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Rental Guarantors in Japan: How the System Works

You found the apartment, you filled in the application, and then the agent called back with a soft "it didn't pass" and no real explanation — was it your visa, your income, your paperwork, or just the building? Somewhere in that process you almost certainly met the two words that decide more than most newcomers realize: hoshonin (保証人, "guarantor") and hoshonin gaisha (保証会社, "guarantor company"). Knowing what they are, what a guarantor company typically charges, why foreign applicants get screened out more often than the average tenant, and what to do when no personal guarantor is available to you is often what separates a second rejection from a signed lease.

Hoshonin vs. hoshonin gaisha: two different things

Historically, renting an apartment in Japan required a hoshonin — a personal guarantor, usually a family member, close relative, or sometimes an employer, who signed the lease alongside you and agreed to cover unpaid rent or damages if you could not. For a newcomer without family in Japan, this was often the single biggest obstacle to renting at all.

Over the past two decades, a second option has become standard across most of the market: the hoshonin gaisha, a rent-guarantee company. Instead of asking a person to vouch for you, you pay a company a fee, and the company contractually takes on the guarantor role — reimbursing the landlord if rent goes unpaid, then pursuing the tenant separately for repayment. Today, many landlords and management companies require a guarantor company on every lease regardless of whether you also have a personal guarantor, and in a large share of the current market, a guarantor company alone (with no personal hoshonin at all) is accepted. Which combination a given building requires — guarantor company only, personal guarantor only, or both — is set by that landlord or management company, not by a single national rule, so it varies property to property.

What a guarantor company typically costs

Guarantor company fees are set by each company and vary by applicant, so treat any number here as a rough shape rather than a quote. The general pattern reported across the industry is a two-part fee: an initial fee charged when the lease starts, commonly discussed in the range of roughly a third to a full month's rent (some companies price higher, some lower, depending on the applicant's screening result), plus a smaller annual or biennial renewal fee for as long as you keep renting — often a flat amount in the low tens of thousands of yen, or a small percentage of rent charged monthly instead. Some companies offer a higher up-front fee in exchange for waiving renewal fees later. The guarantor company's fee is separate from, and in addition to, deposit (shikikin) and key money (reikin) if the property charges them. Because pricing genuinely differs by company and by applicant, confirm the exact fee structure in writing before signing anything.

The legal and regulatory backdrop

Two pieces of official background are useful for understanding why the system looks the way it does.

First, rent-guarantee companies are not licensed in the sense that, say, a real estate broker is. Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) runs a voluntary registration system for rent-guarantee businesses (家賃債務保証業者登録制度), created in 2017. A company can legally operate as a guarantor business without registering, but registered companies have agreed to meet MLIT's baseline requirements and are listed publicly, which is one reason the registered-company list is a more neutral starting point than any single company's own marketing.

Second, if you do use a personal hoshonin (an individual, not a company), Japan's Civil Code changed in a way that directly protects that person. Since an April 2020 revision to the Civil Code, an individual acting as guarantor under an open-ended ("root") guarantee contract — which includes most personal rental-guarantor arrangements — must have a maximum liability amount (極度額, kyokudogaku) written into the contract. If no maximum amount is stated, the individual's guarantee is void. This does not apply to guarantor companies (which are juridical persons, not individuals), but it matters if a friend, relative, or employer is being asked to sign as your personal guarantor: the contract should state a specific capped amount, not an open-ended promise.

Common reasons foreign applicants get screened out

Guarantor companies and landlords do not publish their exact screening criteria, and it varies by company, so nothing here should be read as a guarantee of why any specific application was declined. That said, a handful of patterns come up repeatedly for foreign applicants:

• Residence period shorter than the lease term. Standard leases in Japan commonly run two years. If your visa or residence status has less time remaining than the lease term, some guarantor companies and landlords treat this as a risk factor, since it raises the chance of a mid-lease departure.
• Short employment history. Recently arrived employees, or those still in a probation period, can look less stable to a screener than someone with a longer track record at the same employer — even if the job itself is secure.
• No emergency contact (kinkyu renrakusaki) inside Japan. Separate from the guarantor, many applications ask for a domestic emergency contact who is not your guarantor — someone reachable inside Japan. New arrivals without local friends, relatives, or a colleague willing to be listed can stumble on this step alone.
• Income relative to rent. A commonly used industry rule of thumb is that monthly income should be roughly three times the monthly rent, though the exact multiplier and how income is verified (pay slips, an employment certificate, a tax document) differs by company. Newcomers whose Japan-based income has not yet stabilized, or whose income is earned abroad, can have a harder time clearing this bar even at the same nominal income level as someone with a longer Japan work history.
• Language and paperwork friction. Not every guarantor company or landlord has a process built for non-Japanese-language applicants, and incomplete or unclear paperwork can produce a rejection that has nothing to do with creditworthiness at all.

None of this means an individual application was declined for any one of these specific reasons — agents are not always required to disclose why — but this is the general shape of what tends to trip up first-time foreign renters.

"Hoshonin fuyo" and foreigner-friendly options

You will also see listings advertised as hoshonin fuyo (保証人不要, "no guarantor required"). In practice this almost always means no personal guarantor is required — a guarantor company, and its fee, is still typically part of the deal. True zero-guarantor, zero-guarantor-company listings exist but are a minority of the market.

Rather than pointing you to any single company, two neutral, government-run resources are a reasonable starting point:

• MLIT publishes a public list of registered rent-guarantee companies that specifically offer foreign-language support, rather than a general list of every guarantor company on the market — useful if language during the application process is your main concern.
• MLIT's Safety Net Housing Information System is a searchable, official database of rental units registered as accepting tenants who can face difficulty securing housing — including foreign nationals, alongside elderly and low-income applicants, among others. It is not a guarantee any specific listing will accept you, but it is a non-commercial way to filter for housing that has opted into that framework.

Beyond the government resources above, a number of real estate agencies market themselves specifically to foreign tenants and advertise experience with guarantor-company screening and no-guarantor listings. We are not recommending a specific agency here.

The three routes at a glance

Which is right for you?

• Guarantor company. A good fit if you have no family in Japan to sign as a personal guarantor, or the building requires a guarantor company anyway (many do). Constraints: adds a two-part fee on top of deposit and key money, and screening can be harder for recently arrived foreign applicants.
• Personal guarantor. A good fit if you have a family member, relative, or employer in Japan willing and able to sign for you. Constraints: fewer buildings accept a personal guarantor alone, and the contract must state a capped maximum liability amount (kyokudogaku) or the guarantee is void.
• No-personal-guarantor routes. A good fit if you have no personal guarantor and want to filter for housing built to accept applicants who can face difficulty renting, or where language support matters — starting from MLIT's neutral lists. Constraints: "no guarantor required" usually still means a guarantor company (and its fee), and truly guarantor-free listings are a minority.

If your application is turned down

A single rejection is common enough in Japan's rental market that it is worth not over-reading it. A few general, non-legal next steps come up often:

• Ask the agent, in writing if possible, whether the issue was the guarantor company's screening or the landlord's own preference — the two are different, and a different guarantor company or a different building can produce a different result.
• Double-check that you had a valid Japan-based emergency contact listed separately from your guarantor, since this is an easy step to miss.
• If income verification was the issue, ask what documentation would have satisfied it (a longer pay history, an employment certificate, a guarantor with income) rather than assuming the number itself was the problem.
• Consider a hoshonin-fuyo or foreign-resident-oriented listing, or the Safety Net Housing system above, for your next search.

None of this is a promise that a second application will succeed — screening decisions are made by the guarantor company and landlord, not by any general rule.

Where to get help

This guide is general information about how the rental guarantor system works, not individual advice about your contract, your visa status, or a specific company's decision. For that, the following public contact points are a better source than a web search:

• For a dispute or complaint about a guarantor company, agent, or landlord — including anything that feels like unfair treatment in the application process — Japan's National Consumer Affairs Center (国民生活センター) coordinates local consumer affairs centers nationwide, reachable through the consumer hotline.
• Local governments often run a residential support council (居住支援協議会) that helps residents who are having difficulty securing housing, including in some cases by helping arrange an emergency contact.
• Questions specific to your residence status or visa should go to the Immigration Services Agency of Japan, not a rental guide.

Two related guides worth reading alongside this one: what happens to your deposit and the apartment's condition when you eventually move out is covered in our security deposit and move-out guide, and setting up the Japanese bank account you will likely need before you can even sign a lease is covered in our guide to opening a bank account in Japan.

Sources

Consulted and confirmed 2026-07-15.

• MLIT — Rent Guarantee Business Registration System (家賃債務保証業者登録制度): mlit.go.jp/jutakukentiku/house/jutakukentiku_house_fr7_000024.html
• MLIT — Support for Foreign Nationals in Looking for Rental Housing (外国人の民間賃貸住宅への円滑な入居について): mlit.go.jp/jutakukentiku/house/jutakukentiku_house_tk3_000017.html
• MLIT — List of registered rent-guarantee companies offering foreign-language support: mlit.go.jp/jutakukentiku/house/jutakukentiku_house_fr7_000031.html
• MLIT — Safety Net Housing Information System (セーフティネット住宅情報提供システム): safetynet-jutaku.mlit.go.jp/guest
• Civil Code of Japan, Article 465-2 (individual root guarantee contracts and the maximum-liability-amount requirement), official English translation, Japanese Law Translation (Ministry of Justice): japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en/laws/view/3494/en
• Ministry of Justice — explainer on the April 2020 Civil Code reform to guarantee rules: moj.go.jp/content/001399956.pdf
• National Consumer Affairs Center of Japan — consultation and dispute contact points: kokusen.go.jp/category/consult.html