Moving to Tokyo in March or April: plan around the peak

If your Tokyo job or course starts in April, you are moving in the same weeks as a large part of the country. Japan's transport ministry (国土交通省, MLIT) says that moving requests concentrate in March and April every year, and it asks people to avoid the peak dates when they can.

For someone arriving from abroad, the peak is not really about the moving truck. You arrive with luggage. The choice is between signing a lease early, so the apartment is waiting when you land, and staying in a temporary home when you arrive, then signing and moving after the peak. The first is usually cheaper. The second gives you time to see the apartment and to set up a phone and a bank account before you apply.

What the ministry's calendar shows

Each spring the ministry publishes a moving reservation calendar. It is built with the Japan Trucking Association from booking data at five large moving companies, and it marks each day as "some room", "busy" or "very busy". A day marked "some room" may still not give you the time you want, and a company may accept a single person's move on a day it refuses a family move.

The March 2026 release said there was more room from the second week of April. People who moved later told the ministry the price was lower than an end-of-March weekend and bookings were easier to get. The trucking association's own moving leaflet puts the peak at mid-March to early April and advises a weekday rather than a weekend or public holiday.

What else fills up in the same weeks

Gas needs a visit. In an apartment supplied by Tokyo Gas, someone has to be in the apartment when the gas is turned on, and a friend or colleague can attend instead of you. Tokyo Gas lists early March to early April among its busy periods. Applications open two months before the move, so book the visit as soon as you know the date you can collect your keys.

The ward office gets crowded too. Koto Ward tells residents that its counters are very busy from late March through April. In Koto, the moving-out form, 転出届 (tenshutsu todoke), can be filed online or by post from 14 days before you move. The moving-in form still needs a visit, and a foreign resident must report the new address within 14 days of moving.

Signing early or staying somewhere first

Signing early means the lease starts before you land, usually because your company or school arranged the apartment, or because the landlord accepts an application from abroad. You pay rent on an apartment you are not in yet, and you sign without seeing it. In return, nothing about your arrival depends on the peak except the gas visit and the ward office.

Staying somewhere first means a furnished or temporary home for the first weeks, where you can register your address if the ward allows it. You look at apartments in person, you set up a phone contract and a bank account from that address before a rental application asks for them, and you move after the peak. The guide on booking a first month before committing and the apartment search timeline cover those weeks.

What the two plans cost, with invented numbers

Here is an invented example, not a market estimate. You land on 25 March and start work on 1 April. The regular apartment costs ¥120,000 a month. A furnished temporary home costs ¥6,000 a night. Both plans are counted from 1 March to 9 May, so the same days are compared.

If you sign early, the lease starts on 1 March and you move in from the airport on 25 March. You pay March and April in full, ¥240,000, plus nine days of May at ¥120,000 × 9 ÷ 31, about ¥34,800. There is no mover, because your belongings arrive as luggage. That is ¥274,800, and 24 of those days are paid for while you are still abroad.

If you stay somewhere first, you live in the temporary home from 25 March to 9 May, 45 nights × ¥6,000 = ¥270,000. The regular lease starts on 1 May, so you pay the same nine days of May, ¥34,800. By May you own bedding, a desk and kitchen things, so you book a weekday mover inside Tokyo, say ¥40,000. That is ¥344,800.

Staying somewhere first costs about ¥70,000 more over the same dates, or about ¥30,000 more if your things fit in a taxi. That is the price of seeing the apartment before you sign, of having a phone and a bank account before the application, and of a move that falls after the peak. If someone you trust has already chosen the apartment, signing early is cheaper.

If you must move in the last week of March

If the start date and the apartment are both fixed, book the mover first, as soon as you know the date you can collect your keys. Get the estimate at a visit, not only by phone or online. The trucking association says phone-only estimates lead to misunderstandings about what the price covers. Choose a weekday if you can, and keep the paperwork, because the mover's responsibility for damage ends three months after delivery.

Book the gas visit the same day. The company says a last-minute request may not get the time you want, so if you cannot be there, name the person who will.

File the moving-out form as early as your ward allows, and go to the new ward office on a weekday morning rather than in the first days of April. Send the mail-forwarding form a week ahead, because Japan Post says registration takes three to seven working days and forwarding then runs for one year.

Golden Week follows at the end of April, and Tokyo Gas lists it as the next busy period, so anything you postpone from March can run into it. The Golden Week check-in guide covers that week.

If you would rather stay somewhere first and look for a regular apartment once movers and gas visits are easier to book, a furnished monthly home can cover those weeks. You can browse the current homes or send us your dates and what you need.