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I've never lived in Japan before but have always wanted to. So I would be forced to perfect my Japanese. I've seen television programs about the architecture of the housing and it's quite amazing some of the ideas they come up with. Hopefully one day I will have a chance to live there. I'm not to keen on the whole gifting of the landlord though, but if it's customary then so be it.

Wow the Esatete Agents and Landlords know how to milk a cow :/
Its an interesting read but i dont plan on moving to Japan.Seems like you have to plan alot ahead if you want to

I wouldn't try to live in Japan without speaking Japanese, I guess hand and feet gestures could cause a lot of misunderstandings^^

Thats the thing which is interfering with my geekness: http://www.speedtest.net/result/342412547.png ~5000Yen/month, Europe is nice, isn't it?

I rented a tiny 25 sq m studio apartment in West Shinjuku for a month, many years ago. 140,000 deposit (100,000 returned, minus bank transfer fees on both ends) + 160,000 rent (included utilities and fiber optic internet thankfully).

dude 79MB! that is ten times faster than what most of us here in sg get... and the pricing is way exorbitant, about 39USD...

over here, the government prides itself on 100% of the population with home ownership, no easy feat by any means but some of those estates could do with a little sprucing up.

listings are advertised in the papers although the government do offer cheap rates for housing.

wow that's some super fast internet speed you got there Danny-san~

LOL @ "thanks for staying with us for the years, here is a slap in the face and get out of here you stinking rat."
Oh cruel, cruel reality...

Thank you for the informative article, Danny ^^
Even though it seems that my chance to enter Japan is lightyears away, knowledge is never a waste.
My connection is not much to speak of, it's a standard line that is good enough for the office but, not nice for fun browsing ^^;
I'll be getting a solid connection in due time though!

I live here now, in the Kansai area. Thankfully, the apartment was arranged through my employers so I didn't have to find a place on my own. But I am aware of the legitimized discrimination and I am wary of going through it when my wife and I eventually move on to larger accommodations. I'm hoping if I send my wife alone then the landlord won't be scared by my horrible foreign-birth.

getting rejected does suck. despite having been rejected a few times, i did find a cosy place to call my own (for the duration of the rent). being a foreigner, where you come from sometimes matters to japanese landlords too. you might want to get the agent to say you are a foreigner from mars and see if that gets a positive response from the landlord.

Renting an apartment in Japan is expensive. I live in Tokyo now but soon will move to Chiba because of work. The place that I live now doesn't need Reikin or Shikikin but it's a little bit expensive. 70000 yen for 16 m2.
There is also one more fee that you need to pay to the Estate Agent which is usually up to two months rent. I thought Shikikin is not the same as Deposit Money. I've seen apartments that need both Shikikin and Deposit Money. And sometimes you also need to pay a fee ( usually half month rent ) for a guarantor if you don't have a company to guarantee you.
I thought if you take the NTT internet campaign and cancel it before two years, you will need to pay a penalty up to two months and it will take time to reconnect it again. That's why I don't do it. =p

I would love to live in Japan for sometime if possible later in life. And I'm paying like £250 a month for student accomodation as it is, thats for 1 room en suite and a shared kitchen. Thats about 43,000 yen. The one that cost 84,000 yen a month looked alright. Since I'd assume I'd have some sort of job by then, or help from Grandparents, I'd be ok with that price I think....

Per month.. 1000 Sing$ per room with toilet inside. . Which equals . . 68k Yen / Month for a 8Mbps.. @_@

Is the area around Musashi Koyama station a decent place to live? I've never been there but it is quite conveniently located - and those prices don't seem too bad for central Tokyo!

Looks like trying to live in Japan is a nightmare! Thanks for the helpful tips Mr Danny x_x

Looking for a house to rent in Japan is indeed very "Fun" & "Amusing" ^^;
Ok, here's the sh!t part about my country ISP by

TMNUT a.k.a. Slowmyx:
(Please note that at all/most time only get max 70% speed of what you applied)
1Mb = MYR110 (USD31)
2Mb = MYR140 (USD39)
4Mb = MYR160 (USD45)

Havent lived nor been to Japan but has 100% plans on going and staying there for good.
I've read your article regarding on getting a house on japan and apparently i confirmed it from a
relative of mine who lives in japan and she said the same thing.

"It's cheaper to get your own space compared to pay for one in a basis".

Thank you for this article it was quite informative and eyeopening. I didn't realize the price of living in Japan was that expensive. I understood it to be high from previous readings and podcast but did not know of the gratuity and key fees for the apparent . I guess this site keeps you in your apparent from your interview on CNN. Any way thanks for the article and have a nice day.

I work for a major telco here in Aus as a product manager / business analyst, and a Japanese company (I won't mention the name, I'm not sure if it's confidential, however they are based in Tokyo) visited us to sell us a contract to use their software to help us support our customers better. It was a very strange meeting, because they needed to have an interpreter interpret the questions and answers we had for them ^_^;;. But they must have been shocked at internet speeds and costs we have here in Australia. Our fastest retail product at the moment is HFC cable which is only up to 30 Mbps. Otherwise if you're on ADSL2+ and the lines for most people will get you on average 8 Mbps. And we also have download limits. The price for my particular ADSL2+ connection is 69.95 Australian for 25 gig limit (with extra 40 gig during off peak hours).

However we have been rolling out FTTP, but still cap the speeds lower. The problem with Australia is that it is a fairly large country, but low population spread out along the coastline. So we have less customers for the amount of network we need to build and maintain.

Anyway back to that meeting with myself and my GM and the Japanese company, got to say one of the most entertaining meetings I've had at work ... because I'd try to work out what the Developers / Project Manager was saying before it got translated ^_^;;.

In so far as living in Japan? Probably not for me, however I wouldn't mind a "shopping" holiday in the future :P. I own a house here in Australia, but I'm a bit out of sorts with that at the moment because all the property values are going down because of this stupid credit crunch >_>

Never lived in japan but would love to. Why do estate agents and landlords try to squeeze some much money out of you? My parents own A Apartment building and the rent is fair between $400-$700 USD a month(security deposit of $500 USD) in a fairly decent neighborhood(but its getting bad). and they would prefer you have been working for about a year or so. why don't japanese landlords like to rent to foreigners?

I think living in a country without at least trying to speak the language is just rude.

My adsl speed is pretty sloooooww (see http://www.speedtest.net/result/342450413.png) and costs me AUD$40 a month - which is still much cheaper than what the major telco's offer. I should upgrade to ADSL2 which is up to 20x faster - but would cost me at least $10 more a month. I think it's better spent if I put the $10 towards figures...

One more thing where in tokyo (prefecture) would be I a good place to live on 1500-2000(USD) a month.
I am starting to learn the language but I have friend who is fluent in it would that help my chance getting an apartment with my roommate and would it cost more.

Comparing the prices to germany sure gives me a shock sometimes, but it's not that bad... the bad part is this Reikin stuff...
I mean to deposit bout 3months worth of rent for the case of moving out and repairs is common here, at least in a lot of places.
Some places even take these 3 months AND have you paint the walls and repair stuff and whatsonot when you leave without giving the money back... so it's sort of a Reikin too... ended up once in such a place. Though i didn't paint the walls and did show the guy my middle finger - was a high rip off and he had no right to do this - so he had to spend the 3months of cash i paid him beforehand FOR THIS matter to have someone paint the walls and so on... ^^v

My Internet con is okay... 2MB down but i am really a bit on the border of Cologne, it's more of a village - basicaly the next node is so far away that there is no higher speed possible where i am now. If i would move deeper into the city i could get more but yea... don't need really.

going to try for job - who knows

I want to go to Japan but just for visit never to live.

Hello Hime again! XD
I only been to Japan once, and stayed there for only 22 days.
Just enough to make me want to move to japan definitively.
But with my current conditions it just won't happen.
It's still a plan reserved for the future though.

Compared to Brazil, those rents are very very pricey.
What region are those apartments on Danny? If prices are anything like Brazil, rents could be almost half the price if you get them away from the big cities.

While in Japan, I stayed in a city called Shiki... some 45 minutes from Tokyo... and I loved it! Wasn't as crowded as Tokyo and had everything we needed.

About Internet connection... I pay about 40 USDs for a 4Mbps connection (which not many people have in Brazil... the standard today ranges from 256Kbps to 2Mbps) but the REAL speed I get is far faaaaaar bellow that. During the day, if I get 1Mbps it's a lucky day.

Same old story... Brazil is way too uninformed on tech stuff, and the law is useless when it comes to stuff like making companies work as advertised.
I only keep paying for the 4Mbps connection because it also giver me a higher Gb/Month download limit.

Living in Japan is about as expensive as living in the south of England. The difference being most British landlords don't care if you're a foreigner, they just want your money. They will still rip you off two or three months rent as "deposit".

I am going to build a house in Japan. The land purchase was completed last week. Here is the site on Google Street.

http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=新百合ケ丘駅（神奈川）+station+Japan&mrt=loc&layer=c&ie=UTF8&ll=35.598589,139.50521&spn=0.009265,0.017188&t=h&z=16&cbll=35.594971,139.504856&panoid=wgeuDMXKI_9mcd124cQDqw&cbp=1,199.9296278436754,,0,12.376558281708084

The start of building is in November. It will finish in March or April next year.

For the last 4 years I paid about 11$ for very decent connection (I didn't really know how fast it was, close to 50Mbps I think), now I'm stuck with 1Mbps ADSL for twice as much...

Damn, that is so expensive...and lame to start inventing all these charges just to earn some more. OVer here things can be expensive too, but at least you know what your up to for the largest part.
BTW envy (!) for your fiber connection....we have 16000 / 1024 DSL, for €65/mo.

Vancouver and the surrounded cities are short of places to rent. I wonder why, because the government protects the renters to the degree where home owners don't want to rent.

The maximum deposit you can get is half a months rent and if they don't pay you have to give them three months notice before kicking them out. Meaning there are people who just pay the half month and live at your place for four months, AND end up wreck your place. Then you end up having to spend money repairing the place before you re-rent. (if you want to take that chance again)

Sounds expensive to live there. But I hope I'll be able to sometime! :)

My connection speed is 100Mbit up and down for 235SEK/month (~31 USD). Enough for me. ^^

housing here varies on the locality. it is much higher than the 250,000yen in the posh areas for same area of around 50sqm and it is relatively cheap further you go away from the city - as low as 10000yen per month.
internet broadband is a joke here - i get 256 down and 512 up (o^0) for 2200 yen per month unlimited access. 512 is about 3000 yen and 2 mb is 5000 yen :S most of them have ridiculous download limits of around 1-10gb per month.

Well the area I live in is kind of rural so to get any kind of High Speed internet I had to go wireless and end up paying $50US for these speeds http://www.speedtest.net/result/342534076.png.

But, man I thought trying to rent an apartment in California was expensive. Luckily the law here is on the side of the renter not the landlord. If any landlord tried saying no foreigners allowed they would find themselves in court for volition of the fair housing laws. The most they usually charge up front is first & last months rent and a cleaning deposit, of which you'll usually get most back unless your punching holes in the walls or something.

It is easier and cheaper to find a place to rent in my country (you have to only pay rent and to the real estate agent if you use one). But on the negative side the internet connection is not so cheap:P And we don't get any optic fiber.

Renting a place here in Toronto doesn't seem to be as tedious as it is in Tokyo. The gratuity fee on top of the couple months rent is what kills me :( But I would love optic fibre net service in my house! Thats worth the rent price!.. nice connection speeds :~~:

Expensive stuff there huh...
I never thought housing was that expensive a month rent and sometimes good or bad landlords...
I knew it was expensive but really, that's pretty expensive...

Haven't lived in Japan, but I'm planning to in about 4 years time (started my 5 year plan last year). And just like you said, my main goal is to reach at least JLPT level 3 (or the new N3 level, which is between 2 and 3), so I can make some conversation in Japanese as I think that it's very important.

It's now 2 years since I changed internet connection and I'm paying 39eur for a 24mbit line, but my max I've reached until now is about 1.8 MB/sec (that is megabyte, not megabit). And this is one of the cheaper ones in Belgium and one of the few that has no download limit... If that number you're saying is in megabyte, Danny, Japan = heaven ^^;

I voted "Do not live in Japan".
But I have plans to do it in the future, though.

One of the very few things cheap in Japan - internet connection. In Malaysia, we pay RM88(roughly 2500yen) per month for a 1Mbps line which is only served on a "best-effort" basis. Which means you get maybe from as low as 60% to around 90% of the real speed if you're lucky. The fastest speed we have from our only nationwide ISP is 4Mbps, but that's only available in a very small area. Not cheap though, RM268(roughly 7.6k yet!!!).

My internet connection is:
Fiber, 10Mbit up and 10Mbit down.
I pay around 180kr/month (~26$).

I just rented rooms at cheap hotels that allowed stay-periods of months at a time. The 2500~ yen/night actually came up to be cheaper than actually renting a normal place, although it was annoying moving from one place to another after a few months ^^

Those prices are pretty similar to New York, which makes sense as Tokyo, London and New York all somewhere in the top 5 most expensive cities in the world (at least as of a few years ago)

Just found out yesterday - I'm officially moving to Japan in March! (^^)

My internet connection is:
Fiber, 10/10Mbit.
I pay 129kr/month (~18$).

I plan to upgrade to 100/10Mbit soon.
For that I have to pay 134kr/month (~19$).

I'm hoping I can move to japan soon hopefully (hopefully -_-)

20Eur/month for a 1mbit mobile broadband + no download limits.
Yes, this is 3G+ (HSDPA) connection. Actually this is quite stable (except when on move).

That's expensive! >_<

Well rent and purchase prices for appartments and houses have been going through the roof here too, I think the market will soon collapse it this keeps up.

I wouldn't be able to stand noisy neighbours I'd rather have a detached or semi-detached house then, but that's even more expensive...

The rental fees you mentioned are surprisingly comparable to the prices here in S.California (at least for the more desirable cities). The part that kills me are all the tacked on expenses such as gratuity and key money, which far exceeds anything we have here. T_T

But in the end, its what the market is willing to bear so its ultimately fair. The prices reflect the desirability of the area and it certainly shows in Japan.

am learning japanese so that I can live in Japan one day. :)
Lolol and you cancelled your internet service for another 4 free months XD awesome but funny ^^

The sad thing is some Tokyo apartments are cheaper than similar ones in the bay area (CA) X_X

Yes I'm really scared of trying to buy property in Japan in the future T_T

To live in Japan is my dream, just a little fantasy that I hope (and work for) to came true =D

Nice post Danny, quite an eye opener,

The Mrs and I plan to move over for a year so this information is really helpful! Some of those prices are incredible - almost equal to our mortgage for our 4 floor house here in the UK!

Are those fairly standard city prices on those listings? do they get more managable further out at all not sure the Mrs would appreciate that kind of mansion :)

I'm glad I don't plan on living there(but I do plan on visiting). Here it's around 1000$CAD for 5 1/2 room(3 bed rooms, kitchen, living room and wash room(the 1/2). Building medium sized house costs no more that 200 000$CAD including the land.

The minimum wage is also higher here(8$ per hour)than japan(at around 625 yen per hour). The 'gratuity' fees is more like stealing money the legal way.

While I really love japan(obviously since I'm here), all those things make me glad I live here in Canada.

TAAAAKKKAAAIIIIIIIII !!

I pass!

While mansions may have thin walls and high rental costs, they're still better than danchi... ^^;

I wouldn't mind living in Japan, but I need to learn the language first. I was just told by a company (Found via the Japan Times jobsite) that, if the Google translator was right, they didn't think I would fill the position, despite having twice the qualifications, because I hadn't taken any of the Japanese language tests. Oh, cruel irony. I need money to pay for classes so I can go make money. Gaaah!

Oh, and we pay about $45/month for 5 MB/512 KB.

About my connection, where I lived in Brazil is now 5Mbit/1Mbit (real) for $60 (no stupid quotas or limit), including telephone and call ID services.

cheapest and maybe the least worry free way to live in japan is the U.S. military. haha. that's how i lived there because my dad was stationed in japan. so i was born and raised in yokosuka japan. navy pays for housing, and if you live in the base you dont pay any bills except for your phone and maybe internet now. plus no tax when shopping on base.

I live in Japan since May 2006, I pay 62.500 yen monthly for 2 rooms, 1 lounge, 1 kitchen and 1 bathroom. The most cheapest apartment was 42.500 yen with 1 room, 1 lounge, 1 kitchen and 1 bathroom, but this was outside of Hamamatsu City, in Shizuoka's prefecture...

That's some expensive housing, here in Lisbon you can get for the same amount houses ranging from 60 to 120+ sq/m. About internet, i pay around 4500yen for 18/1 Mbits

Apparently i lived in some really old apartments there cuz my great grandparents lived there too >.>
Hmm... i bet it's a ton cheaper living in the suburbs of a small city in America. I dunno how much we pay per month but my house is about 60,000 sq. ft and apparently it's super cheap too! :D In a city however, it'd definitely be worth a couple million.

Sheesh, I'm paying $60 a month just for 15mbs. And well, I'm paying $625 a month for my fairly spaced 1 bedroom apartment, though thats actually really cheap around here for this size.

I really wish we had newer buildings around here though, a lot of the apartments(including mine) are fairly aged, and slowing falling apart. D:

here in Canada, i actually pay like 40 cdn$ (44 us$) for a 7 mb/s connection with 20 gigs of download and 10 gis upload per month. Pretty expensive in my opinion but nothing when you compare with the rip off for our cellular.

D@mn, I wish that I could get transfered to our Tokyo branch. >_<
The rent not that expensive(at least when compared to the San Francisco area)
Bit like others have said, it is the key/deposit/fees that I find annoying.
As for internet, 35$ USD for 6Mbps/1Mbps for DSL.

Singapore's internet speed is so horrible. Downloading a setup file for a program (50mb) takes 20 minutes!! On broadband!! D:

I would love to live in Japan, in fact I'm going to Japan at the end of the year for the Winter Comiket ^^

Very nice post with great info. I always wondered what those kanjis meants when I passed by those real estate agent places and now I know :) Now I know why my friend who works at Nissin lives in company dorm, it just takes too much money to rent -_-

lol. Pretty expensive. I plan on living in Japan in a few years and I'm already learning japanese and have been for a while now. I agree with Negative though. The landlord gifting thing doesn't sound too appealing but oh well. Life has its ups and downs. n_n

Lived in Tokyo for 11 years before it started to wear on me...high cost of living, crowds, urban sprawl, etc... Granted I could put up with most of it anywhere being a city kid, but the insularity of the place can be trying. I too speak and read the language (originally a sansei from Hawaii) but wasn't the place my wife and I wanted to raise a family. She hails from the Fuchu suburbs and seeing the in-laws and friends the only reason we occasionally go back.

I am in Japan around half of the year, the other half I'm at sea or in far off nations in South East Asia.

But, when I get a bit more rank, I can rent a Japanese house from one of the English speaking agencies in Yokosuka. They have houses available all the way to Yokohama. I know someone who got one of their rented houses and its not bad at all. Though, it is a bit large for me. Though if the Navy is paying, I don't mind. ^_^

4Mps/283kps, according to Speedtest. I suspect the latter is because my Dad firewalls everything.

Still, the speed is deceptive. My ISP throttles our traffic, so downloading *anything* is insanely slow. I have to use my university's campus wireless to do that sort of stuff, and it's literally a hundred times faster.

Wow... I had forgotten about that particular process of getting a place to live in Japan.
It sounds very troublesome... but it reminds me of down payments and such over in the states (I'm not too informed on whether that's also used in other countries ahaha ;; ).

It still sounds a bit enticing to even try living there... but it really depends on my proficiency in Japanese in the future and drive to see if I can maintain a sense of stability in my life (and not withstanding forces that might create lots of fun haha).

I was planning to go to Japan in April, and to get the Visa (yes, I live in one of the few countries that actually have to get a Visa to get into Japan) I needed to show the embassy where I was going to stay (usually a Hotel). Since I planned to stay for 3 months, I decided to rent using the services of Sakura House (www.sakura-house.com), since there is no need to pay a Key Money fee or Gratuity Fee.
I managed to find an apartment for less than 85.000 ￥, and paid the reservation money (about 300 dollars). Actually I had to make many phone calls since I was running out of time to get the reservation before my interview in the embassy.
After spending some 400 dollars in reservations, phone-calls and other stuff, the embassy denied me the Visa, saying that 3 months was too much. I lost all the money (Sakura House doesn't do refunds), but luckily I didn't buy the plane tiquets BEFORE the interview (the way the embassy tells you to do) ^^;

Wow looking for a place to live looks pretty stressful...well the prices is somewhat similar to here...

Well I pay about $25 USD a month for internet, which is like 2500 yen, and the speed is decent...but I've had faster when I was at my university which is like T1/T3...ah I miss those speeds...

I read a guy's blog some time back who moved from one Japanese apartment to another his chief complaint focused on ALL of the fees.

If I recall correctly, he stated something to the effect that this is a hold over from time immemorial when they would use this kind of thievery to keep the poor people in their place.

Maybe Japan is really meant only for Japanese ppl...
The amount of work for a foreigner to live and work there seems enormous!
Hmmm.....
I guess that will make it all the more fun when i invade their shores in the near future and proudly declare that I am here to STAY! K K K K YEAH!!!

Live and have lived in Japan. I currently enjoy a rent-free English teacher existence because my employer owns the apartments.

Living Space in Japan is quite small... In US, depends on what kind of place ur renting, usually its 1 month security plus 1 month rent to start living their, and when u leave, u get that 1 month security back. Pretty fair I think lol

I hope I can find a nice 1K mansion in northeast Tokyo when I move... Central and western ku are pretty much out of the question.

I am staying now in a 2LDK mansion in Tokyo. The renting costs me around ￥75,000 monthly. Well, i was also turned down a few times before i got this mansion today. I was actually turned down about 10 times...

Howeve, this landlord accepts me because of the previous foreigners who also stayed there take care of the place perfectly before i moved in. I supposed that I should do the same thing too.

Too expensive for me. I heard that countryside is much more cheaper

.
These kinds of segments are what makes this website so valuable. Thanks Danny!
.

I'm not planning on living in japan until I have sufficient knowledge on the language. Which is why i'm planning on going back to jap school again to learn it faster.

What I would do to get that kind of connection here without costing an arm and a leg. I pay roughly about 2500yen for a measly 1MB connection. sheesh >_<

Actually, about them embarrassing foreigners, its not too unusual, I think it happens everywhere, but it is just a matter of degree. Even in multiracial Singapore, we have people of one race refusing to rent a home to another. Not that the government allows it, but it doesn't really happen in the public eye.

Very informative article. My internect connection currently runs at about 56 Mbps-$0. Before, internet service cost me $10.95 for 56 Kbps. The connection speed was garbage, so im quite happy with the new one.

very intriging article, this actually helps me out a lot. I plan on moving 2 japan i dont know wen though. I could be moving 2 japan with a few friends in like a couple years or so. But if not probably wen i open a few restaurants down here in canada and actually succeed at life for a bit. then ill move 2 japan and open a restaurant down there, which would be incredibly expensive.i think ill live in shibuya or shinjuku which would kick as$.

http://www.speedtest.net/result/344981823.png

heres my internet, its around ￥7000 per month i used 2 get a really crappy one but my dad ended up paying for it. then i boought my own and got this one. which reminds me i probly should pay my bill.

I had read your previous article about the customs in renting when i first discovered DC. Before then I had always wanted to move to Japan but now I think I would settle with just visiting unless I can get my hands on a lot of money. ^ -^;;

I went though the exact same steps to get my apartment in Tokyo. However when I saw "Shiki Ichi, Rei Ichi" [敷1礼1] written outside I falsely figured I would have to pay 2 rents. In the end I paid about 5 rents and it almost killed my savings.. Not too much fun remembering that one +_+

Where I live, ugh, the fastest home internet package available is 7Mbit down, 1Mbit up, around 20-60GBytes download cap, for $60/month (I'd have to look again, some of these details are wrong). It's essentially highway robbery, and the worst part, you need to subscribe to more "most expensive" package deals to get a laughable 15% discount.

Cellphones? There is this System Access Fee that is still being charged every month and does nothing but go directly into the ISP's bottom line, and the CRTC had said the fee itself isn't required anymore. There are no large-scale network improvement projects running over here in the biggest city in Canada, what does it say for the rest of the country?

I wish I have more money so I can stay and not take the Nov. 5 return plane -_-

Very expensive!

Not sure I understand the floor plan in the 2nd pic. Accessing the upper-left rooms seems to be a hassle.

I get a 20/5 Mbits FIOS connection, part of my $80 douple play plan. Although, it sometimes seems slower due to MY FRICKIN' ROUTER!! Also, are you measuring in bits and bytes?
(I don't think the byte speed is possible. If so, I might have to convice my next president to authorize an invasion of Japan.)

I'm predicting, due to the lowering birth rate in Japan, real estate prices might fall in the ongoing future. Unless, of course, all who're left are landlords and they control the government.

Japan gets some pretty fast internet... Comcast, for 40ish $ doesn't even get me 10% of that... I heard Verizon FiOS has it better but, I doubt that it'll get even close to that... Anyways, they advertise for 12Mbps download.

I pay $69.00 for a 5 MBps connection, I belive thats 6751.46 yen? Its pretty easy to get apartments here, don't think nationality has much to do with anything as long as you can pay. For a 1 room apartment with laundry room 1.5 bath its about $850/month.

I can certainly attest to the fact that places still turn you down if you're a foreigner. Found some awesome places many years ago when I was looking for an apartment with my GF, but at the last minute got turned down as the landlord on the other end freaks out about a foreigner.

I don't think I would ever live in Japan. It's nice and all, but it's so expensive.

Wow that internet speed makes me drool.

That expensive and you still can't put a hole on the wall. O_o

Brings Kona-chan.
Kona-chan: nani? gaijin are not allowed.
BASHES AGENT.
Kona-chan: there, problem solved
^w^

Very useful article, I've lived in Japan but relied on more gaijin oriented housing, so did not need to bother with the process of getting a "normal" place rented by the usual means ;)

They looked like some of the places i've lived before. :p

It sucks to pay the key money and all that stuff, I didn't know that there are reikin 0 appartments :o

My internet is something like £30 a month for 256kbs. British internet is an absolute joke. Every now and then Virgin Media will just cut our internet for days on end with no warning and no explanation afterwards.