Refused a Tokyo apartment as a foreigner: what to do next

If an agent tells you a home is 外国人不可 (gaikokujin fuka — not available to foreign nationals), or your application has just been refused, ask one question before you do anything else: who said no, and at which step? The answer decides what to change. The owner, the agent and the guarantee company can each say no, and each one needs a different fix.

Who actually said no

The ministry's guidebook for foreign renters describes how it usually goes. At the first visit, the agent asks about your name, job, number of people, income, Japanese ability and whether you have a guarantor. If you like a home and apply, the agent and the landlord check your application together. A guarantee company or a personal guarantor is usually required as well, and the guarantee company runs its own check.

If the agent says no before you apply, they are usually passing on the owner's instructions about which applicants to consider. Arguing with the agent won't change that; asking the same agent for other homes might. A refusal after you applied can come from the owner, the management company or the guarantee company. Ask the agent plainly: "Was it the owner or the guarantee company?" You may not get the reason, but the answer to that question tells you what to change.

When the guarantee company declined, the fix is a different guarantee company or a different way of showing you can pay. When the owner declined, the fix is a different home, ideally one whose owner has already said yes to foreign applicants.

Ask for a guarantee company with language support

The landlord or management company chooses the guarantee company, not you. You can still ask the agent to propose one from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism's list of registered rent guarantee companies that provide language support for foreigners. The list has 52 companies as of 30 September 2026. Registration is voluntary, so a company that isn't on the list isn't doing anything wrong. A listed company, though, has told the ministry it offers language support for foreign applicants.

If the agent says the owner only works with one company, ask whether that company has a plan for foreign applicants, and what it needs: usually a residence card, proof of income or employment, and an emergency contact in Japan. The guarantor guide explains the fees and what the company can charge you later.

Have an emergency contact in Japan ready

The ministry's sample application form has separate boxes for an emergency contact in Japan and an emergency contact in your home country. An emergency contact is not a guarantor; they only agree to be called. Leaving that box empty gives an owner or guarantee company an easy reason to say no. A colleague, a supervisor at work, a teacher or a Japanese friend can fill it, and it helps if they can answer the phone in Japanese. Ask them first and give them the actual wording on the form.

Put your employer's or school's name and phone number on the form as well. A letter from your employer or school confirming your position, start date and salary answers most of the income questions before they are asked. The documents guide explains what to send and what to keep private.

The ministry's page for foreign renters publishes the guidebook, sample application forms and sample lease contracts in 14 languages, including English, Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Nepali and Tagalog. If an agent hesitates because of language, point them to those files.

Registered safety-net housing

Japan also has rental homes registered for people who have trouble finding housing. The owner of a registered home has agreed not to turn away applicants from the groups it registered for. The law calls these groups 住宅確保要配慮者 (jūtaku kakuho hairyosha — people who need help finding a home). The ministry's explanation says the law itself names low-income households, disaster victims, older people, people with disabilities and families with children, and that a ministry rule adds foreign residents to the list. Tokyo gives these homes the nickname 東京ささエール住宅 (Tokyo Sasa-ēru jūtaku).

You search them on the national safety-net housing information system: choose Tokyo, then filter by rent, layout and station. Each listing states which groups it accepts, because owners can register for some groups and not others, so read that line before calling. Some registered homes also take tenants from outside these groups, while homes marked 専用住宅 (sen'yō jūtaku — dedicated housing) are reserved for people in them.

Tokyo's tenant leaflet for the scheme also explains the support organisations that work alongside it. A 居住支援法人 (kyojū shien hōjin — a housing support organisation approved by the prefecture) can help you look, answer questions, and, for registered homes, act as your rent guarantor instead of a person. The leaflet says to start with your ward's welfare or housing section. The Tokyo Metropolitan Government's own contact for the scheme is 03-5388-3320.

Some wards go further. If you live in Setagaya and someone in your household is a foreign national, the ward's housing support centre will send you information on empty private rentals. It works with real estate associations that have an agreement with the ward, and its number is 03-6379-1420. Ask your own ward office whether it has something similar.

UR housing

UR rental housing requires no key money, no agent fee, no renewal fee and no guarantor. Its deposit is two months' rent: on an invented rent of ¥100,000 a month, that is ¥200,000 upfront, with no key money or agent fee added on top. UR has its own rules on who can apply. For foreign nationals, eligibility depends on immigration status. You qualify if you hold a residence card as someone allowed to stay in Japan for more than three months, or if you are a permanent resident, a diplomat or an official. UR also has an income test. The no-guarantor guide walks through its income table and the savings and prepayment alternatives.

What the law does and doesn't do

Japan has no law that specifically bans a private landlord from refusing a tenant because of nationality, and no office can order an owner to rent to you. That is why the practical routes above matter more than a complaint. The numbers are public: in the Ministry of Justice's survey of foreign residents published in 2017, 2,044 of the 4,252 people who answered had looked for a home in Japan in the previous five years. Of those, 39.3% said they had been refused because they were foreign, 41.2% because they had no Japanese guarantor, and 26.8% had given up after seeing a listing marked 外国人お断り (gaikokujin okotowari — no foreigners).

If you want to report a refusal, the Legal Affairs Bureau runs a human rights consultation line for foreign languages on 0570-090-911, weekdays 9:00 to 17:00, in English, Chinese, Korean, Filipino, Portuguese, Vietnamese, Nepali, Spanish, Indonesian and Thai. The call goes through an interpreter to the bureau for your area. It is a consultation line, not a court: it can advise you and record what happened, but it cannot make the owner rent to you.

What to send the agent now

A message that moves things forward looks like this: "I'd like to keep looking with you. Please show me only homes where the owner accepts foreign applicants. I have a residence card, a letter from my employer, and an emergency contact in Japan who speaks Japanese. If the owner needs a guarantee company, could we use one from the ministry's list of companies with language support?" Change the details to match your situation.

If you need somewhere to live while you keep looking, you can browse HalfKey's current furnished homes or send us your dates and what you need.