I am not sure on the legality, however non-discriminatory practices aren’t enforced by law so the rental racket continues. scamlords basically have free reign to charge what they want and to who they want. don’t forget to give them gift/cleaning/insurance/6 months rent money and never make any sounds in your apartment
To echo others, this is a well known discriminatory practice in Japan. Very little you can do about it. And while we’re at it, Key Money is one of the most bs practices that I can’t believe still exists.
They’re either racist or had bad business with foreigners, I’m wagering on the second one. There’s nothing really stopping a foreigner from renting a place, trashing it and running back to their home country. Now for the legality side I’m not sure, but even in the states places can refuse to do business with people. Unless the landlord says it’s based on their race/ethnicity, they’re probably just say it’s a policy. I live near a military base and very few places rent to military personnel for the same reasons of them being a bad renter.
I briefly looked at this several years ago. It’s a well-known problem and the government has done surveys on the prevalence of this discrimination.
What it looks like to me is that it is not legal to discriminate at a primary law level, but there is no administrative/secondary law that prevents it or sets out penalties for rental discrimination specifically.
For example: the way you would fix an issue like this in the secondary law level would be for a ministry to issue a regulation laying out specifically the rules around renting and applications and discrimination. You could set out rules around objective judgements – income, length of time at an employer, visa status. Those are objective. Then you could set out guidelines for rental agencies. You could also make this a compliance issue such that rental agencies would need a clause in their landlord agreement that prevents them from screening applicants on anything other than the objective stuff above. Then you could audit rental agencies and potentially fine both agencies and landlords.
It’s fixable, it’s just ignored.
I think in Japan it’s not classified as “discrimination” if the landlord doesn’t want foreign.Back in 2015, I was looking for a place to stay and found a bunch of cool apartments that I liked, inquired 8 of them and all of them had some kind of excuse when I said I was a foreign, only the 9th allowed foreign tenant… so I guess it’s pretty common here.
The most common excuse is “It’s been rented already”
If you need an apartment and don’t mind it not looking super modern with hi-tech stuff, try UR apartment. It’s managed by the Japanese government and doesn’t discriminate against foreign, no hidden fees, no renewal fee, no lame fees, or some other bs. All you need is 2 month’s deposit, proof of income, and that’s about it.
[deleted]
Offer the landlord to buy and pay in cash for the whole building. Promised him to follow his first pricing offer with no intentions of negotiation. Problem solved!
Does he have any proof he got explicitly rejected just by being a foreigner?
Because yeah, it’s illegal and there have been cases of landlords being sued and losing in court because of that. The biggest issue is having proof that you were rejected just because of your nationality, because most of the time they just say you can’t rent their apartment without telling the reason.
Happened to me last week. I was trying to rent an apartment for a new Taiwanese employee at my company. I told the real estate agency I would not be using them again since they cater to racist landlords. The dickhead tried to say it was nothing to do with racism. I hung up.
Illegal or not, I have no idea, but there is no comeuppance to be had, so zero point in fighting it.
It’s not legal, but would you rather have they make up some bullshit excuse and string you along? At least by being honest about it, you know to just move on and take your business elsewhere, no one’s time got wasted.
How long have you been in Japan?
Unfortunately there’s no real protections in place. Technically they’re not allowed to discriminate but they can say “I had a bad experience with XYZ so next time I don’t want to rent to that group”
Source: I asked a realtor. He was VERY straightforward with me. He said I could rent an apartment but if I was Chinese I couldn’t rent that specific apartment. Flat out told me that owner didn’t like renting to Chinese nationals (he was very specific) because they are, and I quote but do NOT agree, “dirty and trash the apartments. Then they leave without paying”
Couldn’t believe my ears but 4 years later I keep seeing this sadly
Unfortunately, yes. There are virtually no anti-discrimination laws in Japan. If a landlord doesn’t want you they can reject you. My Japanese husband and I have a legal marriage from the US but because the Japanese government doesn’t recognize it we are considered unrelated people (他人) rather than a couple. There are still a lot of landlords in Japan who won’t rent to “他人” couples, along with elderly on public assistance and non-Japanese people.
I heard same things personally (As a foreginer ) Then turns out to find some extremely small and cheap living place like 「ナマポ・在日」向け物件 which means poverty or poor foreigner – oriented houses you know what ? the quality is suprisingly fine for me
No matter how much you like a property, if the landlord sucks it’s not going to be a good time. I kinda like when they show big red flags like this up front so you’re not blindsided by issues after signing a contract.
Foreign isn’t exactly a race, so not racist.
Probably stings american sensibilities but it’s their right imo.
I think these landlords are going to continue to get owned hard by demographics. Some cities already have +20% vacancy rates. Outside of like the 23-ku proper, eventually slumlords are going to reach a point where they can’t be so choosy and still hope to keep their property. Who is going to rent all those circa 1980s buildings if not the elderly, the poor, and foreigners?
18 comments
Is it legal? No. Will anyone do anything about it? No.
This is a fairly [common topic](https://www.google.com/search?hl=en&q=site%3Areddit.com%2Fr%2Fjapanlife+legal+landlord+disciminate). One thread specifically on it – [Are landlords able to reject a rental application solely on the basis that the tenant is foreign?](https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/cpnv90/are_landlords_able_to_reject_a_rental_application/)
I am not sure on the legality, however non-discriminatory practices aren’t enforced by law so the rental racket continues. scamlords basically have free reign to charge what they want and to who they want. don’t forget to give them gift/cleaning/insurance/6 months rent money and never make any sounds in your apartment
To echo others, this is a well known discriminatory practice in Japan. Very little you can do about it.
And while we’re at it, Key Money is one of the most bs practices that I can’t believe still exists.
They’re either racist or had bad business with foreigners, I’m wagering on the second one. There’s nothing really stopping a foreigner from renting a place, trashing it and running back to their home country. Now for the legality side I’m not sure, but even in the states places can refuse to do business with people. Unless the landlord says it’s based on their race/ethnicity, they’re probably just say it’s a policy. I live near a military base and very few places rent to military personnel for the same reasons of them being a bad renter.
I briefly looked at this several years ago. It’s a well-known problem and the government has done surveys on the prevalence of this discrimination.
What it looks like to me is that it is not legal to discriminate at a primary law level, but there is no administrative/secondary law that prevents it or sets out penalties for rental discrimination specifically.
For example: the way you would fix an issue like this in the secondary law level would be for a ministry to issue a regulation laying out specifically the rules around renting and applications and discrimination. You could set out rules around objective judgements – income, length of time at an employer, visa status. Those are objective. Then you could set out guidelines for rental agencies. You could also make this a compliance issue such that rental agencies would need a clause in their landlord agreement that prevents them from screening applicants on anything other than the objective stuff above. Then you could audit rental agencies and potentially fine both agencies and landlords.
It’s fixable, it’s just ignored.
I think in Japan it’s not classified as “discrimination” if the landlord doesn’t want foreign.Back in 2015, I was looking for a place to stay and found a bunch of cool apartments that I liked, inquired 8 of them and all of them had some kind of excuse when I said I was a foreign, only the 9th allowed foreign tenant… so I guess it’s pretty common here.
The most common excuse is “It’s been rented already”
If you need an apartment and don’t mind it not looking super modern with hi-tech stuff, try UR apartment. It’s managed by the Japanese government and doesn’t discriminate against foreign, no hidden fees, no renewal fee, no lame fees, or some other bs. All you need is 2 month’s deposit, proof of income, and that’s about it.
[deleted]
Offer the landlord to buy and pay in cash for the whole building. Promised him to follow his first pricing offer with no intentions of negotiation. Problem solved!
Does he have any proof he got explicitly rejected just by being a foreigner?
Because yeah, it’s illegal and there have been cases of landlords being sued and losing in court because of that. The biggest issue is having proof that you were rejected just because of your nationality, because most of the time they just say you can’t rent their apartment without telling the reason.
Happened to me last week. I was trying to rent an apartment for a new Taiwanese employee at my company. I told the real estate agency I would not be using them again since they cater to racist landlords. The dickhead tried to say it was nothing to do with racism. I hung up.
Illegal or not, I have no idea, but there is no comeuppance to be had, so zero point in fighting it.
It’s not legal, but would you rather have they make up some bullshit excuse and string you along? At least by being honest about it, you know to just move on and take your business elsewhere, no one’s time got wasted.
How long have you been in Japan?
Unfortunately there’s no real protections in place. Technically they’re not allowed to discriminate but they can say “I had a bad experience with XYZ so next time I don’t want to rent to that group”
Source: I asked a realtor. He was VERY straightforward with me. He said I could rent an apartment but if I was Chinese I couldn’t rent that specific apartment. Flat out told me that owner didn’t like renting to Chinese nationals (he was very specific) because they are, and I quote but do NOT agree, “dirty and trash the apartments. Then they leave without paying”
Couldn’t believe my ears but 4 years later I keep seeing this sadly
Unfortunately, yes. There are virtually no anti-discrimination laws in Japan. If a landlord doesn’t want you they can reject you. My Japanese husband and I have a legal marriage from the US but because the Japanese government doesn’t recognize it we are considered unrelated people (他人) rather than a couple. There are still a lot of landlords in Japan who won’t rent to “他人” couples, along with elderly on public assistance and non-Japanese people.
I heard same things personally (As a foreginer )
Then turns out to find some extremely small and cheap living place
like 「ナマポ・在日」向け物件 which means poverty or poor foreigner – oriented houses
you know what ? the quality is suprisingly fine for me
No matter how much you like a property, if the landlord sucks it’s not going to be a good time. I kinda like when they show big red flags like this up front so you’re not blindsided by issues after signing a contract.
Foreign isn’t exactly a race, so not racist.
Probably stings american sensibilities but it’s their right imo.
I think these landlords are going to continue to get owned hard by demographics. Some cities already have +20% vacancy rates. Outside of like the 23-ku proper, eventually slumlords are going to reach a point where they can’t be so choosy and still hope to keep their property. Who is going to rent all those circa 1980s buildings if not the elderly, the poor, and foreigners?