Housing: Four Guides, From Viewing to Living There
This is the front door for housing. It is the one topic on this site that runs strictly in time order: find a place → sign → set up utilities before moving in → live there → eventually move again. Getting the order wrong has very concrete costs. Set up the utilities badly and you spend your first days in a flat with no gas and no internet; miss a moving notice and you are looking at a fine, or at banks and phone contracts that will not accept your address. This page puts the four guides in time order and lists the three mistakes people make most.
📅 Verified October 2026In one line: every procedure between "I have no address" and "I am settled". It covers four things — renting (how foreigners pass screening, and what the upfront costs actually are), connecting (when to book electricity, gas, water and internet, and which is slowest), moving (the deadlines on the departure and arrival notices, and why your Residence Card address is updated in the same step), and living (rubbish rules, which each municipality sets itself). Local rent levels, upfront-cost ratios, collection days and every deadline are governed by your municipality's official guidance and by your own contract — this site does not invent figures. This page just routes you to the right guide.
📍 Find your situation (in time order)
① Still looking: how foreigners get through screening
Key money, deposit, agency fee, guarantor company — Japan's upfront costs have many names and together they usually exceed a month's rent by a wide margin. This guide explains what each one is, which can be negotiated, and the screening step foreigners most often stumble on (length of stay, Japanese ability, guarantor).
② Signed, before you move in: utilities and internet
Four things to book separately, and internet is the slowest while gas needs you present. The right move is to book before you move in, not to start ringing round afterwards. This guide covers the order, how the charges work, and the traps.
③ Moving: the notices and the address changes
Moving is handled at both ends: file the departure notice before you move and take the certificate, then file the arrival notice within 14 days — late means a fine. The same counter visit updates your Residence Card address on the spot, which matters more here than for Japanese residents. This guide lays out the whole sequence on a timeline.
④ Settled in: how to sort rubbish and when to put it out
The categories, the collection days, the designated bags and the bulky-waste booking system are all set by each municipality — and moving changes the whole set. This guide covers the categories that are broadly consistent and how to reason about the rest; for your own doorstep, use your municipality's collection calendar.
🧰 Start here (the step most people get wrong on this topic)
💡 Utilities: four services, and the order matters
Internet needs weeks of notice, gas needs you present, and the old place needs its own cancellations — handle half of it and you keep paying
⚠️ The three mistakes people make most on this topic
Mistake 1: "Rent is the whole monthly housing cost"
It is not. On day one you pay a bundle of items: key money, deposit, agency fee, guarantor company fee, fire insurance — together often several times a month's rent (how many times varies widely by area and property, and your contract governs). Budget on "rent × number of months" and signing day comes as a shock. See renting in Japan.
Mistake 2: "Moving is just telling the utilities; the address can wait"
Changing your address is not an optional clean-up task. The departure notice has a statutory window and the arrival notice must be filed within 14 days — late means a fine — and your Residence Card address is updated on the spot when you file the arrival notice. Skip that and bank, phone and pension correspondence keeps going to the old address. See moving house in Japan.
Mistake 3: "Learn the rubbish rules once and you are done"
No. How finely things are separated, the collection days, the designated bags and how bulky waste is booked are all set by each municipality — move city and the whole system changes, down to what counts as recyclable. The first thing to do in a new place is get the collection calendar from the new municipality's website or counter. See the rubbish separation guide.
🗂️ Other topics
- Status & visas — which status, renewal, PR, starting a company, work permits
- Money, tax & insurance — take-home pay, filing tax, health insurance and pension, banking, medical costs
- City hall & driving — the city office checklist and converting a foreign licence