Being a foreigner in Japan, it’s incredibly challenging to find a Japanese friend who can act as a guarantor. I’ve been searching without success. For foreigners living in Japan, even a hospital visit for surgery requires a Japanese guarantor. Can anyone please help me?
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Yeah, I recommend making some Japanese friends!
Never heard that about surgery – is that for tourists without insurance? I had surgery – never came up, unless the drugs made me forget…
You can ask [this kind](https://hoshounin.com/) of guarantor service who will work as your guarantor if you pay some.
Why do you need a person to be a guarantor? That’s why you pay and it’s included in the move-in costs.. even Japanese people do that unless their parents are wanting to be liable.
Unless you mean an emergency contact?
Doesn’t sound like you know what you’re doing. It’s not like you can jus decide to move here. Japan has stricter rules for immigrants
Don’t.
Use a guarantor company.
Name a Japanese person or someone who holds PR as emergency contact only.
Case closed.
Use a guarantor company. Sometimes even your company can be a guarantor – mine did, but it’s a small company.
I think what you mean is you need a Japanese emergency contact. When you move to Japan you typically need an emergency contact (someone who lives in Japan and can speak japanese; they may or may not need to be Japanese) as well as a guarantor agency. The guarantor is a company that you pay that vouches for you, typically when you need to rent an apartment/home. They have nothing to do with hospital visits or your personal affairs. Your emergency contact is not a guarantor.
I moved to Japan less than a month ago so this is based on recent experience. Like every (or almost every) real estate company, they required that I had an emergency contact and a guarantor company. The only person I knew who lived in japan was another American who spoke Japanese, and they said that was fine. The person needed to live within an hour of me (by train) and they called him to verify he knew me (and that he spoke Japanese). The real estate company referred me to a guarantor company, who I pay a fee to on a monthly basis in order to rent my apartment.
Before I moved, and before I knew my American friend would be accepted as my emergency contact, I learned through Reddit that you can pay for an emergency contact. This is a website I found from another thread: https://emergencycontactagency.com
Don’t use a Japanese friend, it can cause unwanted strain on the relationship. If you are inferring to renting a place, just use the guarantor company. I think the industry standard is 1/2 the monthly rent and that will take you through the duration of your contract.
I did read here that someone got rejected by a guarantor company, but I have never had any foreign friends get rejected so not sure the reason there. Feel secure by paying the small money and move on, ez peazy.
all my emergency contacts friends with visas. Search for another agency.
How do you cross shop for a guarantor company? Curious if there are more established ones that are more reputable than others