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The housing situation with respect to living space has improved a lot in recent decades, even though you can still find many very small apartments mainly in the large cities and in central Tokyo, in particular.
Most rooms come with tatami floors or wooden floors, while fully carpeted rooms are rare. Some apartments come with both, tatami rooms and wooden floor rooms, while others do not contain any tatami room.
LDK is an abbreviation frequently used in the world of Japanese real estate to describe apartments. It stands for Living, Dining and Kitchen area, and is preceeded by the number of rooms. Some examples are:
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1K
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= one room apartment with kitchen
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1DK
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= one room apartment with dining and kitchen area
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1LDK
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= one room apartment with a living, dining and kitchen area
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In addition, most apartments come with a bathroom, a toilet room and an entrance area (genkan) where the shoes are taken off.
The following are the repeating fees associated with renting an apartment:
- Rent (yachin)
The actual rent is paid monthly, usually through automatic bank transfer. It is due before the start of a new month.
- Utilities
In case of conventional apartments, the cost for utilities such as gas and electricity is not included in the rent. The opposite is sometimes true in case of companies that specifically target foreigners.
- Maintenance fee (kanrihi/kyoekihi)
In case of some apartments, a small monthly maintenance fee for expenses shared by all tenants of a building may have to be paid.
- Insurance
Some landlords may require you to insure your apartment.
The location and age of the building and the size and position of the apartment are the main factors that determine the cost of the rent:
Location: Apartments located close to city centers are most expensive. The difference in cost to apartments in the suburbs or even neighboring prefectures can be very large. Furthermore, the distance from the apartment to the next train station is crucial.
Age of building: Old buildings with small apartments are called apato ("apartment"), while modern buildings with larger apartments are refered to as manshon ("mansion"). Needless to say, manshons tend to be more comfortable and expensive.
Size: The size of rooms is measured in tatami mats (jo), even in case of rooms without tatami floor. One tatami mat is roughly 180 cm x 90 cm.
Position of apartments: Apartments that face to the south and receive a lot of sunlight tend to be more expensive.
Please visit also our page about how to find an apartment.
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English Links
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Tokyo:
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Ichii Corportation
Over 600 fully-furnished apartments in Tokyo. New, clean, good access and reasonable price range. No start-up fee or troublesome procedures.
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Shrek Watta House
Budget accommodation in Tokyo, short or long OK! furnished private rooms, self-contained...
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Sakura House - Tokyo apartment and guesthouse
Find your home in Tokyo from over 1700 furnished rooms. Guesthouse rooms from 48000yen, furnished apartments from 80000yen per month including utilities & Internet access. No key money, guarantor, agent fee required.
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Happy House
Best accomodations in Chiba. We have a guesthouse in Funabashi and new apartments coming up in Ichikawa.
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Housing Japan - Full Real Estate Services
Visit our online showroom of top properties - we specialize in real estate for expats in central Tokyo.
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Tokyo Living - Newly Launched
Premium Rental Apartments - Over 700 Furnished and Unfurnished Properties located throughout Tokyo. Bilingual Support. Move-in Support. Please visit our website www.tokyo-living.com for more information.
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Tokyo Apartments.jp
Providing both Short and Long-term Serviced and Rental Apartments throughout Tokyo. We can a help provide accommodation to fit a wide range of budgets. Please visit our website www.tokyoapartments.jp for more information.
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Product Links
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Recommended Book:
A Practical Guide to Living in Japan
This living guide by Jarrell D. Sieff covers every topic from immigration and accommodation to health matters and the Japanese etiquette. It includes lots of valuable advice, important vocabulary and useful phone numbers and addresses.
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