Relocating your life can be a rather harrowing experience, whether it’s to a new country or even just to a new building. This week, for better or for worse, my wife and I experienced the latter. In preparation for our eventual return to the United States, we decided to move to a cheaper place. Housing is normally quite expensive in Japan due to, among other things, a general lack places to put houses. Being married, though, allows us access to a very affordable housing option that would otherwise be unavailable. In Japan, this special accommodation is known as okusan no jikka, or in English: “the in-laws house.”
Obviously, this type of arrangement is not without its drawbacks, but it allows us to save money in more ways than one. For instance, by leaving our apartment we can avoid paying the biannual contract renewal fee. The contract renewal fee is most commonly equal to the amount of one month’s rent and must be paid every time your rental contract expires. This kind of fee might seem odd to you, but that’s only because it is. Incredibly so. You see, Somehow, the entire country of Japan has managed to misunderstand how the real estate industry works.
You might think that you could avoid this fee by simply moving to a different apartment every few years. You would be mistaken. When moving into a new apartment there is a separate fee you must pay known as reikin. This is a Japanese word that can roughly be translated as ” mandatory fee that must be paid in order to properly express your gratitude to the landlord for allowing you to pay him money for living in his building.” I hear it makes perfect sense if you’re a landlord.
Fortunately, there is a bright side to all this. Due to the aforementioned lack of space, my previous apartment was roughly the size of a cockroach brain. As such, I was able to finish loading the moving truck in about twenty minutes, and the largest piece of furniture I had was about the size of a small coffee table. It was easily the least painful move I’ve ever experienced. Also, I know it’s going to be quite different now, having roommate in-laws, but they’ve agreed to waive the reikin, so we’re off to a pretty good start!
