Apartments for Rent in Japan

Japan is a hotel country, and the honest first thing to say about apartments for rent is that they are the exception here, not the default. Since 2018 a private flat can only be let to travellers under licence, capped at 180 nights a year, and the pool of legal listings is small next to what you would find in most European or Asian cities. That is not a reason to drop the idea — for a family of four staying a week, a flat with a kitchen and a washing machine is a better week than two hotel rooms. It is a reason to search in the right places and read a listing properly, which is what this page is for.

Two kinds of rental exist, and they behave very differently: a private flat let by its owner through Airbnb or a booking site, and an apartment hotel — a purpose-built block of serviced flats with a front desk. Most of this guide is about the private flats; the end of it is about when the hotel version is simply the better call.

Where do you find apartments for rent in Japan?

• Airbnb — the largest pool of private flats. Filter to entire homes and to the number of real beds you need, and check every listing for its licence number (below) before you look at anything else.
• Klook — its hotel search lists apartment hotels and serviced flats alongside ordinary hotels, which makes it the place to price a MIMARU against the two business-hotel rooms it would replace. It does not carry private minpaku; for those you are on Airbnb.
• Apartment hotels — MIMARU and Tokyu Stay are booked like hotels, on their own sites or through Klook, so they turn up in a normal hotel comparison rather than on the rental sites.
• A month or longer — Japan has a market of furnished flats let by the month with utilities included, the monthly mansion. It is built for workers on assignment, but some operators take visitors; search the term with your city and confirm the operator accepts non-residents before you plan around it.

How can you tell a legal listing?

By its licence number. Since June 2018 every private home let to travellers must be registered — as a minpaku under the private lodging law, under a hotel licence, or as a special-zone rental in a handful of cities — and that number has to appear on the listing itself. No number, no booking: the platforms do remove unlicensed flats, and a cancellation the week before you fly is the realistic cost of ignoring this.

The same law is why availability looks odd. A minpaku may be let for at most 180 nights a year, so a host's calendar closes when the count is used up. Most Tokyo wards add their own limits on top, some restricting which days of the week a flat may be let at all — so a listing that only ever shows weekend availability is following the rules, not glitching. In Osaka, home to most of the country's special-zone flats, those flats carry a two-night minimum, and the city stopped accepting new registrations on 30 May 2026. Nationally, since June 2026 a local government may set a neighbourhood's permitted nights to zero. The practical reading of all this is that the supply of legal flats is shrinking rather than growing: book early, and keep a hotel fallback in mind for the weeks around sakura and Golden Week.

How do you read a Japanese apartment listing?

• The square metres, and the layout code. 1R or 1K is a studio, usually 15–25 m². 1LDK is one bedroom plus a living–dining–kitchen, typically 30–50 m². 2LDK adds a second bedroom, 50–70 m². Older listings size rooms in tatami mats (帖 or 畳), about 1.62 m² each — a six-mat room is ten square metres. Two adults with suitcases are comfortable from about 25 m²; a family of four wants a 1LDK of 40 m² or a 2LDK.
• Beds or futons. "Sleeps six" often means two beds and four futons laid on the living-room floor each night — fine for children, less so for a third adult couple. Count the actual beds in the photos.
• The walk to the station. Private flats sit in residential streets, so at any given price they are further from a station than a hotel would be. Plot the walk on Google Maps as you would for a hotel; the method is in our guide to choosing a hotel.
• The floor, and whether there is a lift. Many low-rise blocks have none. A third-floor walk-up with two suitcases is a different arrival from the one the photos suggest, so ask if the listing doesn't say.
• What the kitchen actually has. Two rings, a microwave, a rice cooker and a kettle is the typical Japanese home kitchen; a proper oven is rare. If you are planning to cook, read the amenities list rather than assuming.
• Reviews, on the Japanese scale. Japanese guests review exactingly, so the same recalibration that applies to hotel scores applies here: a score a little under what you would accept at home is not a warning. Read the most recent handful of reviews instead — that is where a real problem shows.
• How you get in. Most private flats are self check-in — a key box or a smart lock, with the code released at check-in time and not a minute before — and there is nobody to hold your luggage in the morning. Forward the suitcases to the flat or your next hotel, or use station lockers for the gap.

What house rules should you expect?

• Your passport. A guest who does not live in Japan must give their nationality and passport number — the hotel law requires it of every lodging, private flats included — and hosts commonly ask for a photo of the passport at booking or a copy on arrival. It is the law, not a scam; a hotel front desk does the same.
• Rubbish. Sorted into burnable, plastics, cans, glass and PET bottles, each collected on set days. The host's manual says which bag goes out when; a wrong bag on the wrong morning is a complaint against the flat. If in doubt, leave it bagged and sorted inside.
• Noise. You are in a residential building, and noise and rubbish complaints are precisely what is driving the restrictions above. Keep evenings quiet and don't host.
• Shoes off at the entrance step, the genkan, and slippers inside — the flat will have a pair waiting.

When is an apartment hotel the better call?

An apartment hotel gives you the flat without the compromises: a front desk that holds luggage and answers questions, a kitchen, a washer-dryer, and rooms designed for four or more. MIMARU is the one built for visiting families — every room has a kitchen, even the smallest sleeps four adults and two under-sixes, children under six stay free, the largest rooms take up to ten, and cots and high chairs can be borrowed. Expect roughly ¥45,000–60,000 a night in Tokyo, which split four to six ways undercuts two hotel rooms. Tokyu Stay is the quieter alternative aimed at longer stays: a washer-dryer and a kitchenette in every room, and properties chosen for being a few minutes from a station.

Choose the apartment hotel if this is your first trip, if you are staying three nights or fewer, if you arrive late, or if you want someone to ask. Choose a private flat if you are staying five nights or more, there are four or more of you, you intend to cook, or you want to live in a particular neighbourhood rather than near a station.

Who should rent an apartment in Japan?

A family or a group of friends, staying a week or so in one city, who will cook some meals and run a washing machine. For them a flat is both cheaper and better than the two or three hotel rooms it replaces. For a solo traveller or a couple on a short stay it usually isn't — a business hotel costs less, sits closer to the station and holds your bag; and if what you want from a flat is space and a kitchen for a night or two, a suite or an apartment hotel does it without the house rules.

Compare hotel and apartment-hotel prices for your dates. Choosing the right base, and judging the options once you are looking at them, is covered in our guide to where to stay in Japan.