Larry Fitzsimmons <larry_fitzsimmons@hotmail.com> wrote:

> I am coming to Japan with a job in hand, and I may be able to get some
> family friends to act as guarantors.  I'm not particularly worried
> about having a guarantor, so long as I can just *find* a place to
> live.  I am looking for newspapers, community publications, web-sites,
> bulletin boards, or other places where I can find (hopefully in
> English) listings for apartments (hopefully equipped with ADSL and
> telephone line).  I would greatly appreciate it if someone could let
> me know how to go about searching for an apartment in Japan.  Thanks a
> lot, I'm looking forward to hearing from everybody.

The best way to find an apartment is to hit the streets and search in
the area where you want to live.  There are many publications in
Japanese with apartment listings, but by the time they go to print they
are out of date.

The listings on the internet take a long time to search, and are higher
priced than similar apartments.

As for ADSL and telephone line, you are better off getting an apartment
then signing up for the various offers, I recommend GOL if you need
English support, plus their excellent anti-spam filters.

You don't tell us your budget for the monthly rent, otherwise, I could
suggest looking at the Japan Times, Ken Corporation, etc. which the
listing for apartments can be about 500K-1 mil. monthly.  

There are plenty of locations with reasonable access to Akasaka, but you
need to state whether you are willing to live off a private line, or
make transfers, or prefer a direct no transfer route, how many minutes
door to door commute time, etc.

Most people who come to Japan with job in hand have their company find
and rent a place, then if they don't like it, move after they have saved
up tons of money for key money and deposit.  These days, the requirement
for key money is disappearing, but you'll need 1-2 months deposit plus 1
month for the real estate agent's fee.

Best of luck,

-- 
Matt
matt@gol.com