> To the chap earlier asking about getting his money back.
> 

Thanks for the information.  And thanks to the others too who replied.

Actually the apartment was in the name of the company where i work ...
so that they could pay the rent for me and I did not have to pay
income tax on the rent.

my company has "outsourced" the dealings regarding such apartments to
another company.

so these guys were being paid for negotiating for me.  but the way
they went about it was very strange.

0. my deposit was for 340,000 yen (which was 2 months rent).

1. initially the landlord's  agent gave a "rough estimate" of 550,000
yen.

2. then our agent happily informed me after a month that he had
brought it down to 290,000 yen after lots of hard work.

3. i told them to re-negotiate.  as these guys had wrongfully taken an
additional 2 months key money when i had changed company a few years
back. it seems that for changing the contract, they should only have
taken 1 month worth of rent.  they took 3 months worth of rent. so, i
requested our agent to renegotiate.

4. he worked hard for another month and came back with a figure of
340,000 yen. he had managed to increase the amount !

5. i showed my displeasure. and (through our administration
department) told them to re-negotiate.

6. he again worked hard for a month. and said that the landlord was
being generous. as he was waiving the 900,000 he will need to change
the wooden floor.

7. i asked out chief operating officer's opinion.  he is a japanese.

8. he wrote a very polite mail to me reminding me of my ignorance
regarding local rental customs.  and suggested that i agree to pay
340,000.

since the apartment was in the company's name, and the COO and the
Admin guys were basically siding with the other person, i thought it
would not be possible for me to go to court.

so, i agreed to let go of the deposit.

thanks again,
ashish