Unless you’re a Tokyo JET, they should have an apartment or house ready for you already.
Edit: Also, if you don’t like the apartment they got for you because it’s moldy, doesn’t allow pets, etc., they might not help you with finding a new one AND might not give you a subsidy anymore, so be careful! It might be worth it… Or maybe not, you’re the one deciding (look at the pros and cons).
Yes. Usually you’ll have a predecessor and you’ll just move into the apartment they are leaving. If you don’t have a predecessor or their apartment isn’t available for whatever reason then your contracting organization will make other arrangements before you arrive. The downside of this is that you might not like the place they find you and will likely have little ability to change. My CO allowed changes if the ALT had good reason, but offered little help with the process. And the only person I know who changed ended up paying key money etc for 2 places.
No.
Your contracting organization might. Or they might not. They are supposed to help, but that might mean simply pointing you to an agent. Or it might mean fully subsidized rent in a furnished house. Impossible to say.
JET is just the recruiter they don’t do anything once you get to Japan. Your contracting organisation is responsible for finding you a place. Most places outside of Tokyo placement will help you find an apartment.
JET is essentially a placement company that writes up what is expected of a contracting organization to do for you when they hire a JET ALT.
This outlines the pay – bennefits – what is needed to help us – etc…
After that JET is hands off.
Housing is one of those things a contracting organization is to help with – but that’s vauge – some go all out with subsidized housings – others connect you to a service to sublease from – some places put you in home-stay like housing with volunteers who help you find housing.
All in all you’ll have a roof over your head someway or another.
If there isn’t an agreement that isn’t being held up by your contracting organization – contact CLAIR immediately. (Although I’ve never head of this not happening in any placement )
Just to unify the information in some of these comments: The “JET Organization” really only handles recruitment and placement. Once you arrive in country, almost everything is handled by your CO. CLAIR is the government organization that’s technically in charge of the JET Program in Japan, but they’re not really involved much in the day to day running of things. They mostly handle paperwork stuff. There’s also a little bit of involvement from your prefecture government (specifically the prefectural board of education). They run the mid-year Skill Development Conference (SDC) and usually house the JET Prefectural Advisor (PA). Once you arrive in Japan, there’s not really any organization called “JET.”
But that’s not really what you’re asking. People are just being picky about semantics. What you’re asking is if you’ll have help finding an apartment or if you’ll be totally on your own. The answer is: you’re nearly guaranteed to have some sort of help. Many COs, especially in rural areas will just give you an apartment. Other COs, notably Tokyo, require you to find your own housing, but they will set you up with an English speaking real estate agent, so you won’t be entirely on your own. The only situation in which you’ll be totally on your own is if you refuse the apartment your CO has prepared for you and the CO decides not to help you find another one.
Your contracting organization will handle that to some extent. For example my JTE is helping me and had been in touch with a couple agencies but we hit a wall because in the area a lot of property managers didn’t want to rent to a foreigner or they would do long as they spoke conversational Japanese. A few days ago one of the choices I had picked said they’d rent to me so we are I. The process of hearing back from them. Sometimes you’ll just take over someone’s space, others will have to look for agencies and look on their own…and rents vary wildly..some pay only utilities, others pay the full rent, others pay a subsidized amount…it depends where you are.
You’re BOE *should* help if you don’t already have one. They may, however, be as useful as a chocolate teapot. Really, really depends on the BOE and your CO.
JET just recruits. The CO is technically required to help you get set up, but there’s no concrete protocol on how they go about it. ESID and all that jazz.
The most consistent thing I have heard, and what I experienced was that the BoE will usually request your base school shove the task onto one of your fellow JTEs and to let you stay with them after you arrive until you secure an apartment.
More often than not, people end up in a Leopalace as a lot of COs have special contracts with them and they have full English support and the rent is decent, sometimes subsidized. Leopalace apartments are basically the bottom of the barrel in terms of quality, space, and everything else, but they come pre-furnished and with basic appliances for everyday needs and they are pretty clean and well maintained. If you don’t really cook, can deal with small spaces, and basically don’t plan on spending a lot of time at home except to sleep and shower, Leopalace is ideal.
If you can, ask about prefectural housing as it is much nicer, has no start up costs, and the rent is automatically subsidized so you’ll save a ton of money. I ended up in a 3LDK and only paid 20K yen a month for rent/utilities. But I made the dumb mistake of loading it up with extra furniture and appliances which can get pricy to have removed when you leave.
In any case, you can bet on getting a place. My advice is to not be too picky if they ask you what you’re looking for in an apartment and just request a place that makes commuting to work easy and quick.
Just wanted to add that you should at least be set up with contact information for a guarantor company if you don’t have a BOE or your CO doesn’t help with housing.
I ended up going the guarantor agency route and although I did find the apartment mostly on my own (bc I had the time to do so, and was pretty picky) the agency I was set up with was super helpful and they offer discounts for JET participants. Plus, they will be the middle man when it comes to communicating with your landlord if you don’t speak Japanese like me 🙏🏻
If your main concern is that you’d be totally left to do this on your own, it shouldn’t be the case.
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Your BOE should help you find your apartment.
Unless you’re a Tokyo JET, they should have an apartment or house ready for you already.
Edit: Also, if you don’t like the apartment they got for you because it’s moldy, doesn’t allow pets, etc., they might not help you with finding a new one AND might not give you a subsidy anymore, so be careful! It might be worth it… Or maybe not, you’re the one deciding (look at the pros and cons).
Yes. Usually you’ll have a predecessor and you’ll just move into the apartment they are leaving. If you don’t have a predecessor or their apartment isn’t available for whatever reason then your contracting organization will make other arrangements before you arrive. The downside of this is that you might not like the place they find you and will likely have little ability to change. My CO allowed changes if the ALT had good reason, but offered little help with the process. And the only person I know who changed ended up paying key money etc for 2 places.
No.
Your contracting organization might. Or they might not. They are supposed to help, but that might mean simply pointing you to an agent. Or it might mean fully subsidized rent in a furnished house. Impossible to say.
JET is just the recruiter they don’t do anything once you get to Japan. Your contracting organisation is responsible for finding you a place. Most places outside of Tokyo placement will help you find an apartment.
JET is essentially a placement company that writes up what is expected of a contracting organization to do for you when they hire a JET ALT.
This outlines the pay – bennefits – what is needed to help us – etc…
After that JET is hands off.
Housing is one of those things a contracting organization is to help with – but that’s vauge – some go all out with subsidized housings – others connect you to a service to sublease from – some places put you in home-stay like housing with volunteers who help you find housing.
All in all you’ll have a roof over your head someway or another.
If there isn’t an agreement that isn’t being held up by your contracting organization – contact CLAIR immediately. (Although I’ve never head of this not happening in any placement )
Just to unify the information in some of these comments: The “JET Organization” really only handles recruitment and placement. Once you arrive in country, almost everything is handled by your CO. CLAIR is the government organization that’s technically in charge of the JET Program in Japan, but they’re not really involved much in the day to day running of things. They mostly handle paperwork stuff. There’s also a little bit of involvement from your prefecture government (specifically the prefectural board of education). They run the mid-year Skill Development Conference (SDC) and usually house the JET Prefectural Advisor (PA). Once you arrive in Japan, there’s not really any organization called “JET.”
But that’s not really what you’re asking. People are just being picky about semantics. What you’re asking is if you’ll have help finding an apartment or if you’ll be totally on your own. The answer is: you’re nearly guaranteed to have some sort of help. Many COs, especially in rural areas will just give you an apartment. Other COs, notably Tokyo, require you to find your own housing, but they will set you up with an English speaking real estate agent, so you won’t be entirely on your own. The only situation in which you’ll be totally on your own is if you refuse the apartment your CO has prepared for you and the CO decides not to help you find another one.
Your contracting organization will handle that to some extent. For example my JTE is helping me and had been in touch with a couple agencies but we hit a wall because in the area a lot of property managers didn’t want to rent to a foreigner or they would do long as they spoke conversational Japanese. A few days ago one of the choices I had picked said they’d rent to me so we are I. The process of hearing back from them. Sometimes you’ll just take over someone’s space, others will have to look for agencies and look on their own…and rents vary wildly..some pay only utilities, others pay the full rent, others pay a subsidized amount…it depends where you are.
You’re BOE *should* help if you don’t already have one.
They may, however, be as useful as a chocolate teapot. Really, really depends on the BOE and your CO.
JET just recruits. The CO is technically required to help you get set up, but there’s no concrete protocol on how they go about it. ESID and all that jazz.
The most consistent thing I have heard, and what I experienced was that the BoE will usually request your base school shove the task onto one of your fellow JTEs and to let you stay with them after you arrive until you secure an apartment.
More often than not, people end up in a Leopalace as a lot of COs have special contracts with them and they have full English support and the rent is decent, sometimes subsidized. Leopalace apartments are basically the bottom of the barrel in terms of quality, space, and everything else, but they come pre-furnished and with basic appliances for everyday needs and they are pretty clean and well maintained. If you don’t really cook, can deal with small spaces, and basically don’t plan on spending a lot of time at home except to sleep and shower, Leopalace is ideal.
If you can, ask about prefectural housing as it is much nicer, has no start up costs, and the rent is automatically subsidized so you’ll save a ton of money. I ended up in a 3LDK and only paid 20K yen a month for rent/utilities. But I made the dumb mistake of loading it up with extra furniture and appliances which can get pricy to have removed when you leave.
In any case, you can bet on getting a place. My advice is to not be too picky if they ask you what you’re looking for in an apartment and just request a place that makes commuting to work easy and quick.
Just wanted to add that you should at least be set up with contact information for a guarantor company if you don’t have a BOE or your CO doesn’t help with housing.
I ended up going the guarantor agency route and although I did find the apartment mostly on my own (bc I had the time to do so, and was pretty picky) the agency I was set up with was super helpful and they offer discounts for JET participants. Plus, they will be the middle man when it comes to communicating with your landlord if you don’t speak Japanese like me 🙏🏻
If your main concern is that you’d be totally left to do this on your own, it shouldn’t be the case.