Short-Term Rentals
Short-term rentals in Tokyo
Furnished apartments from 30 nights. One monthly price that covers rent, utilities, and Wi-Fi, with English support from your first message to move-out day.
A short-term rental in Tokyo is a furnished apartment you book for weeks or months instead of years. You get a real home with a kitchen and a washing machine, at one flat monthly price, without the paperwork of a Japanese lease.
There is one fact worth knowing before you search: in Tokyo, short-term rentals start at 30 nights. Japanese law reserves stays under 30 nights for hotels and licensed minpaku, so an ordinary apartment cannot host a two-week stay legally. The practical result is a market built around the month. If your trip is ten days, book a hotel. If it is a month or more, a short-term apartment is usually the better home and the better deal.
From 30 nights up, the apartment wins on almost every axis. You cook instead of eating out three times a day. You do laundry at home. You have a desk, a sofa, and a door that separates work from sleep. And the flat monthly price lands well below what four weeks of hotel nights add up to.
The category blurs into its neighbors at the edges. Staying one to six months, you will also see the same product called mid-term rentals in Tokyo; staying by the calendar month, it is sold as monthly apartments in Tokyo. The names differ, the apartments are the same: furnished, contract in months, one inclusive price.
HalfKey operates furnished short-term apartments across central Tokyo. Every unit is one we manage ourselves, which is why we can skip the guarantor, answer in English, and hand you keys within days of your inquiry.
The Comparison
Short-term apartment vs hotel vs Airbnb
Three ways to stay in Tokyo for a month or more. Here is how they compare once the stay passes a few weeks.
| Short-term apartment | Hotel | Airbnb | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Minimum stay | 30 nights | 1 night | 1 night, on capped minpaku supply |
| Space | A full apartment: 17 to 60 m² | One room, usually under 20 m² | Varies widely by listing |
| Kitchen and laundry | Full kitchen and washing machine | Rarely either | Sometimes, listing by listing |
| Price over a month | One flat monthly price from about ¥110,000 | Nightly rate; roughly 2 to 3 times more over a month | Nightly rate plus cleaning and service fees |
| Price certainty | Fixed for the contract | Moves with demand and season | Moves with demand and season |
| Who you deal with | The operator that runs the apartment | Front desk | An individual host through a platform |
| Paperwork | Simple digital contract, no guarantor | None | Platform booking, no contract |
Hotels and Airbnb are built for nights; a short-term apartment is built for weeks. The hotel wins on flexibility and the first few days. Airbnb wins when you genuinely need nine nights in a specific neighborhood. Past 30 nights, the apartment wins on price, space, and the simple fact that it works like a home.
The Airbnb comparison deserves one honest note. Sub-30-night listings in Tokyo run on minpaku licenses that cap each home at 180 hosted nights a year, which keeps supply thin and prices volatile. That is not a flaw in Airbnb; it is the regulation doing its job. It just means the monthly contract market, which has no such cap, is where month-plus stays get their depth and their better prices.
What You Get
What furnished short-term apartments include
On a short stay, setup time is the enemy. You do not have a spare week to open a utility account, wait for an internet installation, or shop for a duvet. A short-term apartment only makes sense if it works completely from the first hour.
HalfKey furnishes every apartment itself, to one standard. A studio or a one-bedroom arrives ready to live in: you cook dinner the night you land, do laundry the same week, and take a video call without buying a single thing.
The monthly price is designed to be the whole price. Rent, electricity, gas, water, and Wi-Fi sit in one number, so what the listing says is close to what the month costs. There are no booking fees, no cleaning fees added at checkout, and no meter surprises at the end.
- Double bed with bedding, sofa, dining table and chairs
- Working kitchen with cookware, plates, and cutlery
- Washing machine and air conditioning
- Electricity, gas, and water included
- Wi-Fi from day one
- Free monthly cleaning and English-speaking support
Who Books Short-Term
Four situations where short-term is the right call
A short-term stay usually has a reason attached: an arrival, a gap, a season, a deadline. If one of these four sounds like yours, this is the housing built for it.
Your first month in Japan
You have just landed for a new job or a new chapter, and everything is unfamiliar at once. A furnished apartment for the first month gives you a stable base while you open a bank account, get a phone number, and learn the city, without committing to a neighborhood you have never slept in.
You are between homes
Your lease ended before the next one starts, a renovation ran long, or a landlord changed plans. Gap housing is stressful precisely because it is short. A 30-night furnished apartment absorbs the gap without a hotel bill or a panicked lease signing.
A season in Tokyo
A summer program, a semester abroad, a long family visit, one season of remote work from Japan. The stay has natural start and end dates, so the housing should match them: book the weeks you need and hand back the keys when the season ends.
A work sprint
A one-month client engagement, a training rotation, a product launch. You need a desk, fast Wi-Fi, and a quiet apartment near the office for exactly as long as the work lasts. You book the month, extend if the sprint extends, and leave without exit fees.
How It Works
Booking a short-term rental with HalfKey
There is no viewing circuit and no application packet. Most bookings go from first message to confirmed apartment in a few days.
Tell us your dates and budget
Message us on WhatsApp or email with your arrival date, stay length, and monthly budget. You can write from overseas, before you have a visa stamp or a Japanese phone number.
Pick your apartment
We reply in English with the available apartments that fit, including photos, exact locations, and the full monthly price. Ask us anything about the unit or the neighborhood before you decide.
Sign and move in
You sign digitally and pay the first month. On arrival day you get the keys and the Wi-Fi password, and the apartment is already cleaned, furnished, and running.
Read before you book a short stay
The short-stay market has rules that are invisible until they cost you money: the 30-night line, the difference between a booking and a contract, the trap of committing three months to a neighborhood you have never seen. Our guides cover them before you book, not after.
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Why Tokyo furnished rentals start at 30 days
The legal line behind the market: what the 30-night floor is, where it comes from, and what it means for your booking.
Read guide -
Start with 30 days, not 90, on your first Tokyo stay
Why a shorter first booking beats a long one, and how to extend once you know the neighborhood fits.
Read guide -
Choosing a 1-6 month Tokyo stay: which kind to book
Furnished apartment, sharehouse, hotel, or Airbnb: how the four options trade off for your stay length.
Read guide
Available Now
Short-term apartments you can book today
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Studio in Chitose-Funabashi
Setagaya · 15 min walk to Chitose-Funabashi · 17 m²
From ¥110,000/month
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1 Bedroom in Shirokane
Minato · 9 min walk to Shirokane-Takanawa · 30 m²
From ¥240,000/month
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1 Bedroom in Yotsuya
Shinjuku · 6 min walk to Akebonobashi · 42 m²
From ¥280,000/month
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3 Bedroom in Nakameguro
Meguro · 12 min walk to Yutenji · 62 m²
From ¥360,000/month
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1 Bedroom + Study in Nakameguro
Meguro · 8 min walk to Ebisu · 61 m²
From ¥390,000/month
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2 Bedroom in Nishinippori
Arakawa · 2 min walk to Shin-Mikawashima · 40 m²
From ¥230,000/month
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
What counts as a short-term rental in Tokyo? +
Anything shorter than a standard two-year lease. In practice the market splits at 30 nights: under that, only hotels and licensed minpaku can host you legally, and from 30 nights furnished apartments on monthly contracts open up. HalfKey short-term apartments start at 30 nights and run in one-month steps.
Why do most short-term rentals start at 30 days? +
Japanese law. Stays under 30 nights fall under hotel and minpaku licensing, so an ordinary residential apartment cannot legally host them. A 30-night stay can sit on a normal lease contract, which is why so much of Tokyo's short-term market is built around exactly one month.
Is a short-term apartment cheaper than a hotel? +
Over a month, usually much cheaper. A basic Tokyo business hotel at around ¥12,000 a night comes to roughly ¥360,000 a month for one room with no kitchen or laundry. Furnished short-term studios start near ¥110,000 a month with utilities and Wi-Fi included, and you can cook and do laundry at home.
How is this different from Airbnb? +
Airbnb stays under 30 nights run on minpaku licenses capped at 180 nights a year, so supply is thin and prices swing with demand. For a month or longer you can instead rent directly from the operator on a simple contract: a fixed price, a real apartment, and a team you can reach when something breaks.
What is included in a furnished short-term apartment? +
A HalfKey short-term apartment comes fully furnished: bed and bedding, sofa, dining table, a working kitchen, washing machine, and air conditioning. Electricity, gas, water, and Wi-Fi are included in the monthly price unless a specific listing states otherwise, and English-speaking support is available throughout your stay.
Do I need a guarantor or key money? +
No. HalfKey short-term rentals require no Japanese guarantor, no guarantor company, and no key money. You pay the first month and, on some units, a small refundable deposit. That is the entire move-in cost.
Can I extend a short-term stay? +
Usually, yes. If the apartment is free after your end date, you can extend in one-month steps. Tell us two to three weeks before your end date so we can confirm. Many guests book one month first and extend once they know the neighborhood fits.
Ready for your Tokyo stay?
Tell us your dates and budget. We will send the apartments that fit, in English, usually within a day.