Will Miss #3 - my landlord (reflection)

 My husband and I never had to rent an apartment in the United States for various reasons up until recently. We had no idea what it was like to live in an apartment here until about a month ago. Apartment hunting in general is not fun in either Japan or America, and one of the reasons we stayed put in our apartment in Tokyo for 23 years was that fact, but the other was our gem of a landlord.

One thing that is important to keep in mind when assessing an experience in a foreign country is very different from doing so for a similar experience at home. Our landlord performed triple duty in Japan because he not only rented us a piece of his property, but he also translated and was a buffer for us with services that we had problems dealing with because of cultural of linguistic issues, especially earlier on in our stay there. He didn't merely take our money and fix our apartment, he actually assisted us in navigating the difficulties of life abroad.

In the U.S., the truth is that we don't need a landlord to manage our affairs in such a fashion. We can easily do such things for ourselves because we can speak, read and write the language fluently, and we know the culture (well, pretty much, we're a bit behind). The value of a particular type of relationship very much depends on context. Having an involved and helpful landlord really mattered in Tokyo for us. Here, it doesn't matter so much.

It turns out that, except for the fact that our landlord and his wife were our neighbors and generally very kind and lovely people, I don't really find myself missing the role he played... at least not yet. Right now, we live in an apartment complex which has an agent living on the premises who seems to be pretty helpful and responsive to requests much like our former landlord was. Perhaps we got lucky twice, or we haven't lived in our new place long enough to really test the waters. At this point in time, however, without the complexities of life in a foreign country, I'm finding that we're not really missing our ever-helpful landlord as I thought we might, because we don't need an ever-helpful landlord when we're not fish out of our native waters.

Will Miss #331 - rent contract terms

No, this is not where I live, but someone else does.

When I lived in the U.S., I lived in circumstances in which I didn't have to pay rent in both Pennsylvania and California. Lucky me. I only started forking over a pile of cash to a landlord upon moving into my Tokyo apartment, and I was annoyed at the key money and renewal fees, but figure that was the cost of business here. I've since come to learn that it is common, particularly in densely populated or highly desirable areas, for rent contracts in the U.S. to be shorter term (6 months to a year) and for there to be a rent increase upon every renewal. I also have learned that it's common to have to pay a penalty fee, a not insubstantial one, if the term of the contract is not completed. Rent contracts in Tokyo are for two years, rents rarely go up much, if at all, upon renewal of the contracts (and sometimes go down), and there is no penalty fee for leaving before the term is up.

I will miss these favorable rent contract terms.

Won't Miss #242 - useless maintenance fees

My landlord uses my maintenance fee to paint the metal guard leading to my building a fetching shade of battleship gray once every 3 or 4 years. Yeah, that costs about $1600 a year (which is what they get from our entire building in maintenance fees).

Maintenance fees for rented spaces are not uncommon in many countries and there is no reason why Japan should be any different. However, maintenance fees here are different. For one thing, such fees back home are used to maintain community areas and shared amenities. In plain English, it means that if your building has a lobby or a pool, all of the tenants contribute to the cost of upkeep. In Japan, my problem with the fees are two-fold. First of all, apartments are advertised as having a certain monthly cost, but the fees are not included in the advertised price and every apartment has such fees. Essentially, you'll always be paying a bit more each month than you are told. Second, fees are applied whether or not you have any sort of amenities or common areas. I pay 2000 yen ($22) a month for access to a cement walkway that leads to my apartment and a flimsy metal mail box which hasn't been changed or cleaned for 20 years. In theory, my landlord uses the money to make sure any common spaces or amenities I access are well-tended, but there's nothing to tend. In Tokyo, this is quite common since space is so expensive. It's essentially a way of getting more money from tenants and nothing more.

I won't miss paying a maintenance fee when there's nothing to maintain.

Won't Miss #114 - key money & contract renewal fees

Though it isn't always the case, you often have to pay two months of "gift" money when you first sign a contract and one to three months again every two years when you renew your contract. This is mandatory, though it can be negotiated in some cases. The money is little more than extortion and a way of extracting more money from the tenant. In some cities, this is illegal and there has been much talk of outlawing it all over Japan, but there will always be a way for landlords to get around the law. Since moving is far from cheap in Japan, tenants have a choice between paying these fees or forking out money to move at an expense not appreciably less than some of these required "gifts".

I won't miss this extortion when dealing with rental contracts.

Won't Miss #63 - no room at the inn

Though it isn't nearly as obvious or omnipresent as it once was, many landlords still do not welcome foreigners. When we first arrived about two decades ago, there were signs in real estate agencies (who in Japan arrange for rental contracts) saying, "no foreigners, no pets, and no prostitutes." These days, there aren't as many signs, but the best rental deals (especially cheap places) are often off-limits to foreigners. More often than not, the places that welcome foreigners are those which offer the types of accommodation most Japanese people would not accept like large, shared housing with relatively high rent for the space provided or simply small, expensive places that are less attractive to the Japanese.

I won't miss knowing that if I moved, I'd almost certainly have to deal with a lot of discrimination and have limited options.