The birth of HMK Tenant Support Services & Concierge came about after realizing as a young adult that renting an apartment in Japan is somewhat cumbersome and time-consuming. After getting married and moving to Yokohama, I realized that it is even harder if you are new to Japan or are still struggling with the language, especially in reading and writing as was the case with my husband.

I was often frustrated and wondered, "Why can't things just be a lot simpler, especially the process of renting an apartment in Japan?" Even most Japanese do not know why it is so difficult to do the simplest of things in our country.

When you start looking for a new apartment, the first thing that your real estate agent will want to know is if you a have a personal guarantor. And if you do not have a personal guarantor, they will insist that you at least have an emergency Japanese person of contact?

Finding a guarantor is tough. Nobody wants to bother another person with such a big, legally binding responsibility. Nowadays, it is even becoming harder for us Japanese to find a guarantor, especially if we have no siblings and our parents are retired and living on a pension.

This resulted in a new industry called a guarantor company. Guarantor companies make contracts with landlords or property managers. They promise to pay your rent in case something happens to you where you cannot pay your rent anymore. This is a big risk that the guarantor company is taking, so naturally they want to minimize their exposure to any losses. So, guarantor companies often prefer that a new tenant have a personal guarantor.

Doesn't this sound crazy? You want to use a guarantor company because you don't have a personal guarantor. But the guarantor company wants to know if you have a personal guarantor!

Of course, not all guarantor company's require a personal guarantor. In most cases, you will pay 1 month's rent as a fee to the guarantor company if you do not have a personal guarantor. If you do have a personal guarantor, then the guarantor company will only charge you between 30% and 50% of 1 month's rent as their fee.

If you do not have a personal guarantor, you must have an emergency person of contact (緊急連絡先 | kinkyu-renraku-saki). Most guarantor companies will require that your emergency person of contact (POC) be a Japanese person living in Japan.

Your emergency POC has no financial liability, but they must take any calls from the guarantor company, the landlord, or the property manager anytime a problem or situation arises while you are a tenant in your new apartment.

For most of us Japanese, we simply ask a sibling, parent, uncle, aunt, cousin, boss, co-worker, or close friend to be an emergency person of contact. It's not that big of a deal to be an emergency POC.

But for foreigners, you might misunderstand something, put the wrong garbage out on the wrong day, maybe break a rule that you didn't know even existed, and so on. The language barrier and differences in cultures might cause some misunderstanding, and when a foreigner makes a small mistake, some of your neighbors, or even your landlord might make a big deal out of nothing.

For most foreigners, asking a Japanese friend, colleague, or professor to be your emergency person of contact could lead to strange and uncomfortable dynamics in your relationships.

And for many foreigners just arriving in Japan, you might not even have any close Japanese friends who are more than willing to help you you. Many coworkers are hesitant to assist their non-Japanese colleagues. Some universities even have a written policy where their professors are not allowed to help their students be an emergency POC due to all of the hassle and calls they used to get. It's not fair that a few bad apples have ruined the whole barrel for everyone else.

I have been married to a foreigner for more than 20 years now. With each now job or life-change experience (death of a family member, adopting two dogs, etc.), we have moved from the city, to the country-side, to city again, and back to the country side for a total of 8 times!

Each time, I had to take care of ALL of the headaches related to moving for not only myself as a Japanese citizen, but also for my live-in father, our two dogs, and of course, my foreign husband who was busy with work all the time.

We have lived in traditional style houses, a nice condominium (we were the proud owners until we sold the place), lived in modern, nicely equipped apartments, and have struggled with living on the cheap in a small, run-down apartment where the landlord nor the property manager were constantly refusing to help us with problems they were supposed to address.

There is absolutely no reason why foreigners coming to work and live in Japan should repeat the same stresses we experienced in renting and buying homes in Japan.

I have become somewhat of a pro when it comes to all the intricate necessities of finding a home, getting all the utilities paid on time, and dealing with bad landlords or property managers, and neighbors who didn't obey the rules.

Conversely, I have made new lifelong and deep friendships that I will always treasure the for the rest of my life. At this stage in life, I want to do the same for the growing numbers of foreigners who have had the courage, drive, and vision to visit my country. I want live happily here and make the most of all we have to offer!

I hope to hear from you soon!

Kyoko Iketani

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