Holy crap! I am currently in the process of looking for a place to live in Tokyo and the numbers are bloody astronomical. I have lived in Dublin before so I am used to exorbitant prices but it is the initial outlay that makes Tokyo so expensive. The rents themselves, in the area I am looking at, are comparible to Dublin city centre but there is one deplorable factor extra in the Japanese market. Key. Money.

     Key money is a custom that originated after WW2 when a lot of properties were destroyed and tenants paid their landlord this extra bit to help them rebuild their ruined properties. However for some reason it is a practice still continued today. Key monwey is basically a 'gift' of typically two months rent that one must give to the landlord upon moving in. A gift one can not refuse to give, is not a gift, it is a levy. Japanese people, because of their sheep like mentality, dont seem to care about this blatant rip off and simply say shouganai, which means 'It can't be helped'. This is a phrase the japanese often use when they are basically taking it up the ass and havent got the cajones to fight against something, which is pretty much all the time.  That is one of the things I love the most about my girlfriend,  when she knows she is in the right she has no qualms about speaking out. It is endlessly frustrating to be a foreigner here and not be able to speak up against things that are just plain wrong.

      Anyway, back to renting. Other initial costs that one is typically looking at is 2 months rent deposit (heard horror stories about how hard this is to get back), 1 month agents fee, probably one month rent up front as well as insurance and monthly apartment maintenence cost. All this adds up fast and you are looking at an initial outlay of about 6 times your monthly rent (and all this only includes 1 actual months rent!) So, for example, on a Eur1000 place, you must pay c.6000 up front!!

And then there is a further 1 months "renewal fee". If one is kind enough to renew their lease with the landlord, saving them the hassle of having to find new tenants, they thank you by charging you an extra months rent! So, with all these costs collated this translates to (minus the deposit) a realistic 1,500 pm for a years rent! 50% more than the advertised cost.

      Now, there are a number of places being quite Jack saavy about this and realising that a lot of people resent all these charges and so are incorporating these into the monthly rent and advertising "No key money" etc. Perhaps surprisingly, I have no problem with this as it is displaying the actual cost up front instead of trying to bone you with hidden costs.

    For those of you out there thinking, "just live with it, it is the way it is done over there, Tokyo is an expensive place", well perhaps you are right. I may well just have to go with it. We will see however how it turns out. For now, I have a lot of serious thinking to do. Plus for those of you thinking of visiting me in Tokyo, don't worry, I may not charge you the full two months key money...

Kfh