So I recently started renting a house, an actual house, that used to be an akiya but someone bought it and renovated it and rented it out, to me. It seems like I’m the first person to rent it since they bought it as well. One of the neighbors came to my door at like 8 or 9 last night and asked me to join the chokai and was pretty vague about the details of what they do and whether it’s a requirement that I join or not. He mentioned something about kairanban, a notice that gets passed from door to door, and wasn’t very clear about what that means either. I told him i was just renting the property and we were both unsure whether that meant I should sign up and pay or whether the owner of the house should. Im going to contact my real estate agency I rented the house from, because, while the fee for the Chokai is not expensive (¥4000 a year), if it’s a requirement to join then it’s a fee that I have to pay that the realtor never discussed with me or mentioned in the rental contract. I’ll pay if I have to, but I wanna be absolutely sure that I have to, since I don’t like people just showing up to my house with random bills I have to pay. Anyone got any similar experience or can direct me to a page with more info?
22 comments
Depends on the place but usually you’d take turns cleaning up the garbage collection points, clean and remove weeds from local parks and so on.
Some places don’t require unmarried single renters to join.
No, it’s not required though it’s nice to join if you think you’ll be staying a long time and want to get involved in your community.
Our chokai does garbage area clean up, local park maintenance, some TNR, community activities, festivals etc.
The kairanban is a binder passed around with info about activities, some advertisements, warnings about scams or problems in the city etc.
There’s also a yearly meeting where they go over all these things. You’re not required to attend any of if even if you join.
Everyone takes turns being the leader but when it’s your turn you can just refuse and it will go to the next person. We were leaders during corona which was great because we didn’t do anything except collect dues and pass the kairanban.
I’m on the “it’s generally good” team. Mine is 5k a year but there are some special items distributed at the summer local festival (probably about 2k worth) and there are other benefits to local kids that come from the funds. They organize clean ups and do a few little beautification things. I also rent and the “I’m but a lone transient…” card would have worked, but I figured it was nice for neighbor relations and being in the network of things going on via kairanban and general friendliness from the decades and decades settled people toward the “known” outsider. Some of the oldest coots have been in my ‘hood since they were kids!
4000 yen is worth it to be part of the local community (and make sure your garbage station is not a giant pile of unsorted and uncollected crap).
The chokai in my village became a huge hassle real quick so we quit it. The village “leader” who runs the chokai like a Nazi regime didn’t want to accept our resignation so we had to contact the local government here and they told him to back off.
Now we aren’t members anymore and our life here is much better, I almost regretted buying this house because of the chokai.
Here some examples of how the village leader is running the chokai here:
1- He schedules you for garbage pickup a couple times a year without asking if you’ll have time or not, you then have to show up at 5:30am on a Sunday to pickup garbage. If you can’t go then you have to pay ¥2000 as punishment and you’ll be scolded by the village leader.
2- You also have to show up to spray every garden in the village with poison twice a year, again at 5:30am and if you can’t go then you have to pay ¥2000.
3- They told us that we had to help clean up the stream that is used to water the rice fields, this takes a full day and we are not allowed to refuse this. We are also not allowed to use this water because we don’t have any rice fields. But we have to use a full day to clean it up…
4- Need to pay like ¥30k a year to the village
5- The binder that they pass around is one of the biggest hassles. It comes every day and sometimes twice a day (because they have more than one) with useless information, usually just advertisements for local businesses. You’re supposed to pass it to the next neighbor right away.
Our neighbor doesn’t have a bell nor a postbox so we had to enter their genkan every day, sometimes twice which made us really uncomfortable because we had some problems with this neighbor before.
It became a huge chore.
I have more examples but I think you get the image.
https://www.japanlivingguide.net/living-in-japan/culture/chonaikai/
Hello! I’m Japanese😆I will write down the URL of the explanation that is easy to understand about the CHOU NAI KAI. Please refer to it.
CHOU NAI KAI are closed communities divided by area, and participation is optional! The basic purpose is to share information, help each other, and maintain the area where the community belongs.
Foreigners are often welcome to join, but depending on the area, there may not be many people who actively communicate with you as a foreigner.
(It’s mostly a language issue, not a discriminatory issue!)
Have a nice life in Japan!
It’s pretty chill in my neighborhood. You take turns monitoring the garbage collection box, pass the kairanban around once every few weeks, and occasionally participate in community betterment activities like cleaning up a park or doing a neighborhood watch. Participation isn’t mandatory, but it’s not a lot of responsibility and it keeps the neighborhood clean.
We pay a whopping 1200 yen a year (Tokyo, 23ku) but have no interaction with the choukai other than once a decade or so when it’s our turn to collect the fees for our little “section”, and the kairanban, which comes round once a month. The only annoyance is when some genius decided to change the size of the kanranban folder so it no longer fits in standard mail boxes. Our neighbor on one side (elderly, cantankerous guy) has never been a member.
Just remember: “I don’t want to pay the choukaihi or take my turn as hancho!”
and
“Japanese people never accept foreigners into their local communities!”
are two mutually exclusive arguments.
You’re on your way to becoming a full member of society, and part of that means choosing to participate in things that you technically could get away with using the gaijin card. If you decide not to pay or just to play “dumb foreigner,” you forfeit all right to complain about Japanese never seeing you as anything but an outsider.
I think it’s pretty much luck of the draw with chokai. Some are good, most are ok, and a few are terrible. When we moved to the countryside we researched chokai online in Japanese and read countless horror stories. We got lucky in the two neighborhoods we lived in. One was just fine and the other one was quite nice. I’d probably tell any newbie to give it a chance at first but be on the lookout for BS. And don’t feel too obligated to participate. If you have to work or take care of other commitments, just be honest. But if you participate in the stuff you can, hopefully it will pay off with good relationships
It was interesting to hear other people’s experiences.. I’m not an expert, but I’ll give mine. I think the duties, rules and fee’s are going to vary greatly by area. My gut feeling is that more rural areas are going to be much more involved. A lot of people are saying it’s not “mandatory”, and yes legally speaking, no one can force you to join. But, it’s a social responsibility and your neighbors probably expect you to be on it. If you don’t, people are going to think less of you and possibly shun you. My neighborhood is full of old people and they absolutely all talk to each other. My community is kind of intense I think. Garbage days, cleaning days, festivals, grass cutting… It can suck.. I do it because I’m in the community and I plan on living here a long time.
It’s pretty cheap, and likely smooths you integration into the community. Just be aware that there’s very little accountability, and while it’s anecdotal, the chonaikai’s I’ve been involved in over the 2 decades I’ve been here have been little more than slush funds for the old men to splurge on karaoke a couple (or more) times a year.
The local festival your neighborhood has (or hasn’t) is also partially funded by this.
Those neighborhood associations are pretty common. AFAIK you aren’t required to join or pay the annual fee but it’s good for your rep in the neighborhood if you do. It just depends on how long you plan to live there and whether or not you want to be isolated or participate in your local community. Getting involved locally and making Japanese friends can be extremely beneficial if you’re planning on staying long-term.
It’s refreshing to see so many positive remarks, but my own experiences have not been very pleasant at all. I’ve belonged to two neighborhood associations in the past, and each time was like stepping into a nest of vipers. Members brought all their grudges, vendettas, and decades-long feuds into the monthly meetings. The association leader was accused of misusing funds. Poison pen letters were pinned to the noticeboard. The neighborhood clean-ups were held once a month, and were not very convivial occasions at all, because nobody wanted to be there. Non-participants were shamed by having their names put on the notice board. As a pressure tactic it didn’t seem to work very well, because they still never bothered to show up.
And the kairanban went missing on several occasions! I can just imagine the tanto thinking “fuck it” and throwing it away. I was tempted to do it myself on occasion.
I didn’t mind doing some of the tasks assigned to me. One year I was the fee collector, and had to go from household to household collecting the dues in cash (¥2,000 a month). I was scrupulous about issuing the receipts. Others, not so much … which is why I ended up paying twice because the collector hadn’t handed over the receipt to me (“sorry, I left it at home”) and then later insisted that I pay it again because I couldn’t produce any proof of payment!
There was a fire safety patrol in December. It was basically an excuse for the old coots to have a booze up in the meeting room. There was also a summer dance festival every August, and all the kids looked forward to it. But eventually the number of children dwindled so much that the festival became yet another excuse for a booze up, enjoyed only by the men. All paid for with communal fees.
I did meet a couple of nice ladies during the clean-ups, though. They were happy to chat with me in my halting Japanese as we pulled weeds together, and they answered my questions about local practices. That was nice indeed … but I’m not sure it compensated for all the other hassle and stress of dealing with the association.
Anyway, as you can see it’s a mixed bag. Whichever you decide to do, I hope you have a great stay!
I also pay for this, even though I’m renting, because the company sneaked it in my contract. I have no idea what they do with this money, I thought the garbage collection was paid by from taxes, and the garbage place looks like crap anyway.
They used to leave bag with a binder full of advertisements on my mailbox, and I was supposed to sign it, read it and leave it in the next apartment’s mailbox. I didn’t even open the bag or signed anything, just placed it on the next mailbox when throwing out the garbage.
One day someone left a note with some ancient hieroglyphs in my mailbox that I couldn’t decode, so I just ignored it. Turns out they were asking me to be the leader of the community of something, and I missed the ascension ceremony. Someone showed up at my door to see why I didn’t go, as soon as I opened they realized I was not a worthy leader anyway. Since then, I’m not receiving the ads anymore, so that’s good. But I still have to pay 3,600 for … nothing, otherwise the management company mafia calls to annoy me. I tried to opt out but they said it’s mandatory, it’s like extortion.
I joined it. I read the kairanban and volunteer for things (they ask for volunteers using the kairanban) like the summer matsuri.
I made friends in my neighborhood thanks to it.
My kids also made friends with other kids in the neighborhood through the events. (Iirc the events can be attended by families not in the chounaikai, too)
I have heard a few stories of weirdness, but that’s usually just a case by case basis. Not all humans are the same, so by extension all chounaikai are not the same.
Try it out. (My 2 cents)
It’s a neighborhood association. You pay monthly due and have Laura ban go around with news and information of neighborhood.
I’ve been living somewhere where I know they have one, but I have never been invited to it. Fair as I wouldn’t have been keen to join it anyways, as I’m just a rental tenant in the area. That being said, I know there’s info I’m missing out on.
In the new area I’m moving to, where I’m a house owner, I fully intend to join one if there is, but I’m gonna put “paying member only”, as I’m going to be a single property owner with wonky schedule, and have other things to do than schedule my life around old people in the area and their requirements. They can have my money, just not my time.
In your case, no it was not required to tell you about it, no it is not required to pay. It is a community association, and association is voluntary. That being said, I wouldn’t want to be the only person in the local area not participating.
At least they asked you! I asked about mine and they said foreigners weren’t allowed lol.
We quit after a year. The biggest thing was there was no benefit to joining. No community events, no nothing. The kairanban was filled with absolutely useless advertisements and flyers that generally got shoved in your mailbox anyway. No, I don’t want to pay to see ads twice.
Not a legal obligation, but its a pretty strong social obligation in most neighborhoods. If the realtor didn’t mention it its probably because they just assumed it was something everyone already knows and thus not something that requires explaining.
If you are just staying short term, like a year or less, then its not worth bothering. If you plan on staying in that neighborhood for longer than that, you should join.
One has to be a masochist to join that club, after you join you have to pay that fee and can’t ever wiggle out. You gonna be requested to partake in working for free, e.g. cleaning up garbage, and doing a lot of useless stuff that the retired old folks thought out in their plenty of free time. I’d avoid it, your life, free time and your privacy will be better skipping on it.