Redditors say that Japanese ppl in general are tolerant and accepting of foreigners, then why does Tokyo still have like half of landlords outright rejecting foreigners? Many of them are based on irrational fear of foreigners. Not doomscrolling, its reality!

11 comments

1. Stop spamming us man. Get some help.

2. Your story is very compelling. I’ll just type it up on my invisible typewriter

3. Take this with a grain of salt because I haven’t tried it yet but will be soon. Doesn’t the housing problem get solved if you have a Japanese person as a guarantor?

   Foreigners generally need a joint guarantor (hoshonin) to rent an apartment in Japan so once you have one doesn’t that solve most of the housing problems you have?

4. Blame the foreigners that came before you 🤦🏽‍♂️🤦🏽‍♂️

5. Because building owners are all old people, who are more likely to be xenophobic, worry about tenants leaving without paying rent, leaving a mess etc.

6. You seem to have a vendetta against the Japanese lol

   How do you know it’s “half of landlords”? I haven’t had a single issue moving around Tokyo or Japan. I have N2 but my Japanese is absolutely shite so can’t negotiate for shit. Still have no issues. Maybe you’re just a really annoying person and landlords don’t like you? Seeing as we’re just making up stuff.

7. Well, do you have any evidence to support your undeniable facts?

   If not, you’re doing exactly what the people you’re trying to argue against do, which is fling unsubstantiated claims to support your own established world view.

   Fighting conjecture with conjecture convinces no one; do you just want to random people to agree with you for self-affirmation?

8. While there are xenophobic landlords out there, the majority of these cases come down to communication hassle. I lived in two places in Tokyo. Where I live currently we have English signs throughout the building, all notices are written in English, Japanese and Korean, and we have a team that are specifically hired to sort garbage for us.

   In my former apartment we had one single dude (the 70+ year old landlord) who had to manage the building on his own, and we were talking about a 14-floor building. He was one of those landlords who didn’t want to rent out to foreigners. Though, he did make an exception with me cause I was living with a Japanese person who had a talk with him before I moved in. His reasoning for not renting out to foreigners was fear of all the hassle he would be facing if a non-Japanese speaking person moved in.

   If you live in Japan, then you also know how much work building management does. They are held responsible for repairs and inspections that need to be done on certain dates and certain times. They are also responsible for making sure that garbage is ready to get collected etc. In order for all of these things to go smoothly, the tenants HAVE to be able to fully understand the (overly complicated) rules and be able to communicate. It fucks up everything when there is one tenant in the building who is unable to follow instructions, and that sadly happens a lot with non-Japanese speakers.

   There is also the risk of a foreigner suddenly leaving without paying rent or repairs. There has sadly been cases of this in the past, and they ruin it for the rest of us.

9. I’d say 5-10% of landlords will reject any foreigner regardless of Japanese language ability. I think some landlords will reject people who can’t read the rules in Japanese. I think the latter case is totally reasonable, but if you’ve taken the time to get to N1, it’s not a very good feeling being told you aren’t allowed to live somewhere solely because of your nationality.

   In general, I think a lot of foreigners who learn Japanese either before they come or soon after they come have some expectation that they will be more or less rewarded for their efforts by being accepted into Japanese society, and being able to communicate in Japanese will certainly get you much closer to social acceptance than people who don’t speak the language. This is especially true when you are interacting with Japanese people who are genuinely open to foreigners because you can bridge the language gap that normally precludes them from being able to interact with foreigners.

   That being said, the “harsh” reality is that some percentage of Japanese people are simply not interested in foreigners at all, regardless of Japanese language ability, and even view foreigners as a social problem that could be solved by excluding them from Japanese society. You can’t change that reality, you can only learn to live with it as long as you are here.

   I fear that anti foreigner sentiment may continue to increase for some years to come, possibly even reaching the levels we see in America right now, so you may want to step back and ask yourself at what point does being rejected for an apartment or other unpleasant experiences make you seriously reconsider living here. Not saying you either have to “suck it up or leave,” but I think a lot of long-term expats here more or less have that mentality so they are not exactly sympathetic to people that complain about unpleasant experiences based on their nationality.

10. Probably because the overwhelming majority are simply tourists who come with a positive mindset and only experience the country in a 2 or 3 week rush, rather than having to actually live in it and deal with all the bullshit of the “hidden” social rules and taboos.

11. It’s just real life dude. I am Japanese but from abroad it’s not a given to be able to find good housing no matter who you are. It is harder to deal with foreigners as a whole in any country this is just reality. I would have the same difficulty finding a condo if I moved to Peru or Mexico for example and I can’t complain about locals being difficult despite their welcoming reputation that I unilaterally  built up in my mind based on Reddit

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