Good morning everyone, just one question.
My friend wants to visit Japan sometime soon either in late November or around Christmas. They plan on maxing out their tourist visa for the three whole months they’re welcome here, and they discussed the possibility of me having them stay at my place. They’ve got a lot they want to see and they have a ton of savings to spend on relaxing after quitting their job before they gotta go home and get a new job.
I don’t mind them staying over at all especially over three months, but I ended up with the question of whether or not they can use my apartment as a “base of operations” every other week during those three months. My apartment is barely even monitored by the landlord (my floor doesn’t even have security cameras) and I have neighbors whose partners basically live with them considering they’re always coming over and staying overnight.
Maybe there’s a special excuse I could use if I’m ever confronted about it by my landlord? How would getting caught even work? I asked the agency that helped me get my lease, but they shrugged when I asked them about visitor rules.
16 comments
Getting “caught” might involve someone complaining that there is a stranger staying on the premises, then the landlord comes to investigate, confronting your friend and then telling him not to come back anymore and if he does your apt contract could be cancelled. Whether that will actually happen or not depends on how much people around you care.
Your place sounds almost like my place. Most likely, no one will even bat an eye. My partner is essentially living with me for some time, despite having her own place. No complaints yet 1 year in lol. Last time I saw the landlord was when I moved in. My building is almost all young working class people. I barely see my neighbours, in fact I have only heard my next door neighbour once when he had friends over and made a drunken racket till 4 a.m. Nobody called the police, nobody cared. Assess your current options and see if it can work, what nobody knows won’t hurt them.
First, it is unusual that the agency you used to find your place cannot explain the rules to you. That is one shady company. Did you find them on Facebook? I guess it is just a bunch of people who don’t read or write Japanese but want to practice real estate without any qualifications. Who knows what kind of illegal subletting situation you may have ended up in?
But most rental agreements in Japan do not allow people not on the lease to live in the property, unless it says something like “room share OK” in the ads. Your best option is to tell your landlord directly that someone would like to move in, and ad them to the lease. This may mean higher rent. Probably they will say no.
Having someone not on the lease move in with you is one of the easier ways to evict a tenant, because the new person must eventually go in or out of the building, to be seen by the building manager, video cameras or neighbors. You will first receive a letter telling you that having a long term guest is in violation of the lease, and that the extra person must move out by a certain date. If that person is discovered after the deadline to leave, you can be evicted.
It’s not really allowed but it’s up to you if it’s worth the risk of getting caught.
I honestly lived at an ex’s apartment for a couple of years without being on the lease. Registered my address there and everything. Never had any issues. If someone was coming for maintenance, I’d just go out for a few hours.
The issue is how well you know your friends. Are they going to be the rowdy drunk travelers that will disturb the neighbors and think the world owes them a good time or the well-behaved travelers? Remember they get to peace out when they want, but you’ll have to stay and deal with whatever issues they cause (if any).
Even a single night is likely against the terms of the lease, but having any trouble with a friend staying over every couple of days is unlikely, *if* the friend isn’t making noise or other trouble to draw attention to him-/herself.
As for excuses, just apologize and say you won’t do it again. That will be the end of it, more than likely.
A guess from me but I think if you got caught, you would get a letter saying your friend needs to get out or there will be consequences. So you have up until that happens if it ever does. Your excuse is you’re a foreigner you don’t understand the rules.
If the prohibition isn’t crystal clear then you might as well do it until told not to.
I rented the apartment, when asked the agent: as long as nobody complains.
Had brother stay for 2 weeks, a couple for 3 months and at the same time then bf for 2 years.
The agent knew the bf was living here lol. Officially updated him after marriage.
Ah and two cats (with permission) .
Be quiet, do good rubbish sorting, and be polite.
Tell your friend that they are happy to stay a night or so (low risk of getting you into trouble) and can store stuff at your place. But having them stay every week could mean trouble for you if there is a camera you don’t know about or a neighbor rats on you. Since your friend has money, they should just stay at a hotel.
As long as you wish to keep them
Chill OP.
Likely zero issues, especially if they are there off/on for those 3 months. They are just a friend staying at your place while on vacation.
Not even worth asking about. Asking will only arrouse suspicion or bring up issues.
If your friend can behave and be quiet at night, very high chance there are no issues.
Tbh i had a now exfriend live with me for like 6 months while she looked for a job and no one complained (except me)
I remember seeing somewhere about 2 days consecutively rule.
but actually as many other said, as long it is quiet neighborhood where you dont see neighbors often, it is hard to find out unless you make too much noise and got complaint.
I remember my friend hosted my other friend from osaka in tokyo for comiket for quite long period of time.
I once did that for a month when I visited my girlfriend on a tourist visa. As long as you and your friends will not be nuisance to your neighbors I don’t think they will mind. Although this will depend greatly on your place though. If you have neighbors that are nosy and will report any little thing then I don’t think having them stay at your place will be a good idea.
I’ve never had any problems but my friends/girlfriends never caused any problems