Paying before signing a contract? Getting an apartment in Tokyo

So my friend is currently doing his first apartment search/contract. Honestly, the agent that he chose is quite sketchy in my opinion. But again, while I have experience getting an apartment, I do not have experience getting an apartment in Tokyo. Here are some of the things that have been happening

First of all, no apartment check/visit. Apparently, the agent said that the rooms are not available for visits either because the cleaning has not yet been done or because there are still people living there.

And he actually got accepted to one of the apartment but he needs to pay first before even signing the contract. Is this normal? It has been a while since I got my apartment, so I do not really remember the steps.

And I think there are several electricity/gas companies, is choosing any acceptable? apparently he has been getting calls from them even before paying/signing, and it has been quite overwhelming.