Comments by "XSportSeeker" (@XSpImmaLion) on "Why Foreigners Have Difficulty Renting in Japan" video.

  1. Again Greg, wonderful, thorough, well organized and lovely information that I was super curious about. It's the sort of stuff I wouldn't expect this much quality and research not even from a dedicated course on the subject or something. xD So, I had heard a bit about this, but didn't know the intricacies of it. My mom works in real estate, so I really know about all the huge problems bad tenants can generate, the fears, the downsides, among other stuff around real estate. So while I stand for saying racism isn't justifiable, several of the other reasons for worry coming from a japanese landowner's perspective are plenty reasonable. I'm also voluntary part of the management group in my apartment building (like, superintendent, not sure how it's called properly), so I end up knowing everything that goes wrong here... some unbelievable stories. My building is almost half rental, half owned, with lots of students. We have everything from the regular stuff like garbage problems, smell and noise problems, garage problems, bad usage of public facilities problems, to downright ugly police cases where people got evicted and prosecuted. In lots of cases, people have worked long and hard to purchase property for rent, and in some cases those are peoples' lifelines. I imagine in Japan this must be pretty prevalent... plenty common for retirees to have invested in real state through their lives being able to live comfortably in retirement with property rent money. The last thing landowners in those situations would want are tenants giving them all sorts of problems, or worse, skipping bills and whatnot - in the very same way an employee wouldn't want a job that does not pay in time or generates all sorts of problems for themselves. Of course, it can be pretty unfair for foreigners trying to find a place to live in Japan, that have all good intentions and would never like crash the place down, but the fear isn't without reason. So what John says is very to the point: the more you show upfront that all the owner will have to deal with is receiving the rent money by the end of the month, the better. In my admitedly far fetched dreams of moving to Japan, I'd only risk moving there if I had something like a job waiting for me there, or an international job that would allow me to work while living there, and I'd also only go if I had enough money to pay for real estate upfront. Doesn't need to be anything fancy, but I have lots of stuff in mind. Like not in Tokyo but somewhat close, relatively near a station because I don't want to own a car there, if possible somewhere with a climate close to my current city (hard), not tiny but also not big, etc etc. It's far fetched because I don't intend to leave family behind, but it could still happen one day when I'm older I guess. I'd also only move if I knew I could live better there than here, which isn't very hard considering I live in Brazil... but I do live comfortably here, more than people would imagine given the bad image Brazil has, so. A distant dream, but still a dream. xD I've been there twice as a tourist, and I have the urge to spend far longer I guess to explore the country and culture deeply. I feel some sort of abstract connection that cannot be put into words, and it's not only because I'm japanese descendant (yonsei). Even considering I have some family and friends in Japan (relatives), so I could potentially get guarantors, they are brazilian of japanese decendency married to japanese, I still didn't want to rely on them for anything this burdensome. Other things that absolutely must happen before considering moving there is for me to learn japanese properly, at least as much as I know english right now, and diving a bit deeper into japanese culture and customs/habits. I know quite a bit, but would probably have to talk far more with the family living there before feeling comfortable. But I guess I'm not too distant from it because I have a very low tolerance for noise too. Unfortunately, in Brazil there's not much respect on that, so I'm currently renovating my apartment to include some ceiling insulation... *sigh*. I went the extra step to install my floor with a layer of insulation not to bother the neighbor downstairs, but of course my neighbor upstairs didn't do that, nor respects silence laws at night. Complaints fall to deaf ears and the legal system does not help. Oh well. Anyways, keep up the wonderful work you are doing Greg... this is invaluable information.
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