We Viewed Three Apartments. Two Said No. We Took the One With the Disclosure.
Standing in the third apartment, I asked the agent a simple question.
“Where does the washing machine go?”
He looked slowly around the room, and answered:
“Where would it go?”
There was no washing machine space.
Beside me, my husband said:
“This looks fun!”
So American, I thought, and laughed. Then we signed the lease.
This is the article we needed back then.
The short version
- We viewed three apartments in one day. Two rejected us. The reason: insufficient income. The bar was four times the monthly rent.
- We were also told no guarantor company would cover us. The rejection had two layers, not one.
- “Why doesn’t your wife get a job and sign the lease herself?” I was pregnant, during COVID.
- What we signed: half the market rent, with a disclosure attached. Nobody had lived there for years.
- But I chose it. I wanted our fixed costs as low as possible.
- We were looking at public rental housing — no guarantor needed, but a steeper income bar in exchange.
The rejection had two layers
At the time, my husband didn’t yet have a spouse visa. He was still on the work visa from his previous job. After leaving that company, he filed his notification with Immigration and started going to Hello Work.
(If you’re on a work visa and change or leave jobs, you must notify the Immigration Services Agency within 14 days. And if you go more than three months without engaging in that visa’s activity without good reason, your status can become subject to revocation. If you’re job hunting, what matters is that you’re genuinely doing it. As of August 2026.)
The places we looked at were public rental housing. We saw three in one day. Two turned us down.
The reason given: not enough income. The threshold they wanted was four times the monthly rent.
Then came the second part: no guarantor company would take us.
So the structure was this. You fail the income screen. You try to cover that gap with a guarantor company — and that door is closed too. Two locks on the same door.
(I learned later that the common private-market guideline is roughly three times monthly income, or an annual income around 36× the rent. Public housing skips the guarantor requirement but sets the income bar at four times — and that four-times wall was exactly what we hit.)
The wall that hits everyone who just arrived
There’s something else I didn’t know at the time.
Public rental housing does allow you to name a personal guarantor instead. But when I looked it up, the rule was written out plainly:
A foreign national can only serve as a guarantor if they are a permanent resident or special permanent resident.
So if you’ve just arrived on a work visa or a spouse visa, you are not eligible to be a guarantor at all. (Guarantors also face other conditions, like an annual income of ¥2.4 million or more.)
For someone newly arrived in Japan, this is structurally brutal. Becoming a permanent resident requires living here for years. Living here requires housing. Housing requires a guarantee.
Which leaves the guarantor company. In our case, we were told that wasn’t available to us either. Those companies don’t publish their screening criteria, so I can’t tell you why.
(This describes the rules of the public housing provider we used. Requirements differ by operator and change over time — always check current official information.)
“Why doesn’t your wife just sign the lease?”
One agent offered what he clearly considered helpful advice:
“Your wife could get a job and sign the lease in her name.”
I think he meant well. On paper, it’s the cleanest solution.
Except I was pregnant with our first son.
And it was during COVID.
Job hunting while hiding a pregnancy wasn’t something I could bring myself to do.
Watching the most reasonable-sounding advice collapse in front of you — I still remember that feeling.
The third apartment: half price, disclosure attached, years empty
We knew about the third place before we walked in. The online listing said there was a disclosure. The rent was half the going rate for the area. Nobody had lived there in years.
We talked it over. My husband said:
“Christians don’t have ghosts.”
Another joke. But I agreed with him anyway.
Here’s the honest part: I’m the one who chose that apartment.
Two reasons.
First, I wanted our fixed costs down. If we couldn’t live where we actually wanted to live, then let’s go all the way in the other direction and pay as little rent as possible. Lower fixed costs, richer life — that was the bet.
Second, starting out in a nice place makes it very hard to step down later. If hard times come, a life with no room to trim is a brutal life. Better to start from the bottom.
(Also, given Japan’s demographics, apartments like this are only going to become more common. If the price drops, I’m not going to be the one who minds. I’m aware this is one of my slightly crazy edges.)
The washing machine went by the front door
We had the lease. We still had nowhere to put a washing machine.
So I went to the local home center — and there they were: washing machine drip pans, right on the shelf.
The things a neighborhood needs are sold in that neighborhood. Obvious in hindsight. It was the first time I really felt it.
We bought one, set it by the front door, put the washing machine on top of it, and lived like that.
Most problems can be solved — just rarely in the exact shape you pictured.
What I’d look into now
Back then, we were searching without knowing what our options actually were. Here’s what I’d research today.
1. Public rental housing
UR rental housing requires no key money, no agency fee, no renewal fee, and no guarantor. No guarantor company either.
Foreign nationals can apply as permanent residents, special permanent residents, or mid-to-long-term residents (those with a residence card), provided they can adequately understand the lease terms. You submit a copy of your residence card or special permanent resident certificate.
The catch: the income requirement is monthly income of four times the rent or more (for single applicants) — stricter than the private market. You trade the guarantor requirement for an income requirement.
All three apartments we viewed were public rental housing, which is why both rejections came down to that four-times rule. And the third one — the one we signed — was public housing as well. Without a guarantor, choosing a cheap enough unit was what got us over the income bar. We had stumbled onto the only route that worked, without even realizing that was the mechanism.
2. The government knows this happens
Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism maintains a dedicated page on helping foreign nationals rent private housing, and publishes guidance for landlords and real estate agents.
Under the Housing Safety Net system, foreign residents are designated as people requiring special consideration in securing housing. And official guidance states that refusing tenancy solely on the basis of being a foreigner may constitute unlawful discrimination.
Which is to say: this isn’t only happening to you. It’s a recognized problem with policy attached to it.
3. Your municipality’s consultation desk
Most municipalities run consultation services for foreign residents, and many will help with housing questions. Worth one phone call before you walk into agency after agency alone.
(Details are as of August 2026. Income requirements and eligibility change — please confirm current rules with each organization directly.)
We started from that apartment
We began our life in a home with a washing machine by the front door.
Our older son was born while we lived there. Because our fixed costs were low, we saved. And a few years later, we left Osaka for rural Japan. (That story is here.)
Two places did turn us down. It did feel unfair.
But the third one wasn’t a place that rejected us. It was a place we chose.
If you’re stuck right now, unable to get a lease, there’s only one thing I want to say:
There are more options than it looks like from where you’re standing. And a life that starts in the “wrong” apartment still turns out just fine.
P.S. Getting my husband a Japanese bank account was its own ordeal. That one’s here.
Rules and thresholds are as of August 2026. Please confirm current details with MLIT, UR, and your local municipality.
This is our personal experience, not legal or real estate advice.
Official references