I am preparing to move to to Japan and as the title suggests I've been in contact with a rental agency: best-estate which is a subsidiary of Global Trust Networks (GTN).
I applied to an apartment and after passing the screening process, the rental agency informed me that I would need to pay the initial costs before even seeing the contract.
I've read about paying the initial costs before signing the contract being a normal thing in Japan, but paying before even seeing the contract strikes me as odd. Is this a normal?
by rectalfemoris