The average rent for a private rental (民営借家) in Japan is a month for a non-wooden (concrete or steel-frame) building, and for a wooden one, according to the Statistics Bureau's Housing and Land Survey. Across all rental housing the average is . , so these figures are still rising.
That is the rent alone. In Japan the first payment to move in is far larger, usually about 4.5 to 6 times the monthly rent once deposit, key money, agency fee and guarantor are added. The move-in cost calculator turns any rent into that real up-front number.
Average rent by city
These are the official average private-rental rents (民営家賃) for the ten biggest cities, from the Statistics Bureau's Retail Price Survey, . They are survey yen, not estimates, converted here to typical flat sizes. Tap any size to carry that rent into the move-in calculator.
| City | per 3.3㎡ | 1K | 1LDK | 2LDK |
|---|
What drives rent up or down
- Location. Tokyo is in a class of its own: its average private rent per unit area is roughly double that of the cheaper major cities like Sapporo and Hiroshima, with Yokohama, Osaka and Kyoto in between. Rent falls steadily the further you get from the big employment centres and train lines.
- Distance from the station. Within the same city, walking minutes to the nearest station move the rent more than almost anything else. A flat ten minutes further out can be noticeably cheaper.
- Building age and construction. Newer buildings cost more, and the non-wooden (RC / SRC) figure above sits well over the wooden one, partly for sound and insulation and partly because wooden stock is older.
- Size and layout. A 1K studio is the cheapest entry point; a 1LDK for a couple and a 2LDK for a small family step up from there. The averages above span all sizes together.
What is not included in the rent
The advertised rent (家賃) is rarely the whole monthly cost. On top of it you normally pay:
- Management / common fee (管理費・共益費), a fixed monthly charge for shared areas, often a few thousand yen, quoted separately from rent.
- Utilities (electricity, gas, water) and internet, which are yours to set up and pay.
- Renewal fee (更新料) in much of the country, typically one month of rent every two years.
- Parking, billed as a separate monthly rent where you need it.
When you compare listings, compare rent plus management fee, not rent alone.
How rent turns into your move-in cost
The single biggest surprise for newcomers is not the rent, it is the up-front total. On a typical lease you pay, before you get the keys: a deposit (敷金), key money (礼金, non-refundable), the agency fee (仲介手数料, capped at about one month plus tax), a guarantor-company fee, fire insurance, a lock change, and usually the first month of rent in advance. Together these come to roughly 4.5 to 6 months of rent.
So a apartment, close to the national average, needs somewhere around in cash to move in. The calculator itemises every line and lets you switch off the optional ones.
Work out your real move-in cost →Sources (checked )
Per-city rent (民営家賃, yen per month per 3.3㎡): , . National private-rental averages for context: . All figures are official 総務省 statistics and are informational only; the per-city figures were read in the e-Stat database (which the build machine cannot fetch directly). The only estimate is the conversion from the per-area average to flat sizes, using the stated floor-area assumptions.