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Why a foreigner needs a guarantor, and what to do about it
A Japanese lease traditionally requires a 連帯保証人 — not a character reference but a person who is liable for the rent exactly as you are, which in practice means a relative with Japanese income. Someone who has just arrived has no such person, and asking a colleague is asking them to accept an open-ended debt, which is why Alex declines to. The gap is now filled commercially: a 保証会社 stands as guarantor for a fee, typically around half of one month's rent to begin with and a smaller sum each year after, and most agencies will insist on one whether or not you have a relative available. A 2020 reform to the Civil Code also requires that a contract with an individual guarantor state a 極度額, a ceiling on what that person can be made to pay, which is worth checking if a friend ever does sign for you. The harder problem is being refused outright. Japan has no comprehensive statute prohibiting discrimination in private housing, and a Justice Ministry survey of foreign residents published in 2017 found that roughly four in ten of those who had looked for housing had been turned down because they were foreign. The practical answers are to go through an agency that advertises 外国人可, to bring your 在留カード and proof of employment to the first meeting, and to know about UR賃貸住宅 — the public housing agency's stock, which takes no guarantor, no 礼金, no 更新料 and no agency fee, and which exists in part for exactly this reason.