The short version
- Four operators dominate English-language search results for share houses in Japan: Oak House, Cross House, Sakura House, and Borderless House. This page compares them on the axes that actually decide an application, not on marketing copy.
- None of the four publish an English pricing page precise enough to quote a firm number here. Deposit, contract fee, and minimum term are marked "unconfirmed" throughout — confirm the current figure with the operator before you apply.
- This site earns a commission if you apply through the Oak House or Cross House links below; Sakura House and Borderless House are plain links with no commercial relationship to us. The commission amount differs between Oak House and Cross House, and it played no part in how any row of the table is ordered.
- Checked 2026-07-20. Share-house pricing and campaigns change often, so treat every figure below as a starting estimate, not a quote.
You already worked through whether a share house suits you, or you searched directly for a company name and landed here instead. Either path leads to the same four names: Oak House, Cross House, Sakura House, Borderless House. Their own sites all read confidently, and none of them will tell you where they lose to a competitor. If you have not yet settled on the format itself, our guide to how share houses work in Japan and the wider comparison of ways to rent are the better starting point. This page assumes that decision is made and turns to the narrower one: which operator do you actually contact first?
Four names, briefly
Oak House is one of the largest share-house operators in Japan by number of properties, and it markets itself directly at international residents; the operator has stated that roughly seven in ten of its tenants are foreign nationals. Its English site advertises no guarantor, no deposit, and no key money, with a one-time contract fee instead. That fee is reported around ¥50,000 on some pages, though this is unconfirmed for current listings and worth checking room by room.
Cross House pitches itself on cost: furnished rooms with appliances included, and a headline of no key money or agency fee on many listings. Its English support runs through a site and an inquiry form rather than the more built-out bilingual operation Oak House and Sakura House describe, which is worth weighing if English-language handling matters more to you than the up-front number.
Sakura House has marketed to foreign residents in Japan for longer than most competitors, and third-party write-ups consistently describe it as an English-first operator with a large Tokyo portfolio. Beyond that reputation, we could not independently confirm its current fee schedule or guarantor policy in English for this table; treat those rows as a starting point, not a quote.
Borderless House runs on a different premise from the other three: houses are built around a deliberate mix of Japanese and foreign residents, marketed as language exchange under one roof rather than an expat-only building. If practicing Japanese with housemates is part of what you want from a share house, this is the one operator here organized around that goal specifically. As with Sakura House, its detailed pricing and contract terms were not independently confirmed for this table.
Side by side
The table below is not a ranking. It lines the four operators up against the questions that actually decide an application, and it leaves a gap wherever we could not confirm a number in English from an official source. A blank or "unconfirmed" cell is not a guess dressed up as fact; it is an honest admission that the figure needs a direct check before you rely on it.
The † mark on the Oak House and Cross House columns below flags an affiliate relationship, explained in full just above the official links further down this page.
| What matters to you | Oak House † | Cross House † | Sakura House | Borderless House |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| English support | English site and application; operator describes bilingual staff | English site and inquiry form; support depth worth confirming before you apply | Long-running English-first specialist, per third-party write-ups | English site; houses mix Japanese and foreign residents by design |
| Up-front cost | No deposit or key money advertised; one-time contract fee reported around ¥50,000 — unconfirmed | No key money or agency fee advertised on many rooms — unconfirmed for your specific listing | Unconfirmed — not independently verified in English for this table | Unconfirmed — not independently verified in English for this table |
| Guarantor | Not required, per the operator | Not required in most cases, per third-party write-ups — unconfirmed, confirm for your room | Not required, per third-party write-ups — unconfirmed | Not required, per third-party write-ups — unconfirmed |
| Rent range, Tokyo (private room) | Roughly ¥30,000–¥65,000/month, per the operator — unconfirmed for current listings | From the ¥30,000s/month, per the operator — unconfirmed for current listings | Mid to somewhat higher, per third-party write-ups — unconfirmed | Mid-range, per third-party write-ups — unconfirmed |
| Minimum contract | Unconfirmed — check current terms with the operator | Unconfirmed — check current terms with the operator | From about one month, per third-party write-ups — unconfirmed | From about one month, per third-party write-ups — unconfirmed |
| What it's known for | Large property count; foreign residents reported at around 70% of tenants | Cost-focused pitch; furnished rooms with appliances included | Long-established foreign-resident specialist with a large Tokyo portfolio | Mixed Japanese/foreign households, built around language exchange |
† Applying through the Oak House or Cross House links in this article may earn this site a commission, as disclosed just below. Sakura House and Borderless House carry no such relationship.
Official pages, in the same order as the table:
Disclosure: the Oak House and Cross House links above and the Oak House button below use affiliate links (marked with † in the table above). If you apply through one, this site may earn a commission at no extra cost to you, and the two programs' payouts differ from each other. Sakura House and Borderless House are ordinary links with no commission attached. None of that relationship determined how any row above is worded or how the operators are ordered — the order follows the card layout below, not the higher-paying option.
Oak House One of the four operators compared above
- One of the largest share-house operators in Japan by number of properties
- The operator has stated that roughly seven in ten of its tenants are foreign nationals
- Advertises no guarantor, no deposit, and no key money, with a one-time contract fee instead
Reading the "unconfirmed" rows honestly
A comparison table with this many hedges can look evasive. It is the opposite. Share-house pricing changes with campaigns, room availability, and even the season, and English-language pages are not always the version an operator updates first. Oak House and Cross House publish enough on their own English pages that we could summarize their pitch directly, with the caveat that exact figures still move. Sakura House and Borderless House are established operators covered repeatedly in third-party English write-ups, but we did not have a current English fee schedule to quote with confidence for either. Printing a number anyway would read cleaner. It would also very possibly be wrong by the time you read this.
Matching the axis you actually care about
No single operator wins every row above, and this table is not built to produce a winner. What tends to work better is picking the one or two rows that are non-negotiable for you and letting those narrow the list:
- Widest inventory and an established foreign-resident share: Oak House's scale and reported tenant mix make it a reasonable first contact if you want a large pool of listings to browse.
- Lowest advertised entry cost: Cross House's zero key-money, zero agency-fee pitch is worth checking first if minimizing day-one cash is the priority, alongside its slightly lighter English support.
- Longest track record marketing specifically to English speakers: Sakura House's history in that niche is the reason it turns up in nearly every English-language roundup of the category.
- Wanting Japanese housemates, not just a foreigner-friendly building: Borderless House is the one operator here built around that mix on purpose, rather than as an incidental result of who applies.
Whichever one or two you contact first, verify the same handful of things directly with the operator before you commit: the exact deposit and any contract fee, whether a guarantor or emergency contact is required for your specific visa status, the minimum stay, and what happens to your money if you leave early. A listing page answers none of those with certainty; only the operator's current terms do.
One more line item worth adding to that comparison: the room a little further from the station is not automatically the better deal once you add the daily commute back in. Our guide to IC cards and the commuter-pass break-even math walks through when a monthly teiki pass pays for itself, which is a useful sanity check before distance-from-station tips the decision between two otherwise similar rooms.
Share-house residents also tend to move more often than typical apartment renters, which makes one easy-to-forget step worth flagging: Japan's free mail-forwarding request is tied to the address and needs refiling every time you switch houses. Our guide to mail forwarding and parcel redelivery in Japan covers how to file it and what to do about a missed delivery in between moves.
If a viewing changes your mind and a regular apartment starts to look more appealing after all, our guide to rental guarantors in Japan covers the screening you would face instead, and the security deposit guide covers what happens to your money on the way back out, whichever type of room you end up in. One thing a furnished share house room sidesteps entirely, by the way, is the scramble our guide to disposing of furniture and appliances at move-out describes — no fridge or bed frame of your own means no sodai gomi reservation to make before you hand back the keys.
A furnished room does raise a smaller question, though: where does everything you already own go? Our comparison of trunk rooms and delivery-type storage services in Japan covers both routes for keeping suitcases, off-season clothes, or furniture from a previous place until you need it again.
Sources
Last verified 2026-07-20.
- Oak House, English site (no guarantor / no deposit / no key money pitch, tenant mix): oakhouse.jp/eng
- Cross House, English site (cost pitch, furnished rooms): x-house.co.jp/en
- Sakura House official site: sakura-house.com
- Borderless House official site: borderless-house.com
- NoCompass, "7 Best Share Houses in Tokyo": nocompass.com
- Expats Japan, "Share Houses in Japan for Foreigners: Complete Guide": expatsjapan.com
- BFF Tokyo, "Ultimate Guide to Sharehouses in Tokyo": bfftokyo.com
Fees, guarantor requirements, and minimum contract terms were not individually verified beyond the pages above and change frequently. This article describes four operators generally; it is not a recommendation tailored to your situation, and it does not rank operators by how much either affiliate link pays.