Most Japanese agents and landlords are not set up to communicate directly with an incoming employee in English, so requests route back through HR at every step — from the first inquiry to lease signing.
Without a standing relationship with an advisor, each new hire's housing search begins with the same explanations of budget, area, and company policy — with no institutional memory carried forward.
When several employees relocate in the same window, coordinating viewings, applications, and contracts for each of them in parallel becomes a significant, recurring drain on internal time.
Budget caps, area restrictions, and approval steps are easy to apply unevenly when each relocation is handled ad hoc by whoever has time — a single desk keeps the policy consistent across every hire.
Scope of service: TokyoExpat operates as a housing search and coordination advisor. Under this service, TokyoExpat does not collect rent, hold client funds, sublease properties, or provide building maintenance services.
| General Agent | Large Corporate Housing Outsourcer | TokyoExpat | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Who you deal with | Rotates by branch and availability | Call center plus an assigned coordinator | One licensed broker, start to finish |
| Language | Japanese-first | English available, depending on scale | Bilingual from the first call, including lease-clause explanation |
| Housing range | Broad, unfiltered | Standard company housing within policy | Executive and professional tier |
| Continuity | Resets with every new case | Knows the policy, not necessarily the family | Holds your company's housing policy and history across every hire |
| What it won't do | — | Often will also collect rent and sublease | Does not collect rent, hold deposits, sublease, or manage buildings |
Timelines are typical, not guaranteed — off-market or highly specific briefs can take longer.
Companies bringing executives, professionals, or specialists to Tokyo — whether it's a single senior hire or a steady stream of relocations throughout the year.
Teams currently handling housing case by case, through whichever agent happens to speak English, without a consistent point of contact or reporting line.
From executive residences in Minato and Shibuya to professional-grade apartments across central Tokyo — the same search standard I apply to private clients.
Before HR can approve a single relocation, someone has to decide who's eligible, whether the lease is in the company's name, how the rent cap is set, and who pays for what. Most companies are working this out from scratch, mid-crisis, for the first assignee. I wrote a decision memo to fix that.
A bilingual working outline — not a finished regulation — that lays out every decision a company needs to make before drafting its own leased-housing policy: eligibility, lease party, cost caps, who pays what, temporary housing, approval authority, and exit terms. Numbers are left as placeholders; the tax treatment of company housing in Japan differs by employee/officer status and needs to be confirmed with your own tax adviser before adoption.
Working outline for internal discussion — not legal, tax, or labor advice. Once your team has a first-pass answer on eligibility, budget, and lease party, the desk below is the next step.
Full search and lease support for a single employee's relocation — requirements through move-in — for companies with occasional or one-off hires.
TokyoExpat becomes your company's dedicated housing desk for all incoming international employees, with a consistent process and HR reporting line across every relocation.
Already have a broker or an internal process? I'll review your existing housing policy or a single lease against Japanese market norms — without taking over the search itself.
Fees depend on relocation volume, housing tier, and scope of ongoing support. I'll put together a proposal after an initial conversation about your team's needs.
"Most HR teams I talk to aren't looking for someone to find one apartment — they're looking for someone who won't make them explain the company's housing policy from scratch every time a new hire lands in Tokyo. That consistency, and being a licensed broker they can actually hold accountable, is what I built this desk around."
Housing is rarely the only thing a new hire needs sorted in their first weeks. I don't run these services myself, but I coordinate the handoff so HR isn't left stitching together five separate vendors.
English-speaking electricity, gas, water, and internet setup, coordinated to be live before move-in day.
Rental or purchase, depending on assignment length — introductions to vendors who handle both.
Comparative quotes for the physical move, both on arrival and at end of assignment.
International school shortlisting and English-speaking clinics, drawing on TokyoExpat's existing school and healthcare guides.
A plain-English walkthrough of ward registration and opening a Japanese bank account.
Migiwa, TokyoExpat's AI concierge, answers day-to-day questions in 70+ languages between check-ins with the desk.
TokyoExpat is licensed and paid to find and negotiate the best property for your company, not to move a specific landlord's inventory.
Edo Partners K.K. · Tokyo Metropolitan Governor (1) License No. 113471.
Names, family composition, and school information shared for a relocation are used only to run that relocation, and are not retained beyond what's needed to support the tenancy.
Scope, restated: TokyoExpat does not collect rent, hold client funds, sublease properties, or provide building maintenance services.