Guarantor companies

Traditionally a Japanese relative co-signed your lease. Today most landlords instead require a guarantor company (保証会瀾), which insures the landlord against unpaid rent β€” and this applies to Japanese tenants too, so it is not discrimination against foreigners.

Cost: typically 50–100% of one month's rent upfront, plus ~Β₯10,000/year or 1%–30% at each renewal. Screening looks at income, visa status and payment history. A stable job and a Japanese phone number materially improve approval odds. If one company rejects you, agents routinely retry with another β€” rejection is not final.

Listings on this site tagged Guarantor company OK indicate the landlord accepts guarantor-company-backed applications with no Japanese co-signer.

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Sources: MLIT land-price surveys 2025 (Official Land Prices & Prefectural Survey) and the MLIT real-estate transaction database β€” actual anonymized records, not listings. Operated as a product study by Scrum Value Agents Inc., Minato, Tokyo (svachain.com). Listings on the main site are placeholder samples; market statistics are real official data.