Not Paying Rent in Japan

A real estate agent once told me it was “not rare” for to have foreign tenants leave the country without properly paying final rent or cleaning out their apartments.

It would be very interested to see some statistics because I am absolutely not convinced about that. I wouldn’t be surprised if the proportion of non-paying foreigners is not statistically different from non-paying Japanese (either way we need some numbers).

In any case, this could be resolved by:
- a better collaboration between Japanese and foreign police agencies (some countries have extradition conventions).
- a systematization of automatic credit card payments or bank transfers for paying rent. I was surprised when arriving in Japan that the realtor asked me to pay cash every month and that automatic payment was not possible (in France, it is the contrary: in order to fight against corruption, it is recommended that big amounts are not paid by cash but by cheque, credit card or bank transfer).
- the suppression of key money, which should be replaced by a special new guaranty system (needs a new law): a special guaranty transaction (worth several months of rent) would be settled with the bank when establishing a new contract, but the money would not be withdrawn immediately. It would be withdrawn only at the end of the contract if the apartment was not clean or some rent was not paid. This would create a secure environment both for the honest tenant and the landlord.

Centering the broadcast in a foreigner might have been somewhat motivated by race-tinged sensationalism, but the gaijin shouting contingent that finds racism everywhere is overstating their case.

Piglet: I’ll bet a cool million yen that there are a lot more Foreigners leaving the country with unpaid rent than there are Japanese people leaving the country with unpaid rent. Do you really need statistical proof of that?

It’s a question of being able to impose deterrent consequences. Most landlords don’t have vast legal resources they could bring to bear to hunt down someone in a foreign country, and no police force should waste that sort of effort to recover a few thousand bucks at most.
I’m pretty sure from my experience with otherwise upstanding former English teachers, many more middle class foreigners leave behind some sort of literal or metaphorical mess for landlords. Poor Japanese folks? They probably have their fair share of hassles, but they are much more likely to be renting low end properties with hardscrabble landlords, who take that stuff into account.

Level3: No need to wonder. If you don’t earn enough, yeah, it’s hard to get an apartment. I can vouch for this being true from first hand experience in Japan, the US, the UK, and Germany. The “no gaijin” thing is negotiable most of the time if you have a long term visa, a high paying, stable job and Japanese language ability. If you have a Japanese spouse, not a damn person cares. The whole “regardless of color” comment is a silly relic of your nationality. Where there is discrimination in Japan, it’s not based on color, but on nation of origin.

But since like 1/4 of lower-middle priced tokyo apartment owners are hesitant to take on the risk of renting to a foreigner (nevermind if they’ve been burned before)… you think Japan is racist. Apartment owners make up lets say 1-2% percent of the populace, and probably well under half of those are one bedroom places in the “non-rich” range. So even before we get into the realm where “no gaijin” is negotiable (way over half), we’re down to about 0.12-0.25% of the populace.

Indeed there’s no way that any other country has such a staggering number of investors whose caution might be motivated by “racial” concerns!

Seriously, y’all. You want racism, look literally anywhere else in Asia, or, you know, the UK, Australia, parts of the US, or any other country on the planet.

I too would like to see some stats.

On the Piglet’s 3 points:

>- a better collaboration between Japanese and foreign police agencies
No one’s going to get extradited over non-payment of a few months rent. Maybe the police (esp Japanese side) could help out with whereabouts but not most other countries… I’m sure the police have bigger fish to fry and politically on a collaboration/extradition type of arrangement – I think this would be pretty low (compared to children of international divorces..)
Still if there were a few examples it would make people think twice.

>- a systematization of automatic .. payments..
Cash is really dated.
There are already a few ways “they” can access your account. You have to authorize it. One way is similar to the what the utilities use (and you trust the landlord to only take rent) and the the other way is to specify an amount. Frankly I’m happy to pay (bank transfer as I go) – I don’t trust the fudousan enough to let them in.

>- the suppression of key money, which should be replaced by a special new guaranty system (needs a new law):
Suppression of key money – thankfully the market is pushing it in that direction, but I agree that it should not be legal.
There is fairly new guarantor system where you have to pay 50% (less if you bargain with them) of a months rent to a guarantor company who will pay the landlord if you renig and then go after you. In reality this is just an extra way to bilk the customer. I’m ok with your idea of holding a deposit if this can be done with no or a very little “administration fee”. This is a similar idea to the guarantee company you *must* use when you get a home loan (as if repossesion of the house wasn’t enough).

Actually your idea does bring up a good point. This should be done through a bank account with a few special settings/restrictions.
* The account is in the individual’s name.
* For each “guarantee” contract
+ There are clear criteria for default payment/use of funds to the landlord/etc.
+ There is clear criteria for release of funds back to the account holder (or a time limit)
+ The account holder cannot withdraw their account below the guarantee amount.

To be clear, I would like to see less monetary “guarantees”, but if we have to play along (“everybody see does it”) then I’d like to not get bilked if possible.