Full Guide to Renting for Students in Japan — With Special Discount for MEXT Scholars!
Going through the tedious process of finding the perfect apartment can often be frustrating as there is a lot of paperwork (and some serious money) involved in it. Quite often, realtors try to maximize their commission from a deal, and seldom feel sympathetic towards foreign students. But, JSB and MEXT Scholars Association are about to change this! Henceforth, any current MEXT scholar can enjoy a sweet 30% discount on real estate agent fees upon showing documentation of receiving the scholarship.
Finding an apartment is one of the many problems which almost all the foreigners face during their time in Japan. MEXT scholars have higher chances of getting into a prestigious university with a full scholarship than to find a reasonable apartment without much hassle. There are various issues which the students face, when they are looking for an apartment. We have addressed a few of them in the following sections.
Firstly, the initial downpayment is a huge burden on the students . It involves the deposit, the real estate agency commission fee, plus the first months rent, as well as a small fee for property insurance, an annual maintenance fee and a key exchange fee. All of these fees sum up to a mind-boggling figure (~400,000¥) and our savings take a big hit.
Furthermore, the home owners (or the 大家 [Ōoya]) might be a little hesitant to lease their apartments to foreigners. Moreover, the university dormitories are quite far from the campuses and we end up losing a lot of time on the commute. These two issues are quite painful and have never been tackled until now.
Lastly, the paperwork is humongous and limitless. Imagine a foreign student who has just arrived in Japan and is not fluent in Japanese. When that person walks into a realtor’s office, there is an obvious language barrier. This barrier strengthens when the student sees the off putting documentation in Japanese with no one around to translate it for them. Moreover, if the student rents an apartment and discovers some new problems, he/she doesn’t have a helpline which caters to them in English.

Solution: Introducing JSB’s Unilife service
From our side in MSA, we really want members to take advantage of their time in Japan and make the most of it. MSA aims to address these issues by partnering with a foreigner friendly realtor — JSB (Unilife K.K.).
JSB is one of the largest real estate agencies in Japan which specializes in providing realtor services to foreigners at a discounted price. JSB believes that foreign students are an asset to Japan, especially MEXT scholars, who are exceptionally talented and spend a significant amount of time in Japan. JSB appreciates the efforts and steps that are being taken by MSA to solve the issues faced by MEXT scholars, so they’ve given us some special perks.
Some of the main perks of the partnership are:
- JSB will be your guarantor, i.e. NO MORE GUARANTOR FEE
- JSB will waive the initial down payment (key money, deposit etc.)- Hurray!
- Any current MEXT scholar will get a 30% discount on the realtor fee!
- 24-7 English Helplines and support services
This initiative will hopefully solve the problems of foreign students through drastically cutting the initial cost to rent as well as lowering the administrative barriers for foreign students
Through this partnership, MSA will publicize UniLifeGlobal its members and also to foreign students as a whole. In addition, any current MEXT scholar will get a 30% discount on the real estate agent fee on showing proof of receiving the scholarship.
Both the organizations are excited to see the difference that this can make in the lives of MEXT scholars living in Japan and in making Japan a more welcoming society for foreign students.
