



shikikin? reikin?

So how much do we need to rent a house in Japan? To explain this, we need to have understanding about house rental system in Japan. In many countries, you will have to pay some amount of refundable deposit, for example, half of one month rental fee. However, it is very different in Japan. You need to think about many things such as shikikin(敷金;original deposit), reikin(礼金; gratitute money), and others.

Shikikin is deposit you can easily think of. It usually costs 1 or 2 months rental fee and sometimes it is not refundable. Even if the landlord says it is refundable, you need to check their trick carefully since some of them return it after reducing some amount of money. For example, the landlord can take 100 dollars from you if you made a little scratch on the floor. Naturally the deposit you can get back will be reduced.

Reikin can be translated as ‘thank you money’. You give thank you money to landlord because landlord let you stay at their house. I know this sounds really weird but this is Japanese rule and all I have to do is just to follow it. However, the tendency has been changing nowadays. You can find some houses where don’t require you to pay reikin; however, these types of houses are usually old and not in good condition.

how much do i need to have?

As I described above, houses in Japan requires their potential tenants to pay quite a lot amount of not refundable key money at first. It is usually said that you need to prepare at least 4-5 times of house rental fee for renting a house in Japan. Shikikin and Reikin is not everything. You need to think about cleaning fee, key change fee, other insurances that landlord requires you to have. For example, if you wish to live at a house that costs 800 dollars per month, you need to prepare at least 3,200-4,000 dollars at first.

If you have foreign passport, I mean if you are not officially Japanese, many landlords will ask you to use guaranteeing company to check your current economic situation. In addition, pets and musical instruments are not allowed in most of houses.

where can i find?

Here is the list of websites you may refer to when finding a flat in Japan.



(3) Ii Heya Net

(4) Ribaburu

(5) Apamanshop

(6) Able

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