{"id":899,"date":"2019-11-06T15:32:42","date_gmt":"2019-11-06T06:32:42","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/villagehouse.rainbow.co.jp\/?p=899"},"modified":"2020-04-06T11:57:01","modified_gmt":"2020-04-06T02:57:01","slug":"why-your-rental-application-is-getting-rejected","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/japanese-apartment-life\/why-your-rental-application-is-getting-rejected\/","title":{"rendered":"Why Your Rental Application is Getting Rejected"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Finding an apartment in Japan can sometimes be a bit of a\nchallenge. In this article, we will discuss the top reasons as to why your\napplication could be rejected.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

1. Low Income<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The first reason as to why your application was rejected\nmight be because your income isn’t high enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Around the world, the best rule of thumb when it comes to\nrenting a house is that your rent should not be higher than about 33% of your\nsalary.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some landlords and property managers in Japan use a\nsimilar calculation based on your income by multiples of 36, which means that\nyour annual income should be at least 36 times the rent for the apartment you\nare hoping to get. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

For example, let’s say you are hoping to rent an apartment that costs around \u00a550,000 the amount of income that you will need to make it around 36% is \u00a51,800,000. Another example would be if the apartment you are hoping to rent in Japan costs \u00a580,000 then the amount of income you would need would be around \u00a52,880,000 annually. On the higher end of the scale if you wanted to rent an apartment that cost \u00a5112,000, then you would need to be making \u00a54,320,000 annually. Not making enough money is one of the biggest reasons as to why landlords in Japan will reject your rental application. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Photo by Kanenori) <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

2. Your guarantor’s income isn’t high enough. <\/h2>\n\n\n\n

If you are from a western-style country, the term\nguarantor might seem strange to you. A guarantor is a person who will pay on\nyour behalf if you are not able to pay your rent. Most landlords in Japan\nrequire you to pick a guarantor as part of your rental application. Some\ncompanies cater to foreigners and don\u2019t need one, or if you are only planning\non staying for a couple of months you might not need a guarantor as well. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

All people living in Japan, require a guarantor. That\nmeans that both foreigners and Japanese people will need to get a guarantor.\nMany people in Japan use family members as their guarantor. One problem facing\nJapan at the moment is the aging society. As more and more people retire, they\nare no longer able to act as guarantors for their family as once they go on\npension their monthly income goes down. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

One way around this is to use a rent guarantor company.\nFor a small fee which is about a third to a full month’s rent, a guarantor\ncompany will act as your guarantor. Most landlords nowadays more or less prefer\nyou to use a company as they are seen as less risky.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

#3 Your job is seen as being unstable.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In almost every country, landlords will need to see that\nyou are working or have a form of income. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Tenants in Japan are very strongly protected by laws, and\nit is not easy for a landlord to evict a tenant, even more so after they have a\nhistory of paying their rent on time. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

What landlords want is to avoid a situation where they\nmight have to evict you for not paying your bills on time. A good way landlords\ncan avoid that nightmare is by picking a tenant with a good job at a well-known\ncompany. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are a contract employee, work for a dispatch company, are self-employed, or own your own business, you might find it a bit harder to find a place as you might be perceived as a risky renter.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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3. Being a Foreigner in Japan<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Next up is a bit of a big one. If you are a foreigner, you\nmight face something called housing discrimination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Discrimination is defined as \u201c<\/em>the unjust or\nprejudicial treatment of different categories of people, especially on the\ngrounds of race, age, or sex.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now, if you are a foreigner in Japan, you might have already faced a little bit of discrimination. It happens, there are people all over the world who will judge you based on your looks alone. If you are trying to find a place in Japan, it can happen and does happen to many people. The term is called housing discrimination. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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(Photo by Alex Knight) <\/figcaption><\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

You may have everything that the landlord is looking for, but you may still be rejected because you are not Japanese. It is not legal, and it’s not right by any means but it still does happen to many people. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

In 2016 the\nJapanese government conducted the first survey on discrimination against\nforeigners living in Japan. They found that about 39% of foreigners living in\nJapan over the past 5 years reported that their application was rejected based\non the fact that they were not Japanese. 52% said that they had never been\ndenied housing based on the fact that they were foreigners.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In another\nquestion, about 27% of foreigners responded with the fact that they had given\nup looking for a place to live in Japan due to all the signs saying \u201cNo\nforeigners\u201d. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It’s not unlikely\nthat you will face this while looking for a house to rent while in Japan. If\nyou do face this sort of discrimination there are places where you can go to\nfile a report as the Japanese government over the years have been more active\nwith trying to make a more foreign-friendly place. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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4. Having Pets<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The last reason on\nour list of reasons as to why your rental application got denied is that you\ncould have pets. Now, it is a no brainer that many places will not allow pets\nin western countries and, in Japan, it’s no different. Pets are wonderful but\nit can be hard to find an apartment that allows pets in Japan. The Japanese\nstyle of housing and apartments are much different than other countries as they\nare much smaller and the walls are thinner. If you have pets you might find it\na bit more challenging to find an apartment that allows pets. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

And that is it for\nour list of reasons as to why your rental application might get denied in\nJapan. We hope that you find the apartment of your dreams.   <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Finding an apartment in Japan can sometimes be a bit of a challenge. In this article, we will discuss the top reasons as to why your application could be rejected.  1. Low Income The first reason as to why your application was rejected might be because your income isn’t high enough. Around the world, the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":900,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[95,96,94,97],"class_list":["post-899","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-japanese-apartment-life","tag-japan-life","tag-japan-tips","tag-life-in-japan","tag-living-in-japan"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=899"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/899\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/900"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=899"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=899"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.villagehouse.jp\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=899"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}