Housing a friend for a long time?

17 comments

1. Don’t cause any disturbances your landlord would know about and you’ll be just fine.

2. Well, if you strictly play by the rules, its probably not allowed. My apartment complex actually has a sign at the entrance that says that visitors are not allowed to stay over night. However, I am pretty certain that nobody gives a fuck (I’m the only foreigner in this complex).

   Anyway, this rule should be buried in your contract. If it says it is not allowed you either don’t care or contact the landlord and ask for permission.

   One thing that comes to mind, and probably others know more about this, since 2 months is within in tourist period, he most likely doesn’t need to be added to the contract. Tourists travel all the time anyways and the contact he provides is just for an initial point of contact. No tourist is asked to put all hotels and places in a Form he is planning to stay at. If he is exceeding a tourist visa, however, I could imagine that it gets a bit more serious for the landlord and the government. But I don’t know if that’s actually true. Just would be logical to me. Yet, we all know, bureaucracy is rarely logical.

3. This is the kind of thing where you’re better off just doing it without asking, if you start asking your landlord for permission they will probably say no, but if you just do it and don’t cause problems, probably nothing will come off it.

   The airport form is irrelevant, you can put any address it’s never used for anything.

4. Technically I’m pretty sure you can’t. But realistically how would they even know.

5. I stayed my girlfriends 1dk for almost 3 months without issues so as long as you don’t make it obvious you will do just fine.

6. Just make sure not to have too loud sex and no one will say anything unless you live with some nosey neighbors who are worried about a foreign man showing up all of a sudden.

7. I live in an apartment where pets are not allowed, but the lady above me have a tiny dog ….
   Just do it without asking. Don’t have to do everything by the book.

8. I stayed at my friend’s house in Okinawa during summer break. It’s fine as long as you don’t cause a fuss.

   If the landlord lives in the building though, might be risky.

9. Be sure to close your curtains. 😀

10. Depends on your contract. Sometimes, it’s not allowed to host someone and let him/her stay overnight, however everybody ignores it. This rule isn’t so strict.
    If your bf makes much noise and bothers your neighbours, they may inform the owner that you let someone stay longer.

11. I originally came to Japan to meet someone in person that I had initially met online. My residence address has always been his house. It doesn’t seem to matter what address you register with the immigration service and city office as long as you’re actually living there. As for being in an apartment, that just depends on the terms of your rental agreement. Some landlords have rules against “unrelated” people living together, others don’t care. If he’s only going to be there for a couple of months, though, he’d be more of a guest than a resident, so maybe it doesn’t matter.

12. When I showed up and gave an actual street address for my house, the guy was very weirded out. He wanted to know what hotel it was as I live in Baachan land suburbia in the inaka. Miles from any gaijin places. He was extra weirded by my speaking to him in Japanese. When I said it was my family’s house, he settled down a bit. Guy in front of me didn’t know the street address of his hotel, and they were telling him he would get sent home if he didn’t provide an actual address. I googled it for him. Maybe my dude was just a dick.

13. Make sure your boyfriend has enough cash to sustain himself for 2 months and or detailed travel plans. I have heard stories of people being rejected as they suspect the person would work or be in trouble if they get kicked out and would need to stay at a hotel for the remaining of the time.

14. It depends though. I asked this to my real estate agent. She told me that if my gf is going to live in my apartment for good then I need to pass her Id’s to the fudousan but if shes not then no need to ask or let them know.

15. this is a good case of ask for forgiveness rather than permission. You have to do this for many maddening aspects of living in japan

16. Plenty of people 半同棲 without asking permission. I don’t think this is any different. In Japan it’s almost always better not to ask for permission.

17. If you’re having someone stay such a long while, it’s good to make sure the police know you have a long-term visitor.