Monthly Apartments in Japan for Older Visitors

Four kinds of room

A room that is rented by the month in Japan is not one product. A listing can be a hotel room, a minpaku home, a monthly rental or an ordinary lease, and the law differs for each.

The Ryokan Business Act, the Private Lodging Business Act and the lease law set no visa test for the guest. Their main duties fall on the operator or landlord. A landlord can still decline an application: the English sample application published by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) says it will not be accepted automatically and that reasons for refusal will not be given.

The table sorts the four types. Use it to decide which question to put to the operator first.

Where lodging ends

The Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare (MHLW) separates lodging from renting with two tests. In lodging, the operator is responsible for hygiene in the room, and the guest in principle does not make the room a home base.

A joint notice from the Japan Tourism Agency and MHLW (November 2018) adds a yardstick. MHLW has asked local governments to set a guide period, and a month is the preferred length. A service shorter than the guide period is basically judged to be lodging. A local government that already uses a different period may keep it. A stay of a month or more is therefore not a rental by length alone, because the two tests still apply.

MHLW's own chart puts the weekly mansion on the lodging side and the monthly mansion on the rental side, with marks at 7 days and one month. A room let for 25 days falls short of a one-month guide period and would basically be judged lodging where that guide applies. The local public health center (hokenjo, 保健所) is the office to ask.

The Ryokan Business Act also has a boarding-house category (geshuku, 下宿) for fees charged in units of a month or more. If an operator says the room is covered by a boarding-house permit, ask to see it.

Why the type matters

The permit duty sits with the operator. Article 3 of the Ryokan Business Act requires a permit from whoever runs the business, Article 10 penalizes running one without it, and we know of no provision that penalizes a guest for staying. A guest's own duty is to give true details for the register when asked, and giving false ones is an offence (Article 12).

The guest's risk is practical. Article 7-2 lets a governor order an unlicensed business to stop in a serious, urgent case, and a licensed operator can be suspended under Article 8. Either would leave an older guest looking for a room at short notice. That is our reasoning from how the rules work, and we know of no figures on how often it happens. Ask the operator, in writing, whether the room is let as lodging or as a lease and who holds the permit or notification.

Hotels and ryokan must keep a guest register. For a foreign guest with no address in Japan, the Enforcement Rule of the Act adds nationality and passport number. Minpaku hosts must also keep a register under Article 8 of the Private Lodging Business Act, so expect to be asked for your details. For a minpaku, Article 7 also requires the host to give foreign tourist guests foreign-language guidance on how to use the equipment.

Short leases in law

Japan's lease law is written for long tenancies. A building lease of less than one year is treated as having no fixed term (Article 29), so a three-month stay needs a deliberate choice of lease type.

Two routes give a short, fixed end date. A fixed-term lease (teiki tatemono chintaishaku, 定期建物賃貸借) under Article 38 has no renewal, but it must be made in writing or as an electronic record, and the landlord must give a written explanation beforehand. Without that explanation the no-renewal clause is void. Article 40 sets aside the whole chapter on building leases, including Articles 29 and 38, when a lease is clearly made for temporary use.

Article 38, paragraph 7 lets a tenant of a fixed-term residential lease under 200 square meters end it on one month's notice when a job transfer, medical treatment, care of a relative or similar unavoidable circumstances make it hard to use the home as a base. Paragraph 8 voids contract terms that are worse for the tenant. Article 40 sets that chapter aside, so a temporary-use lease does not carry this right. Whether a visitor's room counts as a home base under paragraph 7 is a question for a lawyer. What you can do is ask which of the three lease types you are signing (ordinary, fixed-term or temporary-use) and read the early-ending clause before you pay.

Guarantors and contacts

A regular lease is built around a guarantor. MLIT's English apartment guidebook says a guarantor or a rental guarantee company is necessary in Japan, and its sample application has a guarantor section marked for non-Japanese applicants.

The same guidebook says it usually takes one to two weeks from application to move-in. For a 60-day visit, that is a large share of the stay. Operators of monthly rooms describe lighter terms, but no official source sets them, so ask what the room requires before you pay anything.

Expect an emergency-contact question either way. MLIT's sample forms carry a field for a contact in case of emergency, and the guidebook's checklist lists both an emergency contact in Japan and one in the home country. Give a person who can be reached in Japan and one abroad, and write the time difference next to the abroad number.

An older guest should expect extra questions. A fiscal 2021 MLIT survey of 187 member organizations of a property-management association found that about 70 percent of landlords felt reluctant about elderly applicants. Among the 76 organizations that restrict some applicants, 90.9 percent named worry about a death in the room as the main reason. These are landlords of ordinary rentals; the survey does not describe monthly-rental operators.

Money and notice

The cost structure of a regular lease is the clearest sign that it is the wrong tool for a short visit. MLIT's guidebook gives a rule of thumb of four to seven months of rent in payments at signing.

It lists security deposit, key money, agency fee, damage insurance premium, the first rent and the common service fee. A guarantee company fee is often about half a month of rent for a two-year guarantee. The usual contract period is two years, and notice to end a lease is usually given one to two months ahead.

The table turns those points into questions for any room, including a monthly one. Where the right column has no official figure, the answer has to come from the operator.

Daily-life checks

No national standard sets step-free or bathroom rules for a monthly room, so these checks are our suggestions. Photographs and a floor plan from the operator answer most of them before you fly.

• Floor and lift: ask which floor the room is on and whether a lift reaches it. A wheelchair or stretcher needs a clear route.
• Entrance: ask whether there is a step from the street to the front door, and a step inside the doorway.
• Bathroom: ask for the height of the tub edge and the threshold. A shower seat is a reasonable request.
• Sleeping: ask whether the bed is a raised bed or a mattress on the floor. Getting up from the floor is hard with a bad knee or hip.
• Inside stairs: some flats are split over two levels. Ask for the plan.
• Nearby care: ask how far the nearest clinic and pharmacy are, and whether the operator's contact speaks English on the phone.
• Night route: confirm where the toilet is relative to the bed, and whether the route is lit.

Fire and emergencies

Article 9-2 of the Fire Service Act requires the people responsible for a home to install and maintain residential fire-prevention equipment, with the standards set by municipal ordinance.

Ask where the alarm is and who checks it. For a minpaku, Article 6 of the Private Lodging Business Act also requires emergency lighting, display of evacuation routes and similar safety measures. For a hotel or a monthly rental, ask the same questions directly.

Ask for the building manager's number and the hours it is answered. At night a contact who can reach the building quickly matters more than a phone number in a brochure.

Keep the address in Japanese for ambulance crews. Who to call for a health problem and what insurance to check are covered once in one month in Japan for older travelers. A room does not change a visitor's insurance position. For a sudden illness during a trip, see what to do when an elderly parent falls sick while visiting Japan.

When plans change

A lease and a permitted stay are separate. Immigration sets how long a visitor may stay, and a rental contract does not extend it.

If an illness keeps you in Japan past the planned date, you may need to extend the room and the stay at once. The room can be extended only if the operator agrees. The stay is a matter for Immigration, as laid out in Japan's 90-day limit for older visitors.

If you leave early because of a hospital stay, rent already paid may not come back. Ask before signing, using the refund line in the table above. For a plan built backwards from day 90, see three months in Japan for older travelers, and for a sixty-day stay with two bases, two months in Japan for older travelers.

Questions in writing

Send these before paying a deposit. A written answer is a record if the room does not match the description.

• Is the room let as lodging or as a lease? If a lease, which type?
• Who holds the permit, notification or management duty, and how can I contact them?
• What is the total cost to move in, and what comes back when I leave?
• What is the earliest date I can end the stay, and what happens if I am in hospital?
• Is a guarantor needed? Which emergency contacts does the form ask for?
• Is there a lift, a step at the door, and a raised bed?
• Where is the fire alarm, and who is the night contact?
• Can I have the contract in English as a reference, and a Japanese original?

Where help fits

For permits, ask the local public health center. The 2018 joint notice tells listing sites to check with the ryokan-business department of the local government when they are unsure whether the Ryokan Business Act applies.

Japan Care Concierge is a social-welfare-corporation-backed care concierge, not a travel agency, and it does not book rooms or sign contracts. If a stay needs daily assistance, medication checks or a bilingual review of whether a room fits the guest's health, its accessible travel support service covers lodging accessibility and the medical groundwork around a stay the family has already chosen.

For medicines during the stay, see bringing medication to Japan. For the broader stay, start with the pillar on long-term stays in Japan. MLIT's sample forms say the Japanese versions of the contract and other documents are the ones used, so have the Japanese terms explained before you sign.