Finding an apartment with gaijin spouse?

Hi everyone this is my first time posting here and I have a simple or I hope its simple inquiry. I have read that there is often difficulty for foreigners trying to find decent apartments in Japan. Is this difficulty the same when a gaijin /Japanese couple are looking for a place together? I hope my question is understandable written. I look forward to any helpful replies.

nobodyknows25,

If your spouse is Japanese, then I don't think you will have any problems at all finding an apartment. You might possibly find that some landlords are reluctant to rent to unmarried couples, but they are probably few and far between these days.

I am a New Zealander with a Japanese husband and we had no trouble getting an apartment in Tokyo- the landlord at each of the apartments we enquired about said that they were quite happy to have us.

Just one of the real estate agencies we went into told us they couldn't help us-they didn't give a specific reason but it seemed an odd thing to say to potential customers and I have my suspicions.

Just to add to what Dave in Saitama said above- we weren't married when we were apartment hunting and it didn't seem to bother anyone. I have kept my own surname so people tend not to realise we are married anyway.

More rural areas may well be more conservative but plenty of younger Japanese people are living together before marriage these days in Tokyo at least.

Thanks for the advice everyone, I feel a lot better now. We were really worried about this.