In Japan, a landlord really is a lord, and though laws exist to protect renters they are easily circumvented by property owners who don't like them. The three classic no-nos of rental properties -- no pets, no pianos, no employees of the "water trade" -- have recently been augmented with "no old people." If you're a single woman, you'd also better be ready for a fight. And we're talking about Japanese citizens here.

On this week's "Sunday Big Variety" (TV Tokyo; Mar. 9, 7 p.m.), video crews tag along with various families as they try to secure new rental housing. The difficulties they encounter transcend the usual landlord meanness, but in all cases the problems are linked to an institutional ambivalence toward the needs and wants of renters.

In one segment, a newly married couple is forced to live apart from each other. The husband lives with his parents in Meguro, Tokyo, while the wife and the couple's infant daughter live with her parents in Saitama. Because the husband works irregular hours at a publishing firm in central Tokyo, he wants to live in the middle of the city, however, they cannot find a place that matches both their budget and their needs.