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Serious topic : how not to pay a rent in Japan?

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majimekun

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Okay maybe the question sounds silly at first sight but hey, you know what is said about people who don't ask questions right?

Anyway, in the near future, after I get naturalized here in Japan, I intend to spend a lot of time either trying to set up a business or spending some time abroad. Still, I'd like to keep a place in Japan where I can crash in whenever needed but it would help if I didn't have to pay for it while I'm being away or not getting any stable revenue.

The trick is that I want to avoid buying a property.
So this one must be out of the equation right away.

The only ideas I got so far :

1.
The flat/house sharing scheme, where all the sharers combined pay also for my part.

2.
Maybe I can also look for old retired people who live alone and who need someone in the house from time to time to get some help/company.

3.
There are also the houses some cities/villages give away for free in order to repopulate the area.

Anyway, other ideas or criticism are welcome!
 
I think you’d be hard pressed to find free lodging. Your cheapest most reliable bet would be to pay for a very cheap room in a very cheap shared house.
 
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Find yourself a sugar mommy or two. Or is this already covered by your second idea? :p

I had couple of friends who lived in and out of Singapore and they rented an apartment together; not free but cheap. Though that would require their schedules fit together as there were four guys and just two bedrooms.

The free or cheap housing by some of the cities are of course very far away from Tokyo and if I am not mistaken at least some of them requires kids in the family so that definitely creates more problems than the free rent solves. :D
 
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If your business plan doesn’t provide enough income to provide at least a small allowance for rent, say three to four thousand yen per day, you need to rethink your business plan. Share houses and services for the elderly are different business plans. Don’t confuse them with your core plan. If you just have some philosophical interest in living rent free, that is a different matter all together. In that case the first thing to do is to eliminate all except your most essential items. People pay for housing to house their stuff, not themselves. If you had everything you own in a medium sized backpack or suitcase, and you had a few thousand yen average per day for housing, you could live like a fucking prince. Women, friends, something will always come up. I would also have an ultra compact tent, sleeping bag and sleeping pad as a last resort. If you are stealthy, it is easy to sleep in parks or temples.
 
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1. You need to be the tenant of an apartment or house to start with. Finding subtenants is not so easy. Even if your subtenants don't pay their rents to you, you have no legal recourse to evict them. Still you are obliged to pay the rent to the landlord, to pay for utility bills, and to maintain the property in good order.

2. Have you ever taken care of old people?

3. It's very rare. Renting a house in remote villages is not so cheap. If the rent is zero, you are expected to pay for maintenance.

I think a cheap, but well-maintained, UR apartment in Chiba/Ibaraki would be a practical option. The starting rent is about Y3 man/month.
 
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Far out of my realm of experience, but two possibilities -

1) I remember seeing a spot on a TV show a while back about some places in Okinawa that would actually let you live rent-free if you covered the utilities and renovated the space. Basically they were ramshackle hovels/bare lots and, if you were willing to make them livable, you could live there rent-free. Don't remember the specifics, though.

2) If you were in a position to buy you could probably rent the place out as a minpaku/airbnb with the help of a management agency. Just block off the time you'll be here as unavailable since you'd be using it yourself. Laws regarding minpaku just got quite a bit stricter last month, though, and if you are renting most landlords won't allow that sort of subleasing.

At the end of the day, though, still a lot of hassle for not a lot of profit. Probably easier to just find a cheap place to rent and only use it when you need, as noted by the other posters.
 
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Actually, I have lived rent-free in Japan for years. There are two ways I have done this.

1) Many years ago I bought a small building with a residence on the top floor. The other floors are all offices. The income from the offices and some parking spaces in back cover the loan payments. A couple years ago when the loan was paid in full I started to recoup some of the initial cost of getting into the deal.

2) If you have a path to a US green card I can introduce you to a US military recruiter. As long as you are stationed in Japan you will live rent free.
 
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Thanks a lot for all the ideas and the funny comments ;)

As warubuta hinted, everything I own can be stored in a big backpack.
But honestly, I would like to avoid a homeless-like kind of lifestyle.

True that there are lot's of very cheap rents in Chiba.
With big surfaces too.

A two storey house in which I could sub-rent a floor would be the best even if it's almost impossible to find unfortunately.

I just had another idea though: rent a place large enough and offer people who lack space at home to use some of my space as storage room for their stuff in exchange of a monthly fee. Since nobody else lives in my apartment, maybe I don't need to have the landlord's approval (need to make sure of that though). With enough clients the whole rent could be covered.
 
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majimekun said:
I just had another idea though: rent a place large enough and offer people who lack space at home to use some of my space as storage room for their stuff in exchange of a monthly fee.
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Not a good idea. In Japan the storage space market is covered by established companies. And you are opening yourself up to all kind of potential problems. The most obvious of which is that If one of your clients stores stolen or illegal goods in your apartment you could get nailed by the cops.
 
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This may not answer your question but there's probably a few guys living free not by choice & would rather not be in that situation.
Why not explore, what business can I do so the business takes care of my living expenses & me living comfortably. I would expect that more guys on this site would be experienced in making money to live comfortably from ideas related to business.
Technically I'm trying to live free too by creating something that pays for my place.
 
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ShowaJidai said:
Actually, I have lived rent-free in Japan for years. There are two ways I have done this.

1) Many years ago I bought a small building with a residence on the top floor. The other floors are all offices. The income from the offices and some parking spaces in back cover the loan payments. A couple years ago when the loan was paid in full I started to recoup some of the initial cost of getting into the deal.

2) If you have a path to a US green card I can introduce you to a US military recruiter. As long as you are stationed in Japan you will live rent free.
Click to expand...

Your first example is really more of an investment strategy than a way of living rent free. You have risk, cost of capital, opportunity cost etc. to consider. Not really free.
 
MikeH said:
Find yourself a sugar mommy or two. Or is this already covered by your second idea? :p
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This is actually not bad advice lol.

Almost all of my exgf earned more than me. If you're fluent japanese and reasonable looking you have options and you should raise your standards. Have them pay atleast half. I'm from the netherlands so "going dutch" is only natural for me :p

Stop dating the dog groomers and nail artists on JC. Brush up your japanese and find the quality women with careers. (hint: they are not on Japancupid).
 
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warubuta said:
You have risk, cost of capital, opportunity cost etc. to consider. Not really free.
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OK, explain how one can live rent-free with similar or fewer risks than you can expect when you are paying rent for your living space. I doubt there is one way that is free AND less risky.
 
ShowaJidai said:
OK, explain how one can live rent-free with similar or fewer risks than you can expect when you are paying rent for your living space. I doubt there is one way that is free AND less risky.
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Moving in with your inlaws.

(very risky for your sanity do not recommend!!)
 
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ShowaJidai said:
OK, explain how one can live rent-free with similar or fewer risks than you can expect when you are paying rent for your living space. I doubt there is one way that is free AND less risky.
Click to expand...
Sleeping on your friends floor.
 
ShowaJidai said:
OK, explain how one can live rent-free with similar or fewer risks than you can expect when you are paying rent for your living space. I doubt there is one way that is free AND less risky.
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I was just remarking that there is a difference between ‘free’ and what you described. Wouldn’t you agree? Since you own the space you are living in, you could rent it out for some amount of money. So you are forgoing this income in exchange for accommodation. It is not free; you are paying for it. The OP has no assets so this option is not available to him. His idea of ‘free’ is some silly unrealistic scheme where he gets someone else to pay his rent for him.
 
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