Once you’ve found an apartment you like in Japan, you’ll need to submit an application in order to put the property on hold. Apartment applications aren’t too complicated, but they do require a lot of information. In this article we will explain what documents you need, the information you will need to prepare, and what to expect from the process as a whole.
Documents
Your passport is the most baseline document you will need for an apartment application, with usually just a copy of the photo page being sufficient. Then if you are applying from within Japan, you will need to submit copies of both the front and back of your residence card. If you happen to be overseas, you can instead submit your certificate of eligibility. For some apartments you may not even need to submit anything more than this! Usually you will need a bit more though, with some potential requested documents being:
- Your work contract (if you are employed)
- Your school ID (if you are a student)
- Your hiring notice (if you are about to start a new job)
- Your acceptance letter (if you were accepted into a new school)
- A bank balance certificate
- Payslips
Overall, usually just a few documents will get the job done. Depending on the apartment it is always possible additional documents may be requested though, so it is best to be prepared. In particular if you do not have any documents on hand proving your employment or enrollment at a school, we would highly recommend seeing what can be arranged ahead of time, since if it takes awhile to arrange a document after it is requested, in the worst case scenario your application may even be rejected.
Information
This is probably the most arduous part of the application, though in reality it is not actually difficult. Rather it is just a lot of information to confirm and write down, and sometimes in particular getting all the information from an emergency contact in a timely manner can be tough. There’s no need to provide most of this information to your agent until you are ready to potentially apply for a property (such as when you schedule a room viewing), but we would recommend looking through the following list and making sure you have everything noted and prepared.
From the applicant, we generally need the following:
- Your current address
- Your cell phone number
- Your workplace or school’s name, address, and phone number
- If you are working, how long you have been in your current job and your yearly salary
- Your Japanese speaking and reading levels
- Your reason for moving
- Your current living situation (renting, own a home, live with family, etc)
- How long you have lived in your current residence
For any co-tenants providing all of the above information is ideal too when applicable, although oftentimes not all of it will be needed.
You will then need at least one emergency contact. If you are in Japan then usually anyone you know living in Japan will suffice, whereas if you are overseas you will need an immediate family member living overseas (assuming you do not randomly have one living in Japan). Needing both of those emergency contacts is also not entirely uncommon.
The information you will usually need for your emergency contact is as follows:
- Full name
- Address
- Gender
- Your relationship with the emergency contact
- Their work status and work type (if applicable)
- Their date of birth
Though again similar to co-tenants, more or less information may be required. The general recommendation is prepare as much as you can to be safe, but understand that you may need to provide more later on!
The Process
Once you have provided your documents and information to your agent, they will submit everything to the company managing the property. When that is done, the apartment should be on hold for you, and the screening process begins. Luckily, you do not actually have much to do during the screening process!
The screening
The most important thing that happens during the screening is that either the property management company or guarantor company, sometimes both, will contact you, your workplace or school if applicable, and your emergency contact(s). This will usually be over the phone, so it is important to watch out for potential phone calls and to let your workplace/school and emergency contact(s) know to do the same, and to call back if they miss a call from a number they do not recognize. During that screening period, it is best to confirm the name of the property management and guarantor company with your agent. Then if anyone misses a call, they can Google the number and confirm whether or not it is one of the companies they should call back!
Once everyone has been called and confirmed, approval is usually not far off. Throughout the process though, keep your eyes out for contact from your agent in case additional documents are requested. It is surprisingly common for property management companies to appear out of the blue saying, “We want this document. And we want it tomorrow.” As long as you prepared most of the documents mentioned above ahead of time though and are checking your messages, generally there should not be much to worry about.
Could my application be rejected?
When it comes to the possibility of your application being rejected, while not impossible, we would say that you are generally more likely to be accepted than not. The reason for that is that most property management companies will not even accept an application to begin with if they do not think it is likely to be approved. That being said, most approvals are ultimately up to the person that actually owns the apartment, so rejections do happen from time to time, and property management companies generally do not share the reasoning as to why an application was rejected. On the off chance you are rejected though, do not fret, as your agent can always help you to find another option with a higher chance of approval.
How long does the screening take?
The length of the screening process varies, but on average about one week in total is common, assuming everyone picks up the phone on time. At the shortest it could be done over the course of a couple days, though in certain, very rare cases the screening could drag out over multiple weeks. The screening taking a long time does not necessarily mean anything negative though, with one possibility being that the owner could just be difficult to reach for the final approval if they live overseas, for example.
After your application is approved, things move quite quickly. The invoice is issued almost immediately after approval, with payment being required soon afterwards. Somewhat counter-intuitively, contracts are made in the meantime, with the signing and explanation of important matters usually taking place after payment, closer to the move in date. You are generally going to be required to start your lease as soon as possible after approval, with 1-2 weeks being about the average amount of time a property management company can wait.
Other smaller points
Your desired move in date
To return to an earliest stage of the process for a moment, when you apply for a property you will need to select your desired move in date. Depending on the screening and the actual status of the apartment (if it is undergoing a reform for example), your desired move in date may not always be doable. On the other hand, if your application is approved, some property management companies may be resistant to pushing the lease start date further out than your initially requested move in date, even if the screening took long enough to make that date now inconvenient. So consider the date to put on the application form carefully!
Are references needed?
In some countries you may need one or multiple character references when applying to rent an apartment, but these are not required in Japan. Though one could make the argument that emergency contacts are not that different from character references.
Does income matter?
Yes, though perhaps not as much as in many other countries. There is not a hard rule of “income should be three times as much as rent,” but rather a soft rule of “your income should make sense for your rent and living situation.” Japanese apartments almost always require the use of guarantor companies anyway, meaning that there is some backup for the property management company should rent become an issue in the future, so there tends to be a bit more wiggle room.
What if my partner will live with me, but is not yet in Japan?
You will need to make sure the apartment supports two tenants prior to applying. Even if your partner does not have a certificate of eligibility yet, generally you will be asked to put their information on the application form and provide their passport anyway.
In conclusion…
Finding an apartment in Japan can be tough, but with enough patience and knowledge, you should be fine! If you have any questions that were not covered in this article, please do not hesitate to contact us at Dovetail using our inquiry form here, or reach out to your agent if you are already in touch. The application process can be intimidating, but hopefully you will find that it is a lot simpler than you expect.