Renting an apartment in Tokyo, in English

This page covers greater Tokyo: Tokyo, Kanagawa, Saitama and Chiba, so Yokohama, Kawasaki, Saitama city and Chiba city as well as Tokyo's 23 wards and its western cities.

Open a listing and Smoovin explains every fee in English, shows the amounts in yen and US dollars, gives station names in English and lists the convenience stores, supermarkets and pharmacies nearby.

For the commute, it finds the nearest station with a direct train to Shibuya, Shinjuku, Tokyo, Shinagawa, Ikebukuro and Yokohama, with the line and the walk. When every one of them needs a transfer, it links to a public-transport route instead.

It works on listings from SUUMO, GaijinPot Apartments, LIFULL HOME'S and at home.

Of the households that moved into a private rental in the Tokyo area between April 2024 and March 2025, about 6 in 10 paid a deposit (shikikin, 敷金) and about half paid key money (reikin, 礼金), most often one month's rent each, in the government's housing market survey. Expect an agency commission, a guarantor company and insurance too. Smoovin shows each fee as the listing states it, adds up the listed move-in fees and flags the ones it leaves out. The move-in costs guide explains each one, and the rental contracts guide covers the renewal fee.

In September 2026, a single's flat of 30 m² or less in a マンション (a concrete apartment building) was listed at these averages a month, rent plus the management fee, from listings on at home:

• Tokyo's 23 wards: ¥114,460
• Tokyo outside the 23 wards: ¥68,802
• Kanagawa: ¥83,161
• Chiba: ¥77,356
• Saitama: ¥73,078

An アパート (a smaller wood or light-steel building) costs less: ¥77,920 in the 23 wards. The room layouts guide explains what codes such as 1K and 1LDK mean, with average sizes of 1R and 1K flats in the 23 wards.

Suica, from JR East, and PASMO, from the private railways and the subway, are greater Tokyo's IC cards. Either pays fares across the area, and Japan's other main IC cards, such as ICOCA, work here too.

Register your address at the ward or city office within 14 days of moving in. The moving-in guide says what to bring.

Each ward and city sets its own sorting rules and collection days, so read your own ward's guide rather than a neighbor's. The garbage guide explains how.

Electricity is 50 Hz, as in the rest of eastern Japan. The utilities guide explains what that means for appliances bought in western Japan.

Each prefecture runs a free consultation service for foreign residents, in English and other languages: Tokyo Multilingual Consultation Navi, Multilingual Support Center Kanagawa, Saitama Information & Support and the Chiba Advisory Service.

• Using SUUMO and Japan's rental sites in English: How to use SUUMO, LIFULL HOME'S and at home in English: what each site is, searching with your browser translating, and the labels on an apartment listing.
• Apartment move-in costs in Japan: Deposit, key money, guarantor fees and the other move-in costs on a Japanese apartment, what the first payment covers, and what to ask about the estimate.
• Rental contracts in Japan: renewal and moving out: Ordinary and fixed-term leases in Japan, renewal fees, notice periods and what you pay when you move out: what to check in an apartment contract before signing.
• Japanese apartment layouts: 1K, 1LDK and 2LDK: What 1K, 1LDK and 2LDK mean on a Japanese apartment listing, how room sizes in jō compare with square meters, and what a floor plan can't tell you.
• Applying for an apartment in Japan as a foreigner: Applying for an apartment in Japan as a foreign resident: the documents you may need, the application form, screening, and when application money is refunded.
• Moving into an apartment in Japan: Your first weeks in a Japanese apartment: the handover check, registering your address and residence card, National Health Insurance, the pension and mail.

Once it's in Chrome, Smoovin appears on its own the next time you open a listing.