years living in Japan.

It’s hard to believe. I arrived in August of 2009, landing in Tokyo ready to start a new job with the JET Programme teaching English to junior high kids in Fukuoka prefecture.

To be honest though, I had no real interest in teaching.

WHY I MOVED TO JAPAN

After visiting Japan (Tokyo, Kyoto and Hiroshima) on a high school graduation trip, I became intrigued, always wondering in the back of my mind what it’d be like to live in the country. It had that kind of impact, and I’d occasionally think about it throughout college and while I worked at a Silicon Valley startup.

I finally applied and luckily got into the JET Programme, pulled the trigger and decided to make the jump. I’ll experience life in Japan for 2 years, I said to myself.

Well, those 2 years flew by.

WHY I STAYED IN JAPAN

It was 2011, the US economy hadn’t fully recovered, the yen was stronger than the dollar, I liked my job, made some good friends and I was having a great time. It didn’t make sense to go back. Another year, I decided.

3rd year. 4th year. With the JET Programme, you can only work for 5 years so I decided I might as well finish it out. But I felt that I still wasn’t done.

I always wanted to live and work in Tokyo, it was the image of “working in Japan” that I had. Tall buildings, energetic crowds, catching the trains. So I found a job (here’s how I found a job in Tokyo) and made it happen.

Back to my former field of marketing working at an agency in Tokyo, 5 years quickly became 10.

Japan has become my second home, and the days of being a wide-eyed tourist are long gone. Despite that, like with living in any foreign country, living in Japan continues to have its fair share of challenges.

WHAT HAS KEPT ME LIVING IN JAPAN FOR 10 YEARS?

Simply put, it’s the overall quality of life.

Japan is not perfect and life in the country is full of frustrations and wtf moments, and I can really get into that when asked. But aside from some language and cultural hurdles, it’s a pretty easy place to live.

1) I feel safe.

I was shocked shortly after I moved to Japan when I saw little kids and elderly women walk down small, dark streets alone at night. I hesitated going down alleys myself, it’s something we avoid doing in the US.

Yes, there is crime but I’ve never felt threatened or actually been threatened like I did while living in places like San Francisco or Los Angeles.

2) Food is good. And AFFORDABLE.

Japan has an image of being expensive, and while it’s relative, it seems cheaper to go grocery shopping in Tokyo than anywhere I lived in the US. I do tend to eat more Asian foods, which helps, but prices like tofu for less than $1 and a bag of bean sprouts for $0.30 are hard to beat.

Eating out can be just a good of a deal. There are decent quality beef bowls for about $5. If you pay more than $9 for lunch, it’s considered expensive as many of my colleagues spend half that.

I’ve had dinners with 48-piece sashimi platters, a few other dishes, beer and Japanese sake for 4 people for $90.

And no tip.

3) APARTMENTS ARE REASONABLE AND OF GOOD quality.

My first studio in Tokyo was about $950/month. In a 10-year old building with an elevator and secure lobby, I had my own gas stove, my own washing machine (I had to buy it), bathroom, AC/heater, and a balcony, and it was only a 3-minute walk from the station within Tokyo proper. That is very hard to find in any major US city.

To top it off, the average studio in Tokyo is in the $700-range, and other cities in the country are even less.

4) THE DAY-TO-DAY IS Relatively smooth.

Most days are quite normal - go to work, go home. People tend to mind their own business and do little to disturb the peace or attract attention to themselves.

People are more or less presentable in public with relatively few aggressive drunks, druggies or crazies, even in a large city like Tokyo.

5) It’s clean.

Anyone who’s visited Japan can tell you that it’s almost abnormally clean and borderline sterile, even in the huge city of Tokyo.

People are mindful about their trash, and the trash system has been requiring everyone to separate their garbage for quite some time.

Even the little things like not having to worry about coming in contact with a bunch of old gum under a table makes a difference.

YEAR 11 AND ON…

I’ve never planned on living in Japan forever. Even though I’ve stayed 5 times longer than I had planned and some American friends think I’ll never return, I do plan to sooner than later.

I’ll look to work and live a life that connects the two countries.

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Walking Around Beijing

Beijing, a huge city featuring ancient and modern China, often side by side.

Traveling here requires a lot of energy - the walking never stops. Here are some shots of Beijing life that I came across while on the go.

A delivery moped passes The Place on an afternoon.

A man walks the Great Wall on a foggy, early morning. [INSTAGRAM]

Riding scooters in Beijing’s SOHO area.

A serious group playing Mahjong near Dafangjia Hutong.

Men playing Xiangqi (Chinese chess) near the Temple of Heaven.

Rosting Peking Duck at Li Qun.

A man rides through the Donghuamen residential district of Beijing. [INSTAGRAM]

Gas delivery to a home in Beijing’s Donghuamen residential district.

Some workers stop at a traffic light on the way home.

Some Chinese students take a break on their bicycles in Wangfujin.

Making a turn in Shichahai.

A cat hanging out in a cafe in at Houhai Lake.

Texing in an alley in Shichahai.

A worker goes on break at Luogu Lane.

A woman with an open-fire food cart near Luogu Lane under an orange night sky.

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About Japanese Students Cleaning Their Schools

Students in Japan clean their school’s halls and classrooms.

There were videos praising this being shared on Facebook a bit ago. You may have seen them, ones like this one by AJ+:

You may be thinking, “That’s great! Why can’t our students be more like Japanese students?!”

As someone who worked for 5 years in public junior high schools in Japan, I’m here to say that I ask the same question… however, there is a BUT.

THE cleaning CONCEPT 

Having students clean their school each day for about 15 minutes is a great concept and it instills good values in the kids. It teaches them from a young age that public space is a shared space, and everyone is responsible for maintaining it.

This is one reason why Japan as a whole is so clean, which is one of the big positives of living in Japan.

These videos don’t show the full picture however, at least from my Japanese school experience. 

A former student hosing down a bathroom during cleaning time.

CLEANING IS An unwanted DUTY 

The problem is that Japanese kids are just that - kids.

This cleaning is a duty being forced on them, it’s not something they want to do nor does it provide them any direct benefit like helping them pass their entrance exams.

Outside of class time, socializing is the priority. So as expected, they half-ass their cleaning to get it over with so that they can have fun.

Former students having fun during cleaning time.

In nowhere is this filth more apparent than the boy’s bathroom. Go figure. 

In the schools I worked at, the urinals are usually cleaned using a bucket or a hose connected to a sink. Ideally, cleaning it should be a light douse or soft spray after some scrubbing. The fact is though, that it’s quicker to stand back and throw a bucket of water or shoot the hose on high from afar which is what often ends up happening. This leads to everything in the urinal to now splash out and dry on the floor.  

I’ve also seen sh*t smeared on bathroom walls - literal sh*t - that’s never cleaned up.

This makes those unused corners of the hallways that are caked with years of dust seem pretty good.

STUDENTS AS A FREE CLEANING SERVICE

The biggest issue though, is not that the students don’t clean well, it’s that they’re substitutes for janitors and professional cleaners. The public schools that I worked at never got a professional cleaning.

Having students do the daily tidying up is one thing, but to never have anyone come in to thoroughly clean the school is, to me, a sanitation risk. While I don’t know the exact reason why this is how it was, it seemed to be because of financial reasons. The city wasn’t exactly well off.

It’s fantastic that students are taught at a young age to care for the area that they use each day. It teaches them they have an individual responsibility for the society they’re in. It’s just that 14 year old cleaning labor can’t be all there is.

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A Snowy Winter Day in Tokyo

It rarely snows heavily in Tokyo. In my three years living in the city, there's been an average of one or two days per year where it really comes down.

This year, I made sure to grab my camera and take some shots on the way home and around my neighborhood.

A couple shares an umbrella under the snow near Ochanomizu.

A Keio line train departs Sasazuka station bound for Hashimoto.

A Kuroneko Yamato delivery man delivering packages on a bicycle in the thick snow in Setagaya.

A Keio train headed for Hashimoto pulls into Shimotakaido station

A man makes his way home through the snow on his bicycle in Shimotakaido, Setagaya.

A taxi navigates a narrow street in Setagaya.

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Valentine's Day Differences in Japan That You Can See

For those who may not know, Japan’s Valentine’s Day is somewhat opposite of the men giving flowers and chocolates day that many of us are familiar with.

In Japan, women give chocolates to men, friends and colleagues. Stores will create sections for selling cutesy kits for homemade dessert-making, marketed to women. 

Men return the favor a month later on what’s called “White Day.” Clever for companies to make two days of gift giving out of one.

Here are a few of visible differences of Valentine’s Day in Japan.

Baked goods and chocolates sections of stores are 98%+ women.

You’ll rarely find men looking for ingredients to make chocolate treats for anyone. If you do, there’s a decent chance they’re non-Japanese.

Flower shops don’t package sales for Valentine’s Day.

Go to a random flower shop’s website and they allow for online ordering. They let you search bouquets by occasions like birthday, celebrations, presents and more. There will likely be no section to search for Valentine’s Day flowers. While they’re trying to change the culture to have men buy flowers for their female companions, it’s still not really a thing.

It’s just a normal day at work.

There are no deliveries of flowers to the office, no oohs and ahhs by female coworkers over how amazing their colleague’s boyfriend or husband is. It’s a normal, uneventful day. At my office, it was business as usual with most still at their seats at 7PM.

For those who are in intercultural relationships, good luck deciding on which Valentine’s day traditions you’ll follow!

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Why Street Photography in Japan Can Be Difficult

In countries like the US, if you’re in a public space, there is no expectation of privacy and therefore people are free to take photos of basically anything around them. This is not the case in Japan, however, as the country generally favors the Right to Privacy over Freedom of Expression.

For a street photographer, capturing people in their natural element of existence can create powerful imagery and invoke a range of emotions. It can paint a picture and tell a story, give others a glimpse of life somewhere unknown to them. The way it’s shot, edited, captioned and shared reflects how the photographer interpreted that moment, and a collection of these can show how they see the world as a whole. In some cases, it can serve an educational purpose. It’s an art, similar to songwriting and painting.

In “shy” Japan, it’s a bit different.

Their take on it is that even if a person is in a public space without expectation of privacy, a photo taken of them should first get their approval and consent before sharing, even if it’s with neutral or positive intent. Obviously this can be rather difficult, especially in cities like Tokyo where people fly by in a split second.

This perspective does make sense on a personal level though, and it is good manners - after all we don’t like unflattering photos taken and shared of us. But giving preference to one’s rights in a situation can naturally inhibit another’s freedom. In this case, the photographer’s ability to communicate freely through their work becomes filtered, and therefore can be seen as an infringement on their right to express.

So in a public space, should a photographer be legally bound to go through the same steps to consent as if in a private space?

As it is today, even if no negative or malicious intent exists and the work is not for sale or for profit, people may take legal action on the photographer in Japan.

It is said that hampering creative genius harms society, but these hurdles on a photographer’s art exists in countries like Japan.

What do you think? Feel free to comment below.

(For reference: The Photographer’s Right in the US)

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Japanese and Social Media — A Little Different

When I moved to Japan in 2009, everyone in the country was on mixi, the Japan-only social network. In the following years, Japan finally stepped out and began using international networks for the first time. 
Still, their preferences and behaviors are a little different. Here are my observations:

1. LINE

Japanese prefer LINE as their go-to social app, and it has the most users out of any in the country. They may prefer it because it’s Japanese, for one, and they started a “cute sticker” culture that matches Japanese “kawaii” culture quite well.

It allows for private communication with people they know, without requiring info like their phone number to be given out, lessening risk which works well for their risk-averse culture.

More popular messenger apps like WhatsApp is almost non-existent in the country, as the typical person has no need for it.

2. Twitter

Twitter is used like a big chatroom more often than a global listening and a direct engagement tool.

Many keep their accounts private and use icons that are not their normal selves (ex: anime characters, highly modified photos, a celebrity’s photo, etc.). Many ignore engagement from people outside of their circle completely. After tweeting at someone, I’ve seen people tweet out “A stranger tweeted me…” or reply and ask “Who are you??” (Not a ‘Who do you think you are?’ type of way but literally a ‘Do I know you? Why are you contacting me?’ way).

3. Facebook

While not as big with the teenage and early-20’s demographic, Facebook is big. It loses out on potential users early on, however, as I’ve noticed many not being able to figure out how to use it. There must be some UI issue that has trouble hurdling the culture.

One big difference in how Japanese use Facebook versus say, the US, is that it is also kind of their LinkedIn. Many will use it for business connections and will frequently post job-related topics. 

4. Instagram

Instagram is gaining in popularity but is still far less popular than Twitter, even for the young. Similarly to Twitter, many will keep their accounts private and a significant amount of them will choose to not post their faces and keep their identities ambiguous.

Since Instagram Stories got released, I haven’t noticed any significant difference in usage between Japanese and other nationalities. It’s worth noting that Snapchat has yet to crack the Japan market, and while SNOW (the Snapchat copy) is popular amongst the young, it’s not used as a social app but rather just a face lens app.

My observations are also reflected in the monthly active user count for these networks:

Japanese MAU in Japan as of 12/2016, by IMJ Backyard

And for reference, you can see that Japan’s preference of social apps are quite different from most other countries:

Generation-Z social app preferences, by LSA

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Things About to Start Trending Amongst Japanese Teenage Girls in 2017

According to survey results posted on Japanese site Oricon Style, these are what look to be hot topics in 2017 amongst the Japanese junior high and high school female demographic. The survey was done by teenage girls from Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.

Apps

1. SHOWROOM - Livestreaming app

2. minimo (by mixi) - App featuring a new way to search salons and make reservations

3. Cchannel - A curated lifestyle app featuring info on things from fashion and makeup to food and travel

People

1. Taishi Nakagawa (中川大志) - Actor

2. Karen Otomo (大友花恋) - Fashion model

3. Yuko Sugamoto (菅本裕子)

4. Marie Iitoyo (飯豊 まりえ) - Fashion model

5. Nora Hirano (平野ノラ) - Comedian

Things

1. Mister Donut - Donut chain

2. Loose socks

3. Starbucks

4. Teavana (Starbucks)

5. "Fantastic Beasts" - Movie

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SOURCE: JKJCたちの本音とは？ 椎木里佳が予測する「2017年、これがバズる」

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Finding a Job in Japan

Updated April 2021

So you want to work in Japan but aren’t sure how. As someone who is on their second job in the country, I’ll tell you what I did as it may provide some help to a few of you.

First of all, my work background.

WORK BACKGROUND

For some context, I began my work life in Japan by teaching English through the JET Programme. It is one of the most common jobs for a foreigner to hold in Japan regardless of if they actually care about English education. JET is known to be the most accommodating, but Interac, Gaba, etc. are alternatives people can look into.

Prior to that, I was doing social media marketing at a startup in Silicon Valley before I just couldn’t ignore my desire to experience life in Japan anymore.

JOB SEARCHING IN JAPAN

Teaching English can be a trap if you’re not serious about that career path, and I wasn’t. Keeping in tune with the online social and startup worlds was what helped me find my second and current job.

But I had a couple of big challenges:

1. I wasn’t fluent and didn’t speak business level Japanese

2. My only work experience in the country was teaching English

I tried reaching out and tweeting to Japanese startup founders to no avail — they weren’t ready to expand internationally (where I would fit in).

Networking with anyone at internationally-ready companies were limited since JET has the vast majority of its workers living in the countryside.

Paying attention to trends in Japan - the growing number of outbound-looking companies, the push for foreign tourists, the increase in usage of international social apps and services by Japanese - led me to come across the service that helped me.

The tool that I became aware of that helped me get my second job was Wantedly.

About Wantedly

Wantedly can be called Japan’s LinkedIn, with about 3 million users and 40,000 registered companies as of April 2021. [J]

It’s a service that looks to connect people and companies from a more vision and empathy alignment approach, rather than one that’s focused on things like salary.

There’s more English now than when I began using it in 2014 which will be helpful. It also has broken its service into 2 areas:

• Wantedly People - The profile and people networking side, also the ability to scan business cards (5M users)

• Wantedly Connect - The connection of people and companies (3M users)

Wantedly is used mostly by those in the IT and digital space. Here’s the approximate breakdown of its users, according to Direct Sourcing Lab [J]:

• Engineers - 25%

• Sales - 18%

• Marketing - 16%

• Directors - 14%

• Designers - 13%

• Corporate - 10%

• Writers - 3%

To compare, most on LinkedIn are in business development.

My experience on Wantedly

I created a profile, wrote my experiences in Japanese and simple English to quickly show I’m somewhat capable in both languages. From there, I began “showing interest” (there’s a button) in interesting companies that either were hiring or allowing office visits.

I had a few meetings, all of which ended up being with companies not ready to do international work, until I met with one where the CEO was ready to start moving in that direction due to realizing that Japan was behind in the online space.

There are job listings on GaijinPot or JapanToday Jobs as well. If you’re looking for an internet-related job, possibly at a startup, check out Justa too.

Here’s my video where I talk about my experience:

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