The Application Form (Nyukyo Moshikomi-sho) and Underwriting

Japan rental application form screening starts with a single paper or digital form and ends with two separate yes or no decisions.¹² Understanding both tracks before submitting saves days of waiting and avoids a preventable rejection.

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).

Overview

The 入居申込書 (nyūkyo mōshikomi-sho, "move-in application form") is the rental application form a renter submits through the agency before any lease is signed.³⁴ It records who the applicant is, where they work, what they earn, and who can be reached in an emergency.

That one submission triggers two parallel examinations, known together as 審査 (shinsa, "screening").¹² The landlord side weighs rent-payment risk and occupancy fit, while the designated guarantor company runs its own credit and identity check.

Neither approval alone finalizes the tenancy. The lease and the guarantee contract follow only after both sides approve, with fee payment at contract.¹² Practitioner reporting places the full sequence at about one week from application to contract (as of 2026-09-06; confirm current figures with the handling agency or guarantor company).⁴

The Application Form: What You Actually Fill In

The standard form follows a national practitioner pattern, while exact fields and wording vary by agency, landlord, and designated guarantor company rather than by ward office. Confirm the exact field list on the specific form handed to you instead of assuming one agency sample applies everywhere.

Term	Meaning
入居申込書 (nyūkyo mōshikomi-sho, "move-in application form")	The rental application submitted through the agency before screening34
審査 (shinsa, "screening")	The underwriting examination run by the landlord side and the guarantor company12
緊急連絡先 (kinkyū renraku-saki, "emergency contact")	A person reachable in Japan who can confirm the tenant in an emergency42

Personal details, prior address, and contact

The form records identity and reachability: name, birthdate, phone number, current address, and prior address history.⁴³ Foreign applicants routinely attach residence-card and passport copies alongside the form.

The standard identity set in practitioner guidance is a passport copy showing the photo and visa pages, both sides of the residence card, and a residence certificate issued within the last three to six months depending on the recipient.³ Nihon Safety states its baseline as a residence-card copy showing front and back.²

Keep every entry consistent with the attached copies. A mismatched address history or an expired certificate slows both screening tracks at once.

Employer, income, and tenure

The form records employer name, hire date or tenure length, and annual or monthly income, because screening weighs income against rent plus employment stability.⁴⁵ Commonly attached proof includes an employment contract or offer letter, salary statements for the latest three months, a tax withholding certificate, and a bank balance certificate, with translations where needed.⁴

Practitioner guidance for rental contracts lists the same employment set: proof of income for the last three months, an employment certificate or job offer letter, and a work authorization certificate where the residence status calls for one.³ New job changers should state the hire date exactly as the employer will confirm it, since the verification call checks that date directly.

Landlords assess the stability of the income stream by phone and treat contract, dispatched, self-employed, freelance, business-owner, or irregular-income applicants as higher arrears risk.⁵ That assessment describes landlord risk practice, not a statutory eligibility rule.

Emergency contact and reason for moving

The form asks for a Japan-reachable emergency contact.¹² Casa screening may call the applicant, the workplace, or the emergency contact, and Nihon Safety requires emergency contact information at application plus a home-country contact form in its format.¹²

Provide contacts who answer promptly and, where possible, acquaintances who can communicate in Japanese.⁴ An unreachable contact reads as an unverifiable file, not as a neutral blank.

Some agency forms also include a reason-for-moving field. It is sometimes present rather than standard, so answer briefly when asked and do not worry when the specific form omits it.

The Parallel Guarantor-Company Application

The tenant submits a guarantee application with identity and supporting documents to the agency and landlord, and the guarantor company then runs its own predetermined screening on those details.¹ Registration under the MLIT system is voluntary, and an unregistered business may still operate legally, so the designated company's terms are company-specific rather than market-wide.⁶

Landlord approval alone does not secure the unit

Passing the agency or landlord review does not guarantee the guarantor company approves the same file. Budget time for this second, separate decision before treating the unit as secured.²

Same facts, second decision maker

Nihon Safety describes the shape as application through the agency, company examination, result notice back through the agency, then guarantee-consignment contract signing plus fee payment.² Applications may be rejected on the information submitted alone.

Treat both forms as one consistent file. Contradictory income or tenure entries across the two forms create the easiest preventable delay in the whole process.

Documents usually attached

The usual screening set covers identity, address, income, employment, and contacts in one bundle. The table below carries the currency signal for every row; the set reflects practitioner pages current at research time (as of 2026-09-06; confirm current figures with the handling agency).⁴³

Item	Typical form	As of	Notes
Identity	Passport plus residence card copies	2026-09-06	Photo and visa pages; both sides of card423
Address proof	Residence certificate	2026-09-06	Within 3 to 6 months of issuance3
Income proof	Salary statements or withholding certificate	2026-09-06	Latest 3 months; translations where needed43
Employment proof	Contract or offer letter	2026-09-06	Official company document43
Emergency contact	Japan-reachable details	2026-09-06	Home-country form on some companies12

Nihon Safety notes additional documents may be requested depending on contract contents, and submitted documents are not returned.² Casa notes the same way: additional documents may be required beyond identity verification and the guarantee application form.¹

The Underwriting Window: What Happens After You Apply

Once the file is submitted, it moves through document review, phone verification, and notice in a compact sequence. The chart below shows the application-to-approval shape a reader follows from submission to contract.

Document review and phone verification

Practitioner reporting describes the screening sequence as application in one day, document review in two to three days, phone verification in about one day, result notice in one to two days, and contract procedures in one day, totaling about one week (as of 2026-09-06; confirm current figures with the handling guarantor company).⁴ Phone verification covers identity confirmation and employment checks, including calls to the workplace (as of 2026-09-06).⁴

Casa identifies the same call pattern through its screening division, which may call the applicant, the workplace, or the emergency contact.¹ The check is known as 在職確認 (zaishoku kakunin, "employment verification by phone").

Warn your workplace and contacts before the call

Tell your employer contact and your emergency contact that a verification call is coming and confirm the number they should answer. A missed call during review days stalls the file more often than any document gap.⁴¹

Decision and notice route

The result travels back through the agency to the tenant.² Only an accepted application proceeds to guarantee-consignment contract signing and fee payment.¹²

Casa states the contract step requires payment of the initial guarantee fee, then an annual guarantee fee of 10,000 JPY each year, with possible variation for business use and between agencies (as of undated company page, fetched 2026-09-06).¹ During peak season from January to March, practitioner guides describe multiple applicants queuing on one property with the first complete file getting screening priority.⁵

Approval Patterns and Rejection Categories

No citable national success-rate series exists for rental applications, so this section describes typical patterns qualitatively rather than as approval percentages. Practitioner sources agree on the shape of a clean pass and on four recurring rejection categories.

The income distance rule and tenure signal

The practitioner guideline is monthly income at least three times the rent, with stable employment and provable savings strengthening the file (as of 2026-09-06; confirm current figures with the handling guarantor company).⁴ A parallel formulation states rent should not exceed about one third of salary, with some landlords using a 36x multiple of monthly rent as the annual-income test (as of 2019-02-27).⁵

Files whose income sits close to the 3x line fail more often, especially without savings proof or tenure history.⁴⁵ A recent employer change without a tenure track record weakens the same file further, since the verifier cannot confirm stability beyond the stated hire date.

Thin income distance plus new tenure fails most often

Income near the 3x threshold combined with a recent job change is the most commonly described rejection pattern. Lead with an offer letter showing salary and start date plus bank proof rather than income alone.⁴⁵

Visa timing and shared default records

Screening inputs include residence status and period, and longer validity widens the options while short stays point toward independent or foreigner-specialized companies.⁴ A recent visa extension still pending, or short remaining validity on the residence card, weakens the file because the company cannot confirm the continued stay and income horizon.⁴²

Practitioner sources describe this timing factor as heightened risk rather than automatic refusal. Renewal applicants should submit the extension application receipt and any available validity proof alongside the standard set.

Association-type companies share delinquency databases within the rental guarantee industry, and screening points include past rent delinquency and previous guarantee-company use.⁴ Credit-card-affiliated companies reference credit information agencies, while independent companies weigh current income, status, and emergency contacts.⁴ A prior rental default recorded in that shared history follows the applicant to the next property.

Landlords are not obliged to state a rejection reason, so a filtered file often arrives with no explanation.⁵ Treat silence after screening as a signal to try a different property and company pair with a stronger document set.

Good to know

Fill every field before the first submission

Complete files move first. Practitioner guidance for passing screening is to fill out all documents accurately, keep every document within its validity window, and provide official translations where needed.⁴ Many address and income documents carry validity windows such as within three or six months of issuance, so coordinate issuance timing when filing parallel procedures.³

An inconsistent entry across the landlord form and the guarantor form costs more time than a missing attachment. Re-check names, dates, addresses, and income figures against the copies before submitting.

A missed verification call stalls the file

The workplace and emergency-contact calls are a scheduled step, not a spot check.⁴¹ A missed call pauses the sequence until contact succeeds, which pushes the notice date past the expected window.

Confirm direct-dial numbers, warn reception or HR staff, and keep personal phones reachable during review days. Where the workplace uses a central switchboard, add the extension and the responsible person's name to the form.

One rejection belongs to one property and company pair

Screening criteria differ by company type, so a rejection at a strict screener says little about a foreigner-specialized company's view of the same file.⁴ A different property usually designates a different company, which makes the next application a fresh examination rather than an appeal.

Requirements are company- and property-specific, not ward-specific.¹² Confirm the exact document list with the handling agency for each new property instead of reusing the prior property's checklist unchanged.

New arrivals should lead with offer letters and savings

Thin files pass more often when income proof arrives up front. Applicants with short residence history, new employment, or freelance income should lead with an offer letter or employment contract, bank statements showing savings or regular transfers, a valid residence card, and accurate translations.⁴

Peak-season queues raise the cost of arriving incomplete, since the first complete file gets screening priority.⁵ Assemble the full set before the first viewing round rather than gathering papers after choosing a unit.

See also

• The Guarantor Company System
• How Renting Works in Japan
• Move-In Cost Breakdown: What 4-6 Months Actually Buys
• Foreigner-Rejection Patterns and How to Navigate Them
• Reading a Japanese Rental Listing
• Viewings (Naiken): What to Ask and What to Watch For

References

Footnotes

1. Casa Inc. "Guarantee Service." https://casa-inc.co.jp/en/service/user/guarantee/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵

2. Nihon Safety Co., Ltd. "The rental guarantee system." https://www.nihon-safety.co.jp/english/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹ ↩¹² ↩¹³ ↩¹⁴ ↩¹⁵ ↩¹⁶ ↩¹⁷

3. Global Trust Networks. "Essential Application and Contract Procedures for Foreign Residents in Japan: Complete Guide to Required Documents and Preparations." GTN Magazine, updated 2026-09-06. https://www.gtn.co.jp/magazine/en_us/article208/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸ ↩⁹ ↩¹⁰ ↩¹¹

4. Global Trust Networks. "Understanding Japan's Co-guarantor and Guarantee Company System for Foreign Renters." GTN Magazine, updated 2026-09-06. https://www.gtn.co.jp/magazine/en_us/article206/ ↩ ↩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

5. RealEstate.co.jp (GPlusMedia). "外国人が入居審査で拒否される理由トップ５." 2019-02-27. https://resources.realestate.co.jp/ja/living/top-5-reasons-rental-applications-are-rejected-by-landlords-in-japan-jp/ ↩ ↩² ↩³ ↩⁴ ↩⁵ ↩⁶ ↩⁷ ↩⁸

6. 国土交通省 (MLIT). 「家賃債務保証業者登録制度」. https://www.mlit.go.jp/jutakukentiku/house/jutakukentiku_house_fr7_000024.html ↩