NO key money appartments please!

[kamome]

Most of the nice apartments will require a payment of key money, which is basically equivalent to 1-3 months rent. Location/age of the building/prestige of neighborhood are all determinants as to how much key money you will have to pay.

If you can read Japanese, try looking up fudosan on Yahoo!Japan for starters. Also, Chintai magazine (sold in Japan and maybe available at your local Japanese supermarket in the States) has lots of cheaper listings.

[tokyojoe]

you might have some luck with the realtors listed in tokyo classified.

[Harvey]

I heard from a fellow soon to be co-worker that she found a place that cost like 70man up front.

Uh.

No thanks.

well... thanks, but I do'nt have that kinda money!

[kamome]

I heard from a fellow soon to be co-worker that she found a place that cost like 70man up front.

Sure, you can find multi-million dollar apartments all over Tokyo. But cheaper places can be found, say, in Chiba, and the commute into Tokyo isn't too bad. Southern Saitama (Urawa, Wako), Western Chiba (Urayasu), and Eastern Kanagawa (Kawasaki) are full of people who take advantage of slightly better rents in the greater Kanto area. I think a simple, one bedroom apt. in those areas runs about 90,000 yen (US$725)per month, which means the key money could be about 180,000 yen (nonrefundable). Then there is the deposit money, which is another 2-3 months rent, but refundable (minus any repair costs for wear and tear).

However, some employers will upfront the downpayments for you and/or will be the signatory on the lease in order to provide you a "housing benefit" (tax deductible to the employer, nearly non-taxable to the employee). I personally would request a housing benefit from my employer as a matter of course, since it is a standard part of the compensation package for most expatriate employees.