Key Money (Reikin): The Fee With No Refund and No Real Explanation
Reikin, literally "gratitude money," is a non-refundable payment made to the landlord simply for agreeing to rent to you — not a deposit, not rent in advance, just a one-time gift with roots in a decades-old custom. It typically runs from zero to two months of rent, most commonly landing at one month. According to recent market data, just over half of Tokyo listings still charge it, down from around seventy percent in 2010, so it's becoming less universal but still far from rare.
There's no service attached to reikin and nothing to show for it at move-out. It simply disappears the moment the lease is signed, which is precisely why fully furnished monthly houses, including the ones Tokyo Travel operates near Ekoda and Nerima Station, don't charge it at all.
Agent Fee (Chukai Tesuryo): Capped by Law, But Rarely Waived
The agent fee compensates the real estate agency that showed you the property and handled the paperwork. Japanese law caps it at one month's rent plus consumption tax, and while some agencies discount it — particularly for foreign renters in competitive markets — it's still a cost most traditional leases carry in full. Unlike reikin, this fee has at least a service behind it, but it's still money paid before you've spent a single night in the apartment.
Monthly rental operators that manage their own properties directly, rather than acting as agents for third-party landlords, typically remove this fee from the equation entirely, since there's no outside agency mediating the booking.
Security Deposit (Shikikin): Refundable, But Tied Up for Months
Shikikin is a genuine security deposit, usually one to two months of rent, refundable at move-out minus cleaning and repair deductions. It's the most defensible of the traditional fees, since it exists to protect the landlord's property rather than to reward them for renting it out — but it still means a renter's cash is locked away for the length of the lease, often a year or more, with no guarantee of getting the full amount back.
The Guarantor Company Fee: A Recurring Cost Most Renters Don't See Coming
This is the one that catches the most international renters off guard. Without a Japanese guarantor — typically a family member or long-term employer — almost every traditional lease requires enrolling with a guarantor company, which agrees to cover rent if the tenant defaults. That service isn't free: initial enrollment typically costs fifty to one hundred percent of one month's rent, and it doesn't end there. Most guarantor companies charge an annual renewal fee, commonly in the ten-to-twenty-thousand-yen range, for as long as the lease continues. It's a fee that keeps billing quietly every year, long after move-in day.
For anyone without an existing guarantor in Japan — which describes most international students, remote workers, and short-term residents — this single requirement can be the actual reason a traditional lease is out of reach, regardless of how the rent itself compares.
What the Total Actually Adds Up To
Stacked together, a typical traditional lease in Tokyo can require four to six months of rent upfront: first month's rent, the shikikin deposit, chukai tesuryo, reikin if the landlord charges it, the guarantor company's initial fee, and often a flat cleaning fee on top, commonly twenty to forty thousand yen. For a room renting at ¥120,000 a month, that can mean putting down ¥500,000 to ¥700,000 before receiving a single key — an amount that's simply not realistic for someone arriving in Tokyo for a four-month program or a six-month work contract.
How Monthly Houses Near Ekoda and Nerima Are Structured Differently
Furnished monthly rentals sidestep nearly all of this by design. There's no reikin, because there's no separate landlord relationship being "thanked." There's no chukai tesuryo, because bookings go directly through the operator rather than a third-party agency. There's no guarantor company enrollment, because the monthly agreement itself doesn't depend on a Japanese guarantor to begin with. What's left is simply the rent for the period booked, plus furniture, kitchen equipment, and utilities already included, rather than billed and arranged separately.
This isn't a workaround or a loophole — it's a fundamentally different business model. Traditional leases are built around long-term tenancy, where the upfront fees are amortized over a year or more of occupancy. Monthly furnished housing is built around flexibility, so the cost structure has to match stays that might run one month or twelve, without penalizing the shorter end.
The Fee That Comes Back Every Renewal: Koshinryo
Even after the upfront costs are paid and the lease is signed, traditional Japanese rentals often carry one more recurring charge: koshinryo, the lease renewal fee. Most standard leases run two years, and renewing at the end of that term commonly costs another month's rent, paid directly to the landlord, plus in many cases a separate renewal fee for the guarantor company enrollment on top of that. It's easy to overlook when comparing move-in costs, since it doesn't come due until year two, but for anyone staying in Tokyo longer than initially planned, it's a real and recurring expense that traditional leases build in by default.
Monthly rentals sidestep this the same way they sidestep the guarantor company fee in the first place: because the agreement isn't structured as a multi-year tenancy with a renewal cycle, there's no koshinryo to budget for, whether the stay ends up being three months or extends to eighteen.
A Closer Look: Where the Money Actually Goes
It helps to see the traditional model in concrete numbers rather than abstract fee names. For a room renting at ¥120,000 a month, a typical move-in under a traditional lease might break down as follows: first month's rent (¥120,000), security deposit at one to two months (¥120,000–¥240,000), agent fee at up to one month plus tax (roughly ¥132,000), key money if charged (¥0–¥240,000), guarantor company enrollment at fifty to one hundred percent of a month's rent (¥60,000–¥120,000), and a flat cleaning fee (¥20,000–¥40,000). Added together, a renter could reasonably face anywhere from roughly ¥450,000 to over ¥750,000 before move-in, on top of whatever moving and furniture costs come next, since traditional leases come unfurnished.
A monthly furnished house at a comparable rent, by contrast, typically asks for the cost of the stay itself, already furnished, with no separate deposit, agent fee, key money, or guarantor enrollment layered on top.
Who Benefits Most From This Structure
This matters most for a specific set of renters: international students on a single semester or academic year, remote workers testing out a few months in Tokyo before committing longer-term, families relocating temporarily for work, and anyone without an existing Japanese guarantor. For all of these groups, the traditional lease's upfront cost isn't just expensive — it's often a genuine barrier, since guarantor requirements alone can disqualify a renter regardless of income or intent to pay.
Tokyo Travel's houses near Ekoda and across Nerima — including Nana House Ekoda, Nana House Sakaecho, and the Ekoda Monthly House — are positioned specifically for this group, in a neighborhood with real universities, supermarkets, and a residential pace, rather than a district built around short hotel stays.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is reikin ever refundable? No. Unlike the security deposit, key money is a one-time payment to the landlord with nothing returned at move-out, regardless of how long the tenancy lasts.
Can I negotiate the guarantor company fee? Rarely. Guarantor companies set standardized fee structures, and the requirement to use one at all is usually non-negotiable for renters without a qualifying Japanese guarantor.
Do monthly apartments charge any upfront fees at all? Typically just the cost of the stay itself, sometimes alongside a cleaning fee, which is a fraction of what a traditional lease's combined fees would total.
Is a monthly apartment actually cheaper over a full year than a traditional lease? Not necessarily on a pure per-month basis — traditional leases often have lower base rent for long-term stays. The savings from a monthly rental come from avoiding the large upfront fees entirely, which matters most for stays under a year.
Rent Without the Guesswork
Reikin, chukai tesuryo, and guarantor company fees exist to protect landlords and agencies in a rental market built around long-term Japanese tenancy — not around a student's single semester or a remote worker's trial run in Tokyo. Furnished monthly houses near Ekoda and Nerima remove that entire structure, replacing it with a single, upfront rental cost. Browse Tokyo Travel's available houses in the area to see current rates with no key money, no agent fee, and no guarantor required.
