Guides
Booking & Decisions
The choices you make before you book — stay type, paperwork, length, comparison frameworks. Read these to walk into the booking with the right questions.
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August 22, 2026 NEW
Tokyo move-out: what to cancel first, what to close last
Most departure checklists are sorted by how important each job feels. Sorted that way, you pay for a month of internet you never used, and your deposit gets sent to an account you already closed. Sort by lead time instead.
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August 17, 2026 NEW
Student visa: your first 14 days at the Tokyo ward office
The digital-nomad guides on this site rest on one sequence: no residence card, no resident record, no ordinary lease. A Student residence status changes the first two steps. It does not change the third, and that is the part students get wrong.
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August 13, 2026 NEW
A Japanese passport doesn't come with a Tokyo address
Every guide to renting in Tokyo assumes you are a foreigner, or that you already live here. A returning citizen is neither. The ward office will not put you back on the resident register for a three-month stay, and that one refusal decides which apartments you can book at all.
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May 7, 2026
Tokyo monthly apartments: a foreigner's overview
Monthly mansion is what the Japanese property market calls the building. Midterm guest is what you actually are. The two words point at the same 30-night minimum from opposite ends, and the gap between them is where most foreign bookings go wrong.
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May 5, 2026
Tokyo monthly: the only DNV housing option, structurally
You read GaijinPot's rental guide and it lists juminhyo among the required documents. You read Real Estate Japan and it says you need a working or student visa. Neither piece mentions the digital nomad visa, which makes both pieces wrong for you in the exact way that costs the most money.
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May 1, 2026
What the MLIT 30-day-minimum letter actually says
Tokyo midterm operators cite a 30-day minimum like it is a fixed line. The actual 2018 government notification reads 1ヶ月 and pairs the duration rule with two operator-side conditions. Read the four sentences yourself before the next operator email tells you the booking failed for the wrong reason.
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April 25, 2026
Documents to book a furnished Tokyo apartment as a foreigner
Mid-term Tokyo operators ask for fewer documents than the long-lease horror stories suggest, but the four they do ask for are non-negotiable. Here is the exact list, what each one proves, and the cases where an operator can waive it.
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April 25, 2026
Start with 30 days, not 90, on your first Tokyo stay
Operators quote a cheaper per-night rate at 60 or 90 nights and the math looks like a free win. It isn't. On a first Tokyo stay, the bigger risk is committing to a unit, ward, or rhythm you'd want to change after week three, and the renewal-in-place option is almost always there.
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April 20, 2026
Ryokan Act vs Land and Building Leases Act: which one governs
When you book 60 nights in a furnished Tokyo unit, one of two statutes is doing the heavy lifting on your contract. The Ryokan Business Act treats the building as a regulated lodging facility. The Land and Building Leases Act treats it as a residence. The price gap, the cancellation grid, and your tenant rights all fall out of which side the building landed on at construction.
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April 20, 2026
Why Tokyo monthly rentals start at 30 nights
Look at almost any furnished Tokyo listing and the minimum stay is 1 month. No operator offers 14 or 21 nights. The 30-night floor is a legal line, set by how Japan classifies lodging.
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April 16, 2026
Golden Week and Obon check-in: how operators handle the holiday shutdown
If your move-in lands inside Golden Week or Obon, the office may be closed when your flight lands. Whether that ruins your check-in depends entirely on your operator's license type. Three categories, three different fallbacks, and the questions to ask before you book.
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April 14, 2026
Who actually qualifies for Japan's digital nomad visa
Japan's digital nomad visa has four hard gates: a JPY 10 million income floor, a nationality on the qualifying list, a private insurance policy that meets explicit minimums, and remote work performed only for non-Japanese clients. The vague middle is where motivated applicants get refused.
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April 11, 2026
Teiki-shakka: the fixed-term clause in your Tokyo lease
If your Tokyo midterm contract uses 定期借家, you're agreeing to a different statute than a regular renter. Two protections in 借地借家法 drop out: automatic renewal and the just-cause requirement on non-renewal. One smaller right comes back if your unit is under 200m² and you have to leave for a named reason.
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April 4, 2026
Why Tokyo furnished rentals start at 30 days
The unit sits empty for the rest of the month and the operator still won't book your 27 nights. The reason isn't preference; it's which paragraph of which Japanese law the building's license falls under. Same physical unit, different paperwork, different answer.
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March 31, 2026
What 'furnished' means in Tokyo, and what surprises foreigners
If you're booking a Tokyo monthly furnished apartment from a country where "furnished" means "fully equipped," you're about to get a few surprises. The bath is a soaking tub. The kitchen has two gas burners and no oven. Here's what actually shows up.
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March 28, 2026
Renewing a Tokyo monthly apartment in place: how it works
Most furnished mid-term operators in Tokyo will quote you a renewal price by day 15 of the first month. The booking screen says 30 nights because that's the contract you signed. The renewal is a separate transaction with its own price, paperwork, and deadline.
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March 23, 2026
The two-trip rule before a long Tokyo stay
I've been to Tokyo eight times and lived there once for 90 days. The thing I tell every friend now is the same: visit twice before you commit. The first trip teaches you the city you want. The second trip teaches you the city you'd actually live in.
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March 9, 2026
Tokyo hokenjo licensing for monthly furnished operators
A Tokyo midterm operator sits inside one of three regulatory boxes. The 30-night residential box has no hokenjo file. The ryokan box has a thick one. Knowing what the public health office actually inspects tells a 60-day stayer what kind of building they are about to sleep in.
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March 4, 2026
When to book a Tokyo midterm: lead time by season
Your Tokyo midterm arrival month decides how early to book. October and November are the hardest because Japanese second-half-year transfers and nice-weather walk-ins hit the same eight weeks. Summer and winter are easier. Here's the calendar.
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February 26, 2026
DNV vs tourist stamp vs business visa: Tokyo housing impact
Three legal statuses, three different operator answers, and one operator class that takes all three and charges more for the riskier two. Here is which status unlocks which apartment, and what the extra rent looks like in yen.
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February 7, 2026
Tokyo minpaku M-number lookup: verify the license before you pay
A Tokyo minpaku listing should publish a notification number that starts with M130. Tokyo's industrial-labour bureau publishes the full registry by ward as a PDF. If the operator's number isn't in the file, the listing isn't legal under the 2018 minpaku law.
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February 1, 2026
The email to send a Tokyo operator before booking
Before you wire ¥600,000 to a Tokyo operator you found online, send one email with six questions. The operator who answers all six in writing is your operator. The operator who ducks two of them is the warning sign you needed before signing.
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January 25, 2026
Tokyo monthly apartments: when to start hunting (30/60/90)
Most Tokyo apartment-hunt timelines online quote 8 to 12 weeks. That number is correct for a 2-year unfurnished lease and wrong for a 60-day furnished stay. The midterm furnished segment runs 5 to 21 days end-to-end, and most of those days are document review, not search.
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January 16, 2026
Building Co. approvals: who actually clears your Tokyo booking
The operator says yes; the Building Co. says yes; the landlord never enters the conversation. Most refusals on Tokyo monthly mansion bookings start at layer two of a four-link chain. Knowing which link spoke tells you whether the no is open to change, worth escalating, or final.
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January 7, 2026
Guarantor companies on a 60-day Tokyo stay: usually nothing happens
You read that renting in Tokyo means a guarantor company, half a month's rent in fees, and a Japanese-citizen emergency contact. On a 60-day furnished stay none of that applies. The operator already does the work the guarantor company would do. Here's what they handle, and the small set of cases where they still ask.
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January 5, 2026
Fire code by license tier: residential, ryokan, minpaku
A Tokyo apartment, a ryokan-licensed studio, and a minpaku room can sit on the same floor of one building. The fire equipment in each one is different. The operator's license type already told you which set you walked into.
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December 21, 2025
Choosing a 1–6 month Tokyo stay: which kind to book
A 1–6 month Tokyo stay sits between a tourist booking and a residential lease. Four options serve it: furnished apartment, sharehouse, hotel or aparthotel, and Airbnb. The right one depends on who you are.
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December 8, 2025
Renting in Tokyo as a foreigner without a 2-year lease
The relocation forums describe a world of guarantor companies, key money, and 2-year contracts. For a 90-day furnished stay almost none of that applies, and the real hard parts are different ones. A walk through what actually happens between inquiry and keys.
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