Apartment Hunting In Tokyo

Due to how life turned out, I’d never searched for apartments in my life before Tokyo. When I came back to Silicon Valley after that I found myself unsure where to begin. Apartment hunting in Tokyo is evolving recently thanks to websites and apps, much as it is in Silicon Valley, but the approaches are moderately different. This is part one of a quick overview of my experiences apartment hunting as a foreigner in Tokyo, and part two will be about me as a “local” in Silicon Valley thereafter. Tokyo is a huge city, and the Santa Clara Valley is largely a suburban area, so the comparison is a bit of apples and oranges, but that makes the contrast all the more stark.

Tokyo Realtors

NOTE: Those already familiar with the workings of Tokyo renting, skip to “Let’s Apply”.

In Tokyo, traditionally the first thing to do when looking for an apartment is wanting to know which areas interest you. Once you have an idea, you walk into one of an endless number of real estate offices, or 不動産(fudousan) located in that area, and let them know what you’re looking for. The idea is that the locals know best about local properties, and have the longest relationships with local landlords, and can therefore surface the best places.

As they walk you through available properties of interest, they’ll print out documents which show the floor plan and the amenities. These documents vary widely from place to place, sometimes using different measurements for room and area sizes, sometimes including photos and other times 3D models, and sometimes lacking most relevant information (usually a scam).

An agent will then take you around from place to place, or advise you how to check it out by yourself, and you’ll begin to take notes about each place as you figure out which is best.

Criteria for a place that determine the availability and cost of a place include:

• Proximity to trains

Too close to the tracks, and the noise becomes a problem so prices become cheaper. Too far, and this becomes an inconvenience, and prices also go down. The sweet spot is usually somewhere in between, depending on the person. I’m good with a 15 minute walk, but needs will vary. If you go further out than that, prices begin to drop significantly, though you will need a bicycle or a bus to get to the nearest train station. Not all train lines are equally desirable. The JR Chuo line, and Tokyu Toyoko line stops may be a bit pricier than, say, some of the Seibu Shinjuku line stops, but even this varies based on distance to the Yamanote line loop, and whether the rapid trains stop there.

• Proximity to city center

Generally, the closer you are to the center of the city, like anywhere on the Yamanote line loop, the more expensive things will get. Within the center, certain neighborhoods will be astronomically expensive, especially if you choose to live in a high-rise, though that shouldn’t be surprising. I chose to live along the Chuo line, but not in the center of the city. Rent prices can go 3–5x from outside the center to inside the center, and this assumes you don’t go fancy. Paying over USD1,000 while living alone is considered quite costly for someone living alone. Typical rents for average people will be USD500 or so.

• Size and Layout

Not surprisingly, the bigger the room, the higher the price. Rooms in Tokyo are measured in square meters, and sometimes in 畳 (jou, lit: tatami mats). The size of the mat varies across Japan, being different in Kyoto, Nagoya and Tokyo, but in Tokyo is 0.88 m by 1.76 m.

Rooms are also often classified by the number of separate rooms available, and which type of rooms they are. For example, a 3LDK is a place with 3 rooms, which are living, dining and kitchen. A 2DK has 2 rooms, dining and kitchen. Most often in Tokyo, due to lack of space, the bedroom is lumped together with other rooms, like the living room.

Rooms generally come unfurbished, although furbished rooms are also widely available, though they may cost more. You’ll generally need your own: washer, fridge, furniture etc. Decent rooms will come with a spot to put your washer with all the hookups. If you can afford it, there are also washer/dryer combination machines that fit on the washer stand, although most people air dry their clothes outside like in most other parts of the world (excluding the U.S. where this is rare).

Floor number matters. Often, the first floor is least desirable, likely due to smoke, noise and security, and as you go up price increases, but sometimes after a certain floor they stay roughly the same.

Other differences include: bath/toilet separate vs. together, washer hookups, flooring, wall material, high-speed internet deals. The list is pretty long, but if you’re curious, you can search for 「東京物件」 on the internet and check out one of the websites showing listings.

• Age

Due to Japan’s unfortunate repeated battery by natural disasters such as earthquakes, there is a tendency to frequently rebuild apartments to upgrade to the latest technology and to rebuild a structure which may have begun to lose stability over time. Realtors will ask for your preference of how old an apartment is, common values being: 2–5 years. 10 years and up will start to show a decrease in price, and very old properties will often be far cheaper. I guess the question is: do you feel lucky?

Enter The Websites

There are now several popular websites you can use to search for apartments all across Japan. In fact, many realtors just use the same websites, but pay a fee to surface some properties which aren’t available to the general public. As the years go on, more and more properties are listed online, though it’s sometimes the case that landlords go to realtors before posting online, so it’s still worth going to realtors, if not for these properties, then for more knowledge of the local area.

Let’s Apply

Applying as a foreigner is an interesting experience. First, some degree of Japanese is usually necessary, as most realtors won’t speak to you in English. I’ve heard of English-speaking realtors, but I also hear that their prices tend to be marked up, and that’s about all I know.

In my case, I’m a programmer, but I was working at a company that dealt with translation, so when the realtor called over the phone to the landlords or management companies, he introduced me as a translator, which promptly led to the following conversation over and over.

不動産屋さん：外国籍の方で、翻訳者の仕事を。。。あ、はい。はい、分かりました。はい、失礼致します。

Realtor: It’s a person of foreign nationality, and he works as a translator… ah, I see. Yes, I understand. Yes, goodbye.

This happened enough times where I told the realtor to introduce me instead as IT系 (IT kei), or someone who works in IT, and all of a sudden, the noes became yeses. The difference was shocking. I can only assume that this has to do with some preconceived notions about translators having a hard time making rent, but whatever the reason, this is the recipe that worked for me.

Let’s Rent

Renting an apartment can initially be an expensive ordeal. Depending on the place, you may end up paying: a deposit of 2 months rent, 礼金 (reikin, or “gratitude money”) gifted to the landlord, maintenance fees, the management company fees, guarantor fees, fire insurance, earthquake insurance, and so forth. Recently there’s been a trend to do away with gratitude money, but you may still encounter it.

A guarantor is someone who guarantees that you’ll be a good tenant, a kind of reference. Depending on the case, landlords can be very strict about this. In some cases, even a native Japanese person can’t use their parent as a guarantor. So, often people end up going through a guarantor company, which offers this service, of course, for a fee. Some landlords actually require this.

Eventually, when everyone is ok with the conditions, you go through an unbelievably long set of paperwork where you will repeatedly write your full name, birthdate, address, and then use your personal seal to seal the deal. There’s a lot of seal types in Japan, but you’ll typically be fine just using one that can reasonably be identified to be yours. For more advanced procedures in Japan, you may be required to register your seal with the local city office.

Other forms include a direct deposit form so the rent automatically deducts itself (this is sometimes optional, you can choose to pay manually).

Finally, they’ll give you the keys, and away you go. Leases are typically 2 years long. If you renew or break your lease, you get to go through all the paperwork over again, and in Tokyo, you’ll be charged a renewal fee. Wow, I should really go into real estate.

Let’s Live

A good real estate agent will have someone call you to ask you which network provider and ISP you want. In Japan, typically the network provider (such as a fiber provider) is a separate company from the ISP using that network, and you will pay two separate bills. In my experience, they’ll be by with a modem within a few days and you’re good to go. The experience in the U.S. is often not so happy. If you live in a set of apartments, chances are you can get cheaper internet because they have a group deal. Look into it before signing up. You can always change to it later.

You’ll need an appointment with the gas company to come by to activate your gas line. Electricity and water will already be there, but you’ll need to register with them to pay the bills.

You’ll typically have your own mailbox. You must put your name on it, and incoming mail must match it, or mail may not be delivered. In nicer apartment buildings, there will be a few larger boxes for receiving larger packages which are often combination-locked. You will regularly see people putting spam mail into your mailbox, and this will be the majority of mail you receive. It’s so prevalent, there’s typically bins near the mail for you to dump them into.

Other Amusing Things

Japanese apartments have a ventilation hole in the wall to the outside. I think the idea is to prevent asphyxiation in the case of smoke, but this becomes a regular annoyance whenever the heater or cooler is turned on, as it leads to a lot of inefficiency.

You’re basically required by law to pay for NHK, the national TV service, but rather than have this deducted as taxes, a person in a black suit will show up to your apartment one day, and demand to check if you have a television, and if so, require you to pay for service. The first time I saw them, I thought they were mafiosi extorting me for money, but I soon found out this is a regular thing. This has seen a fair bit of action in court in recent years, and is becoming more strictly enforced, as the excuse of “I don’t have a TV” is becoming an invalid one in the age of smartphones.

Recycling in Tokyo varies from ward to ward, and the collection schedules vary even within the ward. The rules may seem complex if you come from a place that does little separation of trash and recycling, but overall it’s not so bad. In Seoul for instance, different districts have different trash bags you must buy from a local shop such as a convenience store. Tokyo isn’t quite that strict, and generally you don’t require special bags.

Since rooms are relatively small and making noise in an apartment can be a public nuisance, most people don’t have other people over to their rooms very often, instead opting to meet somewhere out in the city.

Realtors, paperwork, seals, and bureaucracy galore, that’s renting in Tokyo. Once you’re settled in, day to day life is fairly uncomplicated. I got used to it. And then I moved back to Silicon Valley, which had its own set of shocks waiting for me.