I’ve been in Japan for quite a while now and although I had some friends in the early days, we lost touch over time and for quite some time I’ve been by myself. I mean, I’m not anti-social or anything but I am very introverted and I guess it’s also universally not very common to make new friends as an adult either. I left my job recently where, again, I didn’t really have friends close enough I would ask to be a 保証人, and I have no plans to date anyone either.
What would you suggest for someone in my position? I don’t need a 保証人 right now, just wondering
17 comments
Use a guarantor company. I mean, I have quite a lot of friends and aquaintances in Japan, but I have never asked any of them to be my guarantor either. And I also don’t plan to be guarantor for anyone anytime soon.
Edit: I assumed you mean guarantor to rent a property.
I second this. Use a third party service.
I’m not sure, I tried to use a guarantor company to sign for an apartment, but every single one of them told me they required a family member in my prefecture to be my emergency contact. The BOE I work for tried to contact them to negotiate, maybe they could be my emergency contact, but it didn’t work. Ended up having to settle for a Leopalace in the town over.
Honestly it depends on what you need the guarantor for in the first place. A guarantor company might be fine to be a 連帯保証人 for an apartment application, but they’ll be completely useless for a 身元保証人 for a PR application if you decide to go that route, for example.
I would say: you are at least asking the right questions.
Not making friends here, for all that it is hard, could curtail your options. I advise you to make making friends a priority; ideally Japanese people, but gaijin lifers with PR will work too. Becoming friends and not just colleagues with your next set of coworkers may be your best shot.
Japan is tough going alone. All the best.
You’ll have to hire a guarantor company. Don’t feel bad about it, Japanese people use them too.
Either use a guarantor company, or you can try and find an apartment complex that doesn’t require one. My wife and I really loved the UR apartment we had and they didn’t require a guarantor.
Unless I am misunderstanding, you left your job and don’t have employment. Is it that situation where you would need someone to guarantee something related to housing – presumably renting.
That’s tough because who knows when you would get another job. I hope soon but I’ve seen talented people out of work for a long time and then having to leave the country.
Time to make friends 😀
Maybe 保証人活？/jk
A couple things …… quite a while translates to ? A few months , years ?
You have no Japanese friends who are professionals?
Live in a share house until you manage to make a friend who can be your guarantor.
Heads up, don’t ever become a guarantor unless you truly understand the responsibility. I’m still getting letters asking for the 10000 yen you owe, ANTON.
Never making that mistake again.
You won’t find anybody to be your guarantor and you shouldn’t become one for anybody either, it’s a huge responsibility and you’ll get into a lot of trouble on behalf of somebody else if things don’t work outm Use a guarantor service like GTN and you’ll be fine!
I think the word “guarantor” is a word they use here in a really weird way because they make it sound like a person and not a different… entity(?)
A guarantor is needed but it doesn’t have to be a person. More so you need a guarantor company that is the guarantee that the landlord always will get his money. Finding a guarantor company is not difficult. The agents will do that for you. HOWEVER! more so than often the guarantor company itself wants a “guarantor” of sorts.
Which defeats the point of a guarantor company anyways. It’s a fucking mafia and just pure BS.
When I rented an apartment through my company I still needed a separate guarantor company. My company could not be my guarantor but they could be the guarantor on my end for the guarantor company…
And here’s the most ridiculous part of it all.
My company signed but then my boss had to prove who she was by sending a recent picture AND after that HER HUSBAND had to send a picture guaranteeing that my boss was who she said she was! It was a joke.
I know, it’s fucking confusing and redundant.
I’m a foreigner living in Japan for another year or so. I’ve been here for 2 years. I’m 6’3 & speak Japanese pretty decent & understand it pretty fluently. I hardly speak to anyone because most people here are to scared to speak to me, even the men. It doesn’t bug at all but I have noticed that more people tend to speak to me when I go out to fancy restaurants & the arcades. I’m really good at fighting games so I’m always smashing the locals at street fighter while pretending to not know a single thing they’re are saying.
Can we univocally and, once for all, say that the whole guarantor thing in Japan is horse crap?
Not relevant – maybe.
But try it – it feels good to say it :-p
not everything requires a guarantor but I’ve seen a lot, I mean a lot, of things that require an emergency contact: from medical checkup, to renting a room, getting a new job…