Fixed-Term Rental Contracts in Japan

Fixed-term rental Japan offers look like ordinary apartment contracts at first glance, but they end on a fixed date with no renewal right.¹² If you are offered a 定期借家 unit, the single decision that matters is whether you can accept leaving on that date.

Confirm current details with official sources

Procedures, fees, and requirements can change. Confirm current details at Japan's Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT). This article is general information, not legal advice; for your specific case, consult a licensed lawyer (bengoshi) for a dispute, or a licensed real-estate transaction specialist (takken-shi) for a pre-signing clause review.

Overview

This guide is for renters offered a 定期借家契約 (teiki shakuya keiyaku, "fixed-term building lease contract").¹² It explains how this form differs from the renewable default, where such offers appear, which two landlord notices make the form valid, what cost trade-offs to expect, and what to negotiate before signing.

The statutory term is 定期建物賃貸借 (teiki tatemono chintaishaku, "fixed-term building lease"), set out in Article 38 of the 借地借家法 (shakuchi shakka hō, "Act on Land and Building Leases").¹ The residential fixed-term system has applied since March 1, 2000, when the 1999 amendment took effect.³⁴

These rules apply nationwide because they come from a national statute and MLIT guidance, not from ward-office discretion.¹² Visa status and nationality do not change the mechanics. Foreign renters face the same end-date rule, with the added friction of reading a Japanese clause set.

Fixed-term units are a small minority of listings. Industry reporting on an At-home survey places fixed-term rental units at 6.0 percent or less of rental listings across areas, except large-family units in parts of the Tokyo area where the share runs higher (as of 2023-08-08 reporting; confirm current figures with MLIT or the survey publisher).⁵ Fixed-term asking rents also tend to sit below comparable ordinary-lease rents in some segments, though the gap is not guaranteed and recent reporting notes rising fixed-term asking rents (as of 2023-08-08).⁵

Term	Meaning
定期借家契約 (teiki shakuya keiyaku)	Fixed-term building lease contract, the everyday label12
定期建物賃貸借 (teiki tatemono chintaishaku)	Fixed-term building lease, the statutory term in Article 381
普通借家契約 (futsū shakuya keiyaku)	Ordinary, renewable building lease, the default3
再契約 (saikeiyaku)	Re-contracting, signing a new contract after a fixed-term lease ends26

How a Fixed-Term Lease Ends, and How an Ordinary Lease Does Not

An ordinary lease renews almost automatically while a fixed-term lease ends on its date. Knowing which form you hold decides whether you can stay or must leave.¹³

The life cycle looks like this. The fixed-term path has no renewal branch, only a possible new contract.

The ordinary lease baseline in one paragraph

Under an ordinary lease of one year or more, the contract is deemed renewed on the same conditions with no fixed period when neither side notifies the other between one year and six months before expiry that it will not renew.¹³ A landlord who wants to refuse renewal or terminate needs justifiable grounds (seitō jiyū), weighed against each party's need to use the building and the lease history.¹³ Any special clause that undercuts these renewal protections to the tenant's disadvantage is void.¹

The fixed-term termination mechanic

A fixed-term lease with a stated period may provide for no renewal, and the lease relationship then ends definitively at expiry.¹² Staying on requires a newly signed contract on new terms, and the landlord may decline to offer one.² A fixed term shorter than one year still runs as a fixed term for its stated period.¹³

Where the no-renewal stipulation fails for a validity reason, courts have treated the outcome as an ordinary-lease renewal rather than a fixed-term continuation.⁶

Where Fixed-Term Offers Appear

Owners reach for this form when they want the unit back on a known date. Renters who understand the motive can read the offer more accurately.⁵⁷

Corporate-owned units and planned take-back

Practitioner sources describe the typical pattern as a corporate-owned unit or an owner-occupied property let out temporarily, where the owner wants the take-back option at term end.⁷ Reported examples include postings abroad, holding a family home during a transfer, timing a lease end to a planned rebuild or large-scale repair, and corporate leases matched to an employee assignment period.⁵⁷

The rebuild timing motive is practical. Under an ordinary lease, recovering a unit for demolition means negotiating eviction compensation, while a fixed-term end date avoids that negotiation.⁵ Corporate leases follow the same logic from the employer's side: a fixed term matched to the assignment avoids carrying an empty apartment after the employee leaves (limitation: this corporate pattern is a practitioner characterization of common practice, not a statutory category).⁷

How to spot one in a listing or draft

Check the lease title and type clause for 普通借家契約 or 定期借家契約 before applying, and confirm the answer in writing.⁸³ Listing fields use labels such as 定期借家, 定期借家契約, and 契約期間 for the period itself; our guide to reading a Japanese rental listing shows where these fields sit.⁸ Where re-contracting is contemplated, look for 再契約可 and 再契約料 alongside the conditions.⁸

MLIT's foreign-language form set keeps the fixed-term explanation on its own form, titled Explanation of Fixed-term Rental Housing Contract and citing Article 38, plus a separate Notice to Terminate form.⁹ If the packet you receive has no such standalone explanation, treat that as a warning sign and ask for it before signing.⁹⁶

Confirm which lease type you are signing

A fixed-term lease will not renew no matter how long you have lived there. Ask whether the offer is futsu or teiki, check for the separate no-renewal notice, and get the answer in writing before you apply.³⁸

The Two Notices That Make It a Fixed-Term Lease

A fixed-term lease is only fixed-term when the landlord completes two notices. Missing the first one collapses the form back into an ordinary lease.¹⁶

A validity check runs in this order. Both answers must be yes.

The pre-signing written explanation, separate from the lease

The contract itself must be in writing, including a qualifying electronic record.¹⁴ Before signing, the landlord must separately deliver a written statement and explain that the lease will not renew and will end at expiry.¹² MLIT publishes a standard fixed-term rental housing contract (定期賃貸住宅標準契約書, last revised March 2018) as a model, but use of that model is not legally required.¹⁰

When that advance explanation is missing, the no-renewal stipulation is void and the lease is treated as an ordinary lease.¹²⁶ The Supreme Court has held that the explanation document must stand apart from the lease itself, even where the tenant already understood the lease was fixed-term.⁶

The brokerage Important Matters Explanation (重要事項説明, jūyō jikō setsumei, "explanation of important matters") does not substitute for the landlord's duty on its own.⁶⁹ It counts only where the broker acts as the landlord's agent with delegated authority and the document carries the Article 38 statements, following the February 28, 2018 MLIT notice.⁶

Check	Rule
Written contract	Fixed-term lease must be in writing1
Separate advance document	No-renewal and end-at-expiry explanation, delivered before signing, separate from the lease12
Omission consequence	No-renewal term void; treated as ordinary lease16
Broker explanation	Counts only as the landlord's agent with delegated authority and Article 38 statements included6

Re-contracting as a new fixed-term lease restarts the paperwork. Because it is a new contract, the landlord must give a fresh advance explanation, and a brokered signing needs a fresh Important Matters Explanation.⁶

Keep the advance explanation with the signed lease

File the separate fixed-term explanation with your copy of the lease. If the end date is ever disputed, that standalone document is the proof the form was valid.⁶

The end-of-term notice before expiry

For a fixed-term lease of one year or more, the landlord must notify the tenant between one year and six months before expiry that the lease will end on that date.¹² Without that notice, the landlord cannot assert termination against the tenant.¹² Leases shorter than one year require no such end notice.²

A late notice does not end the lease on the original date. The tenant may keep using the unit for six months from the date of the late notice, paying rent as before, and must vacate after those six months unless a new contract is signed.¹²

Lease length	Landlord duty	If missed or late
Less than 1 year	No end notice required2	Not applicable
1 year or more	Notice of end-at-expiry between 1 year and 6 months before expiry12	Cannot assert termination; late notice gives 6 months of continued use from the notice date with rent payable as before12

Special clauses that undercut these end-notice protections to the tenant's disadvantage are void.¹

Costs and Compensating Advantages

A fixed-term offer can look cheaper per month while costing more across the whole episode. Compare total cost across the realistic horizon, not the monthly figure alone.⁵⁸

Lower rent and waived renewal fees, sometimes

Fixed-term asking rents are sometimes set below comparable ordinary-lease rents to fill a time-limited unit, but the discount is a market tactic rather than a rule (as of 2023-08-08 reporting; confirm current figures with the listing agent or survey publisher).⁵ Recent reporting in the same survey series shows fixed-term asking rents rising in several Tokyo-area segments, so do not assume the gap still holds for the unit in front of you (as of 2023-08-08).⁵

There is no renewal-fee cycle because there is no renewal. The 更新料 (kōshinryō, "renewal fee") that ordinary leases carry in regions where the custom applies has no fixed-term counterpart; the standard 2-year rental contract explains how that fee works where it does apply.³⁷ That saving is real but narrow, since a re-contract can restart other fee-bearing steps described next.⁶

Re-contracting costs when a new contract is offered

Re-contracting means a new contract on new terms, and it can trigger a fresh round of contract-linked costs.⁶⁸ Check for a stated 再契約料 (saikeiyakuryō, "re-contracting fee") separate from renewal-fee or admin-fee wording, plus whether re-screening or a fresh guarantor-company step applies.⁸

Market sources distinguish 終了型 (end-type, no re-contracting contemplated) from 再契約型 (re-contracting type) offers (as of 2023-08-08 reporting).⁵ Only the second type puts staying on the table at all, and even then the landlord decides (limitation: this typology is investor-press usage, not statutory text).⁵

Fee label	When it appears	Fixed-term relevance
更新料 (renewal fee)	Ordinary-lease renewal, region-dependent37	No renewal, so no renewal fee
再契約料 (re-contracting fee)	New contract after a fixed term8	Payable only where stated and a new contract is offered
Admin and guarantor steps	Brokered signings and guarantee arrangements68	Can recur at re-contracting as fresh steps

What to Negotiate Before Signing

Negotiate while you still have leverage, which is before you sign. Our guide to negotiation in the Japanese rental market covers which concessions landlords actually move on. After signing, the end date governs.⁸⁹

Re-contracting priority and rent terms

Ask whether re-contracting is possible, under what conditions, whether any priority applies when the term ends, and what rent will apply to the new contract.⁸⁹ Only written answers in the contract and explanation documents bind, so move any verbal assurance into the paperwork before you sign.⁸⁹

Read the rent clause as the whole rule for the term. A fixed-term lease may carry a special rent-revision clause that displaces the statutory rent increase-or-decrease claim, so a fixed-escalation schedule written into the contract governs for the term.¹³⁴ Get the renewal-fee, admin-fee, and re-contracting-fee figures in writing and compare total cost across one term plus either a second contract or a second move.⁸

Put re-contracting answers into the contract itself

Ask for re-contracting possibility, screening, fees, and new-contract rent in writing. A verbal yes at viewing time does not extend the lease.⁸²

Mid-term exit and move-out timing

For a residential fixed-term lease under 200 square meters of floor area, the tenant may terminate on one month's notice where a job transfer, medical treatment, family nursing care, or other unavoidable circumstances make it difficult to keep using the unit as a living base.¹² A special clause imposing a longer notice burden on this statutory termination right is void where it disadvantages the tenant.²

Outside that statutory case, the contract's own termination clause controls. A fixed-term lease without an early-termination clause can hold the tenant to the end date, so read that clause before signing (limitation: strictness varies by contract wording).²⁷ Calendar the end date, the one-year-to-six-months notice window, and your re-contracting decision point on the day you sign.²⁸

Good to know

Signing a fixed-term lease without realizing it

The costliest mistake is assuming ordinary-lease renewal protection while holding a 定期借家 offer.⁸³ Check the title and type clause, look for the standalone advance-explanation document, and ask in writing which form applies before you apply. Do not rely on the lease collapsing into an ordinary lease for lack of paperwork; verify the form while you can still walk away.⁶

Verbal re-contracting promises do not extend the lease

Spoken assurances that you can stay on do not continue the tenancy.²⁶ Only a signed new contract continues the right to stay, and a fixed-term re-contract needs its own advance explanation and written terms.⁶ If staying matters, convert every promise into a contract sentence before the current term ends.

A cheap fixed-term offer can cost more across two moves

A below-market monthly rent can still lose once a forced second move is priced in, including fresh move-in costs, a possible re-contracting fee, and a second round of moving-company and setup spending (as of 2023-08-08 reporting on the rent gap; confirm current figures with the listing agent).⁵⁸ Run the comparison across the realistic horizon of one term plus either a second contract or a second move, not the monthly figure alone.⁸

See also

• The Standard 2-Year Rental Contract
• Renewal Fees (Koshin-ryo) and the Regional Variation
• Japan Rental Contract Clauses to Read and Negotiate
• Negotiation in the Japanese Rental Market
• Move-In Cost Breakdown: What 4-6 Months Actually Buys
• The Guarantor Company System

References

Footnotes

1. Japanese Law Translation Database System, Ministry of Justice. Act on Land and Building Leases (Act No. 90 of October 4, 1991), English translation, last version Act No. 53 of 2011, Article 38. https://www.japaneselawtranslation.go.jp/en/laws/view/3787/en ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³ ↩²⁴ ↩²⁵ ↩²⁶ ↩²⁷

2. 国土交通省 (MLIT). 定期建物賃貸借 Q&A. https://www.mlit.go.jp/jutakukentiku/house/jutakukentiku_house_tk3_000060.html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸ ↩¹⁹ ↩²⁰ ↩²¹ ↩²² ↩²³

3. 東建コーポレーション (Token Corporation). 普通借家契約と定期借家契約. https://www.token.co.jp/estate/apartment-management-encyclopedia/legal-affairs/04-06/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹²

4. 金子剛 (Takeshi Kaneko), Tek-Law. 借地借家法第38条（定期建物賃貸借）条文解説. https://tek-law.jp/act-on-land-and-building-leases/building-lease/fixed-term-building-leases/article-38/ ↩ ↩² ↩³

5. 健美家 (Kenbiya, reporting At-home survey). 定期借家物件は普及するのか、賃貸に占める割合は未だに低水準. 2023-08-08. https://www.kenbiya.com/ar/ns/jiji/purchase_know_how/7060.html ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

6. 公益社団法人全日本不動産協会「月刊不動産」Vol.11, 一般財団法人不動産適正取引推進機構 (RETIO) 中戸康文. 定期借家契約の借地借家法38条2項の事前説明に関するトラブル. https://magazine.zennichi.or.jp/trouble/6760 ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸

7. A-Realty. Fixed-Term Rental vs. Ordinary Lease in Japan: A Complete Guide. 2025-08-14. https://arealty.jp/blog/fixed-term-rental-vs-ordinary-lease-contract-in-japan/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷

8. Chintai Checker. Fixed-term lease in Japan: 定期借家契約 points to check. https://chintai-checker.com/en/guide/fixed-term-lease ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷ ↩¹⁸

9. 国土交通省 (MLIT). Private Rental Housing guide for foreigners, standard forms set (includes Explanation of Fixed-term Rental Housing Contract under Article 38, Paragraph 2 and Notice to Terminate the Fixed-term Rental Housing Contract). https://www.mlit.go.jp/jutakukentiku/house/torikumi/anshin/minkanguide/minkanguide3e.pdf ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶

10. 国土交通省 (MLIT). 『定期賃貸住宅標準契約書』について. https://www.mlit.go.jp/jutakukentiku/house/jutakukentiku_house_tk3_000030.html ↩