JAPAN / Society

'No foreign tenants' — and not much you can do about it

Landlords are within their rights to refuse to rent to foreign residents, but services are stepping in to bridge the gap

A billboard stands outside a real estate agency in Ebisu, Tokyo. Nearly 40 percent of foreign residents who have looked for housing within their past five years in Japan have been rejected at some point, according to a recent Justice Ministry survey. | MAGDALENA OSUMI

By Magdalena Osumi
Staff Writer

Jul 2, 2017

With the potential tenant having made her decision after much careful deliberation, a real estate agent in Tokyo calls a property management company to check whether the 30-square-meter apartment in western Tokyo is vacant.

"Would the landlord mind having a foreign tenant?" the agent asks, and after a brief conversation, he looks across at the house-hunter, frowns sympathetically and crosses his fingers to form an X before hanging up. "Gaikokujin dame" ("No foreigners"), he explains, is the reason for the denial.

Nearly 40 percent of foreign residents who have looked for housing within their past five years in Japan have been through this soul-destroying experience of rejection, according to a recent Justice Ministry survey of non-Japanese living in the country.