How to Rent an Apartment?

I will be going to tokyo by mid March, with 2 of my friends and we need an accommodation. We are planning to rent an appartment for long term but since one of my friend will be working in Japan as an English teacher. The problem we're having is that when we talk to housing agency they won't allow us to rent a place since my other friend and I will be coming with a short term visa. (My friend and I will be doing an internship while looking for a full time job).

What do we need to do? We are planning to look for a place big enough to accommodate the 3 of us that is not a share house, and the internship agency said we are not qualified for a resident card since the short term visa only allows us to stay for 3 months.

Weekly/monthly rental apartments (they come furnished too) sounds like an option for you.

Weekly / Monthly rental apartments however are quite expensive. Eg I am getting now one for 1 person in Shin Osaka area for 5 weeks and its nearly 300,000 yen (which is cool with me as my company pays). In Tokyo it has also become more complicated to get monthly apartments. I am not 100% sure if it is a law, but while until about a year ago when I went to Tokyo, my company would rent me an apartment there as well, now it seems you need to rent for several months. (So I now stay in a hotel for 5 weeks).

If I understand the OPs post correctly, there is one of you who will be a resident, right. So this is the only person who can rent an apartment in a normal way. Remember that apartments will come w/o furniture, so it can be quite an expense even with minimal furniture and appliances bought second hand. So she/he can rent an apartment, but obviously the landlord looks at her/his salary to see if she/he can pay the rent. So unless your friend has a good salary it might only be good enough to rent a place with 1 room. (Also obviously depends on where. If inside Tokyo or if you are willing to go to far flung suburbs). The easiest (or at least one if the easiest ) place where to rent an apartment as a foreigner is UR HOUSING.

You guys are doing presumably an unpaid internship. What does the company where you�fll do that suggest regarding accommodation? Some may have a dormitory. (That was my case when I first went as unpaid trainee 25 yrs ago).

when we talk to housing agency they won't allow us to rent a place
Get a different agency.
I have a friend just finished three months living in Shinjuku - zero problem renting an apartment. (Small, one person, furnished, actually pretty good for what they paid and the location.) As they stayed less than three months, they were just on the visa waiver programme.
Try one of the foreigner friendly companies - Oak House or Sakura House might have what you need - they do apartments as well as share houses. Some agencies see people on expense accounts/"expat" company accounts and charge double the going rate - they say a sucker's born every minute.

Either try a different agency, or honestly just check places on airbnb. I remember being able to rent an apartment that was fully furnished for a little over a month and sometimes they will let you stay longer, just as long as you pay them.

The other option you could do is look for a long-term rental as a hostel. There are some pretty nice ones and they offer discounts for staying a month. There was one I saw in Osaka that let you stay month to month and only 30,000 yen to rent it that way.

Good luck to you!

Prepare to pay more than double the Japanese rent for a bad location and old building if you want long term in central Tokyo. may be cheaper to just go for hotels or weekly mansions.

The fact is even as a long term resident with 10M+ salaried full time positions, 99% of the apartments will outright reject foreigners.
1LDK would be ~100,000-150,000 for Japanese but I�fm paying over 300,000 with a 1 rei : 2 shiki initial upfront for a building which was built in the 80s.

Maybe if you go 1-1.5 hours out of Tokyo you�fd get better luck but all the good areas and new buildings are essentially Japanese only.

I got a random marketing email this week. Company renting from one month plus, different sites around Tokyo. I checked one place in an area I know in Kawasaki. Half the space and double the price of what I am paying for my current place - someone is making a lot of money.
But, it might suit. https://unionmonthly.tokyo

BTW, before I moved to Tokyo full time I did do some quite long stays in hotels, and some brands/locations offered some very affordable options. One two-week stint in Yokohama cost us 120,000 yen for something around 33m2 (which is quite large) and with daily servicing, utilities and furnished it worked out very cheaply. very close to transport as well. But, it was still more than a long term apartment, but better than the nearby "monthly mansions".