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.
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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:
1K
= one room apartment with kitchen
1DK
= one room apartment with dining and kitchen area
1LDK
= one room apartment with a living, dining and kitchen area
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.
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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.
