Who Rents in Japan? Tenant Types and Official Figures

This article is part of the Zagdim wiki series on buying property in Japan. Drawing on official Japanese statistics, it explains where tenants in the Japanese rental market come from: local households, foreign residents and international students, companies that lease housing for their employees, and travelers who need short-term lodging. It is written for readers who live outside Japan and are thinking of renting out Japanese property, and who want to understand who might rent it first.

Japan’s rental market is dominated by privately owned rental housing (民営借家, minkan shakuya). Its tenants include local households, foreign residents and international students; housing that a company provides to its employees is counted as a separate category in official statistics. Lodging for less than one month is, as a rule, treated as a hotel business (旅館業), and the rules differ from those for an ordinary rental. As of September 2026, official statistics do not publish what share of private-rental households are single people, and they do not publish how many overseas assignees (expatriates) rent housing in Japan.

Why Is It Hard to Read Tenant Types Directly From the Numbers?

Official statistics count households and dwellings, not tenants. Each survey counts differently, uses a different reference date and covers a different population, so figures from different surveys are easy to combine incorrectly.

• Different counting units. The Population Census (国勢調査) counts households (世帯, setai). On the reference date of October 1, 2025, general households living in private rental housing made up 30.9% of the total. The Housing and Land Survey (住宅・土地統計調査) counts dwellings. On October 1, 2023, private rental housing made up 28.2% of occupied dwellings. The years and counting units differ, so the two figures should not be added together or compared.
• Different reference dates. There are two official figures for international students: the number enrolled on May 1, 2025, and the number holding the “Student” status of residence at the end of 2025. The gap between them comes from the reference date and the population covered, and the two figures do not contradict each other.
• Some figures do not exist. As of September 2026, official statistics publish neither the share of single people among tenants nor the number of overseas assignees renting housing. If you see such a share quoted, first check its source and how it was calculated.

The Short Answer: Which Types of Tenants Are There in Japan?

Based on official statistics, tenants fall into five groups. The table shows the closest official figure for each group, what to watch for when reading it, and what it means for an owner.

These figures show who is in the market, but they cannot tell you who will rent any particular property. Each group is covered below.

Local Households: If Many Households Are Single, Are Most Tenants Single?

No, that conclusion does not follow. In 2025, one-person households (単独世帯, tandoku setai) were 41.4% of all general households nationwide (38.0% in 2020). Osaka City publishes a figure of 58.7%, and calculations from census household counts give roughly 56.2% for Tokyo’s 23 wards and roughly 54.5% for Fukuoka City.

These shares all include people who live in homes they own. As of September 2026, official statistics do not publish what share of private-rental households are one-person households, so the figures cannot be used to estimate how many tenants are single. A high single-person share shows that many households in Japanese cities are people living alone. Which type of tenant suits a particular property still depends on its layout and location.

Foreign Residents and International Students: How Many Are There, and Where Do They Live?

At the end of 2025, the number of foreign residents (在留外国人, medium- and long-term residents and special permanent residents, excluding short stays such as tourism) was 4,125,395, passing 4 million for the first time. Of these, 801,438 lived in Tokyo, 375,319 in Osaka Prefecture and 125,501 in Fukuoka Prefecture. By status of residence (在留資格, the category under which a foreigner is permitted to stay in Japan), the top five were permanent resident, Engineer/Specialist in Humanities/International Services, Student, Technical Intern Training and Specified Skilled Worker, in that order.

There are two official figures for international students, and they count different populations:

• Enrollment (Japan Student Services Organization). A survey by the Japan Student Services Organization (日本学生支援機構, JASSO) found 408,069 foreign students on May 1, 2025, up 21.2% from the previous year and the highest on record. Of these, 140,174 were at Japanese-language institutions, 106,829 at vocational colleges (specialized courses), 92,442 in undergraduate programs and 60,013 in graduate programs. By location of the campus, 140,029 were in Tokyo, 43,253 in Osaka Prefecture and 25,011 in Fukuoka Prefecture.
• Holders of the “Student” status of residence (Immigration Services Agency). Statistics from the Immigration Services Agency of Japan (出入国在留管理庁) show 464,784 people holding the “Student” status of residence nationwide at the end of 2025. By prefecture of residence, 150,254 were in Tokyo, 50,225 in Osaka Prefecture and 26,970 in Fukuoka Prefecture.

The reference dates differ, and the immigration figure also includes students at other institutions such as high schools. The two cannot be subtracted from each other, and they should not be read as contradicting each other.

Where students live. On May 1, 2025, 89,381 students (21.9%) lived in student dormitories set up by schools or public-interest corporations. The remaining 318,688 (78.1%) lived in private dormitories, apartments and similar housing. This second group is simply everyone left over after public dormitories are removed. It includes private student dormitories and shared housing, and the survey does not break it down further, so it does not mean the students rent entire ordinary apartments.

What it means for an owner. The number of international students is at a record high, but the official figures do not say how many of them rent a whole ordinary apartment. If you are considering students as target tenants, you can ask a property management company how students actually rent in the area.

What Do Foreign Tenants Face When Looking for Housing, and What Is the Government Doing?

Two official surveys both show that searching for housing is one of the situations in which foreign residents run into difficulty.

• Survey of foreign residents commissioned by the Ministry of Justice. The survey ran from November 14 to December 5, 2016, among foreign residents aged 18 and over in 37 cities and wards, with 4,252 valid responses. Of the 2,044 respondents who had looked for housing in Japan in the previous five years, 39.3% had been refused “because they were foreign,” 41.2% had been refused “because they had no Japanese guarantor,” and 26.8% had given up on a property because the listing said “No foreigners.”
• Basic Survey of Foreign Residents (Immigration Services Agency). The survey ran from October 17 to November 9, 2025, with 8,874 valid responses. As in the previous year, “when looking for housing” (19.4%) was the most common situation in which respondents experienced discrimination, followed by when looking for work (17.5%). Among the parties who discriminated, “people involved in housing and real estate” accounted for 23.8%.

The two surveys use different denominators. The 39.3% is the share of refusals among people who had searched for housing, while the 19.4% is the share of all respondents who experienced discrimination when searching for housing. The two figures cannot be compared directly, and they do not show that the rate has fallen.

Related government measures include the following three.

• Multilingual move-in guidelines and contract templates. MLIT has produced guidelines for smoother move-in of foreign residents into private rental housing (外国人の民間賃貸住宅入居円滑化ガイドライン) for landlords, agents and management companies. They provide a contract checklist in 14 languages, including Japanese, English, Chinese and Korean, together with templates such as the move-in application form, the explanation of important matters, the standard rental housing contract and the standard fixed-term rental housing contract. MLIT also publishes a house-hunting handbook (部屋探しのガイドブック) in 14 languages for foreigners looking for housing in Japan. The guidelines are a practical manual, not a regulation, and have no binding force.
• The Housing Safety Net system. Under the Act on Promotion of Provision of Rental Housing for Persons Requiring Special Consideration in Securing Housing (住宅確保要配慮者に対する賃貸住宅の供給の促進に関する法律, commonly called the Housing Safety Net Act, 住宅セーフティネット法), “persons requiring special consideration in securing housing” (住宅確保要配慮者) include low-income people, elderly people and people with disabilities, and the enforcement regulations also list people who do not hold Japanese nationality. An amendment to the Act took effect on October 1, 2025, and includes a new certification system for Housing Support Housing (居住サポート住宅).
• Registration and certification of rent guarantee companies. Rent guarantee business (家賃債務保証業) means guaranteeing a tenant’s rent obligations at the tenant’s request. MLIT has accepted registration of rent guarantee companies (家賃債務保証業者) since October 25, 2017, with the aim of registering companies that operate properly and reliably and making information about them widely available. Separately, under the Housing Safety Net Act, the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism certifies, from among registered companies and others, those that are convenient for persons requiring special consideration (certified rent guarantee companies, 認定家賃債務保証業者).

What it means for an owner. Having no Japanese guarantor is one of the reasons foreign residents have been refused housing, and having the tenant engage a rent guarantee company is an established practice within the system. Before listing a property, you can ask the management company which guarantee methods it accepts, whether the rent guarantee company it uses is registered with MLIT, and whether the contract and explanations can be provided in a foreign language.

Company-Leased Housing and Overseas Assignees: Are There Official Figures?

There is no figure for overseas assignees, only a broader figure for “employer-supplied housing.”

Official statistics use the term employer-supplied housing (給与住宅) for housing owned or managed by a company or agency in which employees live because of their duties or as part of their pay, whether or not rent is paid. It also covers cases where a company or employer leases an ordinary home for an employee to live in, and these are not counted as private rental housing. On October 1, 2023, there were 1.302 million employer-supplied dwellings, 2.3% of occupied dwellings. In the 2025 census, which counts households, 1.498 million households (2.7%) lived in employer-supplied housing. The two figures differ in counting unit and year and cannot be compared.

This category includes Japanese employee dormitories and civil-servant housing, and it makes no distinction by nationality. As of September 2026, official statistics do not publish how many overseas assignees (駐在員) rent housing in Japan. The press release on foreign-resident statistics lists only the five status-of-residence categories with the most people, and categories such as Intra-company Transferee (企業内転勤) and Business Manager (経営・管理) are not listed separately.

What it means for an owner. If a company leases your property for an employee, the tenant is the company. When the owner is a non-resident, the company must withhold 20.42% of the rent before paying it; withholding does not apply when an individual rents for their own or a relative’s residence. The filing that follows withholding is covered in the main article.

Can Short-Stay Demand Be Judged From Visitor Numbers?

Not directly. The three sets of official figures below count different things.

• Visitor arrivals to Japan. In 2025 there were 42,683,301 arrivals (confirmed figure from the Japan National Tourism Organization), an annual record. This counts entries into the country. Entries and re-entries by overseas assignees and their families, international students and others are included, so it is not lodging demand.
• Foreign guest-nights. The Japan Tourism Agency’s Overnight Travel Statistics Survey (宿泊旅行統計調査), in its confirmed figures, shows 179.92 million guest-nights by foreigners at lodging facilities in 2025, up 9.4% from the previous year. Tokyo recorded 60,115,730 guest-nights, Osaka Prefecture 24,517,740 (down 3.5% from the previous year) and Fukuoka Prefecture 8,421,130. The survey covers lodging facilities such as hotels, ryokan and simple lodgings (簡易宿所), and the published materials do not say whether home-sharing lodging is included.
• Home-sharing lodging results. From June 1 to July 31, 2026, home-sharing lodging under the Private Lodging Business Act (住宅宿泊事業, commonly called minpaku) recorded 582,162 guests nationwide, of whom 334,689 (57.5%) were foreigners. Guest-nights totaled 1,627,034, and the total number of days stayed was 557,439. As of September 15, 2026, 43,037 homes were notified for home-sharing lodging nationwide.

The home-sharing figures are compiled from periodic reports submitted by operators to the authorities, and the reporting rate was 85.0%, so they should not be used to calculate occupancy rates or income.

What it means for an owner. More visitors does not mean your property can be turned into a short-term rental. Lodging for less than one month is generally a hotel business and must be run under the rules for home-sharing lodging or hotel business. Whether a specific home may operate depends on local ordinances and the building’s management rules; see the main article section “Can a Home Be Converted to Short-Term or Minpaku Use?”

Is a Monthly or Mid-Term Rental a Lease or Lodging?

The test is, in principle, one month. A service of less than one month is generally treated as a hotel business. A stay of one month or more is not automatically a lease. For example, Chuo Ward in Tokyo provides that even where the period is one month or more, a rental still counts as a hotel business if it is not openly offered on the premise of a stay of at least one month, or if stays are repeatedly ended before one month. Local governments that have set a different benchmark period follow their own rules.

When a property is rented out under a lease, the Act on Land and Building Leases (借地借家法) applies:

• Listing sites. The guidelines under the Private Lodging Business Act require that when a listing site advertises a short-term rental property, it be conditional on signing a short-term lease, and the listing must state clearly that the property is not a lodging facility.
• Contract document. When a short-term lease is signed, the contract must be made in writing or as an electromagnetic record.
• Temporary use. A building lease that is clearly for temporary use (一時使用) is not subject to the Act’s provisions on building leases. There is currently no uniform official position on whether a monthly rental counts as temporary use, and it is decided case by case.
• Sublessors. A business that rents a property from an owner and re-lets it as its business is a specified sublease business operator (特定転貸事業者) and must meet the obligations under the Rental Housing Management Business Act (賃貸住宅管理業法).

What it means for an owner. If you plan to rent by the month, first confirm that the arrangement is a lease, that the contract is in writing, and what criteria the local government applies.

How Do You Choose a Lease for Different Tenants?

Japanese residential leases are either ordinary (普通借家) or fixed-term (定期借家), and the difference lies in whether you can take the property back when the term ends. If you want to keep the flexibility to move in yourself later or to sell the property vacant, you must decide the lease type before you look for tenants.

Ordinary lease (普通借家):

• If neither side gives notice of non-renewal between one year and six months before the term ends, the lease is treated as renewed on the same terms, but with no fixed term afterward.
• For a landlord to refuse renewal or terminate, there must be a “justifiable reason” (正当の事由), judged by weighing both sides’ need to use the property, the history of the lease, how the property is used and its condition, and any payment the landlord offers (立退料, tachinokiryo). When a landlord gives notice of termination, the lease ends six months after the notice.
• Special terms that violate these rules and disadvantage the tenant are void.

Fixed-term lease (定期建物賃貸借):

• A non-renewal clause is valid only if the lease is made in writing, such as by notarized deed. A lease made as an electromagnetic record is treated as written.
• The landlord must hand over a written statement in advance explaining that “this lease will not be renewed and ends when the term expires.” With the tenant’s consent, this can be provided electronically. Without this explanation, the non-renewal clause is invalid.
• For terms of one year or longer, the landlord must notify the tenant between one year and six months before the term ends that the lease will end. Without notice, the landlord cannot rely on expiry against the tenant; if notice is late, the landlord can do so only after six months have passed from the date of notice.
• For residential property with a floor area under 200 square meters, if the tenant cannot reasonably continue to use it as a base for living because of an unavoidable reason such as a job transfer (転勤), medical treatment or caring for a relative, the tenant may give notice of termination, and the lease ends one month after notice. Special terms that disadvantage the tenant in violation of this rule are void.

Rent adjustment. During the lease, either the landlord or the tenant may ask for a rent increase or decrease under Article 32 of the Act on Land and Building Leases, and if they cannot agree, a court decides. This article does not apply where a fixed-term lease contains a special term on rent revision.

**Example: Ms. Lin, an owner living abroad**

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Ms. Lin owns an apartment in Tokyo and plans to rent it out first and move in herself in a few years. She is considering renting to a tenant who has been posted to Tokyo for work and will rent in their own name.

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With an ordinary lease, if she wants the apartment back for her own use at the end of the term, she needs a justifiable reason, judged by weighing factors such as how much each side needs to use the property. With a fixed-term lease, she must sign in writing and hand over a separate written explanation before signing that the lease ends when the term expires; if the term is one year or longer, she must also notify the tenant between one year and six months before the end of the term.

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If the tenant is transferred away from Tokyo by their company during the term, the tenant may give notice of termination and the lease ends one month later, as long as the apartment is residential and has a floor area under 200 square meters. She needs to decide the lease type before looking for tenants, confirm with the management company who prepares the written explanation and when it is handed over, and include the possibility of early termination in her income estimate.

Which Claims Should You Stop and Check?

• “Most tenants in Japan are single.” Official statistics do not give the share of singles among private-rental households. The 41.4% is the share of all general households.
• “78.1% of international students rent apartments.” The correct reading is that 78.1% do not live in public dormitories, and the group includes private student dormitories and shared housing.
• “There are 1.302 million company-housing units, all driven by overseas assignee demand.” Employer-supplied housing includes Japanese employee and civil-servant housing, regardless of nationality.
• “All 42.68 million visitors are short-stay customers.” That figure counts entries, and it also includes entries by overseas assignees and students.
• “A monthly rental of one month or more is not a hotel business.” A stay of less than one month is generally a hotel business, but a stay of one month or more can also be treated as one.
• “Tenants on fixed-term leases cannot leave early.” For residential property under 200 square meters, a tenant may terminate early for unavoidable reasons such as a job transfer.
• “The share of foreigners refused housing fell from 39.3% to 19.4%.” The two surveys have different denominators and cannot be compared.

How Do You Decide What to Do Next?

Before listing a property, settle these points with the management company:

1. Which type of tenant is this unit aimed at: an individual, a company or a monthly renter?
2. Whether the lease will be an ordinary lease or a fixed-term lease; for a fixed-term lease, who prepares the written explanation and when it is handed over.
3. Which guarantee methods are accepted; when a rent guarantee company is used, whether it is registered with MLIT.
4. Whether listing materials, the contract and explanations can be provided in a foreign language.
5. When the tenant is a company, who handles rent withholding and the filing that follows.

Tenant type is only one part of a rental decision. For how to calculate rental yield, vacancy and costs, short-term rental rules and taxes, see the main article, “Before Reading Japan Rental Yields: Tenant Sources, Vacancy, Management Costs and City Differences.”

FAQ: Japan Tenant Types

Are most tenants in Japan single?

As of September 2026, official statistics do not publish what share of private-rental households are single people. In 2025, one-person households were 41.4% of all general households nationwide, but that includes people living in homes they own and cannot be used to estimate the share of singles among tenants.

What can an owner do if a foreign tenant has no Japanese guarantor?

The tenant can engage a rent guarantee company to guarantee the rent. MLIT has accepted registrations of such companies since October 25, 2017, and there is also a certification system. Before listing, you can ask the management company which guarantee methods it accepts and whether the company is registered.

Is renting a Japanese apartment by the month a lease or home-sharing lodging?

The test is, in principle, one month, and less than one month is generally a hotel business. One month or more is not necessarily a lease: Chuo Ward in Tokyo provides, for example, that a rental not openly offered on the premise of a stay of at least one month is still a hotel business. When a property is rented under a lease, the Act on Land and Building Leases applies.

Glossary

• Private rental housing (民営借家): rental housing other than public housing, UR and public-corporation housing, and employer-supplied housing.
• Employer-supplied housing (給与住宅): housing a company or agency provides for employees, including ordinary homes that a company leases for employees to live in.
• One-person household (単独世帯): a household with only one person.
• Foreign residents (在留外国人): medium- and long-term residents and special permanent residents, excluding short stays such as tourism.
• Status of residence (在留資格): the category under which a foreigner is permitted to stay in Japan.
• Persons requiring special consideration in securing housing (住宅確保要配慮者): people the law recognizes as needing housing assistance, including low-income people, elderly people and people who do not hold Japanese nationality.
• Rent guarantee company (家賃債務保証業者): a company that guarantees a tenant’s rent obligations at the tenant’s request.
• Ordinary lease (普通借家): a lease that is treated as renewed if notice is not given as required, and under which the landlord needs a justifiable reason to refuse renewal or terminate.
• Fixed-term lease (定期建物賃貸借): a lease made in writing with advance written explanation, which ends when the term expires and is not renewed.
• Justifiable reason (正当の事由): the reason a landlord must have to refuse renewal or terminate, judged by weighing both sides’ circumstances.
• Temporary use (一時使用): a lease clearly made only for temporary use, to which the Act’s provisions on building leases do not apply.
• Specified sublease business operator (特定転貸事業者): a business that rents a property from an owner and re-lets it as its business.
• Private lodging business (住宅宿泊事業): a business that lets people stay in a home for a fee for no more than 180 days a year, commonly called minpaku.

Notes on the Data

• The information in this article was checked on September 30, 2026, against official documents from the Statistics Bureau of Japan (Population Census, Housing and Land Survey), the Immigration Services Agency, the Japan Student Services Organization, a survey commissioned by the Ministry of Justice, MLIT, the Japan Tourism Agency, the Japan National Tourism Organization and the National Tax Agency, and against current Japanese laws such as the Act on Land and Building Leases. Market figures use official statistics only, with reference dates stated.
• The following conclusions are drawn from official documents; the authorities do not state them directly:
• “Official statistics have no figure for overseas assignees renting housing”: based on a review of the 2025 Census summary, the 2023 Housing and Land Survey final-results summary and glossary, and the press release and published materials for foreign-resident statistics at the end of 2025; the detailed tables by status of residence (such as Intra-company Transferee) were not downloaded.
• “Official statistics have no figure for the share of singles among private-rental households”: based on the 2025 Census summary and the 2023 Housing and Land Survey final-results summary; the detailed cross-tabulations of household type by housing tenure were not downloaded.
• “Whether a monthly rental is temporary use is decided case by case”: the official documents consulted do not say that monthly rentals always count as temporary use.
• Whether the Overnight Travel Statistics Survey includes home-sharing lodging is not stated in the Japan Tourism Agency’s published materials, and this article does not treat it as home-sharing demand.
• The one-person household shares for Tokyo’s 23 wards and Fukuoka City are calculated from census household counts and are not officially published rates. The Ministry of Justice-commissioned survey of foreign residents was a 2016 sample survey in 37 cities and wards (response rate 23.0%), and the Immigration Services Agency’s basic survey is also a sample survey (response rate 45.5%). Neither is a nationwide census.
• At the time of checking, the latest foreign-resident statistics were those for the end of 2025; figures for the end of June 2026 had not yet been published. The text of the main MLIT guidelines on move-in for foreign residents could not be extracted, so this article relies only on the explanations on the web pages. The certification requirements for Housing Support Housing and the fee levels of rent guarantees are not covered.

Have a question about this guide? Leave a comment below, or ask Zagdim directly.

Sources

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• 大阪市計画調整局－令和7年国勢調査における大阪市の人口等基本集計結果
• 総務省統計局－令和７年国勢調査 都道府県・市区町村別の主な結果
• 総務省統計局－令和5年住宅・土地統計調査 住宅及び世帯に関する基本集計（確報集計）結果の概要
• 総務省統計局－令和5年住宅・土地統計調査 用語の解説
• 出入国在留管理庁－令和７年末現在における在留外国人数について
• 出入国在留管理庁－令和７年末現在における在留外国人数【公表資料】
• 日本学生支援機構－2025（令和7）年度外国人留学生在籍状況調査結果
• 日本学生支援機構－2025（令和7）年度外国人留学生在籍状況調査 結果資料
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• 国土交通省－外国人の民間賃貸住宅への円滑な入居について
• e-Gov法令検索－住宅確保要配慮者に対する賃貸住宅の供給の促進に関する法律
• e-Gov法令検索－住宅確保要配慮者に対する賃貸住宅の供給の促進に関する法律施行規則
• 国土交通省－報道発表資料（住宅セーフティネット法等の一部改正法の施行期日）
• 国土交通省－家賃債務保証業者の登録に必要な事項を定めました
• 国土交通省－認定家賃債務保証業者制度
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• 日本政府観光局－訪日外客数（2025年12月推計値）
• 日本政府観光局－年別 訪日外客数、出国日本人数の推移
• 観光庁－宿泊旅行統計調査（2025年・年間値（確定値））
• 観光庁 民泊制度ポータルサイト－住宅宿泊事業法の施行状況
• 厚生労働省－民泊サービスと旅館業法に関するＱ＆Ａ
• 厚生労働省・国土交通省－住宅宿泊事業法施行要領（ガイドライン）
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• 国税庁－タックスアンサー No.2880 非居住者等に不動産の賃借料を支払ったとき

Important Notice

This article is a general information summary. It is not individual legal, tax or real estate advice, and it does not predict how any property will rent. Information was checked on September 30, 2026. Statistics and rules may be updated, so please rely on the current announcements of the competent Japanese authorities and, where needed, consult a qualified professional.