We moved into a 5LDK home in Kanagawa and were given keys to the front door lock but not the rear door or the deadbolt on the front door. When I asked for a key to the back door (which I have used daily since we move in because it’s more convenient and it’s much quieter) the landlord told me that nobody uses the rear door in Japan except in an emergency. It’s obvious they re-keyed the front door lock but why wouldn’t they bother to re-key the deadbolt and the back door too? This seems so half-hearted which is why it strikes me as odd. Is this actually common? Can I legally just replace the rear lock myself since no one seems to have a key for it anyway? I appreciate any advice/insights. Thank you.
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Give them a call. Explain to them that the house is on fire, the path to the front door is blocked, and you’d really appreciate if they could come back with the key to the back door.
It is called a katte-guchi, and is traditionally used for taking out the garbage and loading groceries directly to the kitchen, but also as an emergency exit. For most of the houses I deal with, this door is not really meant to be used often, although they usually do provide keys. The material of these doors is not usually the same quality as the front door, and frequent use may lead to rapid wear and tear.
Ask to have a new lock installed at your own expense and promise to restore the lock to its original condition when you check out (so, keep the old lock just in case). The management company or landlord would not likely refuse that request, unless the the area outside the katte-guchi is next to the living area of a neighbor and using the door may lead to noise complaints.
Sounds like they lost the key and made up an excuse that they think a foreigner fresh to Japan would believe. Not saying you’re fresh to Japan, just the logic involved
Tell them you don’t care if other people don’t use the door, you want to, and you want to use the deadlock too. So hand over the keys, god damn it. Otherwise maybe you’ll change the locks yourselves and bill them for the expense.
Put your foot down and tell them you want to speak to the manager.
I think the thing to do is remind him that by linguistical law you’re allowed to use a 勝手口 the way you want. 勝手にgooch it, man.
My backdoor only opens to the gas gauge and water heater. Can’t even walk there cos lots of overgrown grass.
This is actually article 909.1 of the constitution
So there’s no key for the back door, but you’re using it? Does that mean it’s permanently unlocked?
can you get the same model lock? if so, change the lock, if they ask for the keys, tell them that it is only used for emergencies.
Moved into a beautiful 1980s era Japanese house in Kanagawa a little over a year ago.
We also got keys to the front door but not to the back doors that exit from the kitchen (there are two, going to different areas outside.) We don’t use the kitchen doors for anything except bringing in big grocery runs so it hasn’t been an issue for us, but I’m certain that if I asked my landlord if I could rekey them, he would have zero problems with it. Hell he’d probably come over and we’d rekey them together.
Obviously this depends on the given situation and the relationship you have with your landlord. If you’re going to be there for a while it is probably better for you to not make too many requests all at once, build a bit of a relationship. The reality is that if he’s never rented to foreigners before he’s probably nervous, feeding into that isn’t going help the relationship for the longer term.
> Can I legally
Mmm, that’s not an attitude that is going to do well in Japan.
So the landlord wants to avoid the cost/trouble of re-keying all but the front door locks? Seems suspect, you’ve paid for it after all as part of the moving-in fees.
That said, it’s true that you won’t need to unlock the back door from the outside often, if at all, depending on how its used. The only time we would was when we came back from a grocery run. Otherwise we’d always be opening it from the inside.
If you really feel you need the keys, I’d state as much to the landlord and ask for a copy. I wonder though that you can probably just as easily do without them.
No, it is true that it is used less often. It is not true that “No one uses the rear door of the house except in an emergency”.
Tell him that you’d like to have the key, to use it in case of an emergency.
Better to have it than not.
I think you could just rekey the door lock yourself and tell him that you can leave it as it was before you leave. It is possible that he just doesn’t have the keys and he didn’t think it was necessary to have it rekeyed.
I remember one time when there was a major power cut due to an earthquake. My building’s elevator stopped working, so I couldn’t get home and had to stay over at my friend’s place. I guess they had thought that people would use the rear door only to get out, not inside. Next day, I complained about this and everyone got extra keys for the rear door, as well.
I see a bigger issue here than the back door. You are now living in a house that, at the landlords discretion, you can be locked out of. Over top of all the other issues, you NEED to have a key for the deadbolt on the front door.