５万円 a month is the absolute cheapest he could find? That's hard to believe. A shared room at that time-honoured refuge of newly arrived gaijin, sakura house, runs around 47k/m and that would be way better than the cubicle in that video. And that's in Tokyo proper - Chiba or Saitama would be even less. Hell, I have a friend who lives in minami-sunamachi, rents a one-bedroom apartment and it costs 59k. That's Edogawa ward, 20 minutes from shinjuku, $590/month! That's not including utilities and stuff of course, but still, you get the idea.
Memories of the late 80s/early 90s notwithstanding, Tokyo is not at all expensive compared to other world cities. Compared to Sydney or, worse, London, it's actually pretty cheap. You could definitely do better than that. Weird.
Important clarification for many people reading this discussion: the sticker price of a Japanese apartment is not anywhere close to the amount of money it requires to actually move into it. I pay 45,000 yen (approximately $450) a month for my apartment in central Japan. Its quite spacious and very much in the stix. However, three days before movein I had to wire my landlord approximately $2,000.
2 months security deposit (nota bene: as a matter of course, this is not returned in this country),
1 month rent,
1 month finder fee,
various insurance, etc, etc
That includes NO key money.
"Key money" (礼金) is a fun little idiosyncracy of Japanese real estate that says your landlord is sort of your buddy in a new town so you should give them a little gift to ensure their good favor. This gift can range from 1 to 3+ months rent, in cash, delivered prior to move-in. You will never see it again. The social justification for the tradition is long since dead (I've never even met my landlord, just the apartment referral service that handled everything) but, like all societal traditions that result in someone making money, it is shockingly durable.
There are other reasons I could name why a pay-by-the-day option is preferable to a traditional rented apartment (lack of a guarantor, lack of verifiable employment, etc) for folks in desperate situations, but I won't bore you too much. Suffice it to say that I'm glad I'm not in that situation but I understand why someone in it would choose to be "virtually" homeless.
Sounds near the point where landlords are incentivized to have a high turnover rate. At a 1 year average turnover & the higher key money estimate, that's >50% extra revenue (then indefinite tenants) with <10% extra cost (assuming finders fee & insurance goes to finders & insurers).
Here (Melbourne) You usually need approximately 3X1 month to rent (more if you include average contact breaking costs). Deposits get held by bureaucrats so no one is incentivized in any way.
Yeah, those are relevant details and I take your point. Another issue is that Japanese tend to be highly conservative/risk-averse and would tend not to enter into contracts they were not sure they could uphold in the future. If an unemployed westerner found himself with funds available only to pay the first six months of a one-year contract, they might enter into it anyway on the assumption they would be able to find a solution in time. A typical Japanese would tend to be far more hesitant, even if the consequences for breaking the lease are not severe.
Hm, key money. Well firstly, there's 2 types, as you would know. There's 礼金 (reikin), the one you mentioned, and 敷金 (shikikin), which is basically the equivalent to a bond in the west. The first is a non-returnable "gift", the second is refunded in part depending on the condition of the house upon the tenant's departure. Of course they always find something to deduct but I've always got most of it back. They can vary according to area - in Tokyo you'd typically pay 1 or maximum 2 months gratuity and 2 for the security deposit. I've heard it's much higher in Kansai. There could be local differences in getting back the deposit as well, I haven't lived anywhere outside Kanto, but that does seem strange - I would certainly try to get it back if I were you!
As for the "gift" part, although it's annoying to have to pay up front, it's best to treat it as just paying part of the rent up-front, instead of amortised over the life of the tenancy. If it's a 12 month lease and 1 month key money, just imagine you're paying forward part of the rent, but then getting an 8% discount for the rest of the year. Works out the same; it all goes to the landlord, so it's just part of the price.
The key money also does have a couple of main reasons, or at least so I have been informed. Firstly, before you move in, the landlord has (hopefully) performed some maintenance - typically replacing the tatamis, repairing any damage, etc - and of course making the key. Since a lot of his expenses have been incurred in a big bang, he would like upfront payment for them, and then you can both settle down to a lower regular payment - you for rent, and he for his own bills. So it's kind of like a cash-flow smoothing gambit to cover pricey periodic maintenance, which you might have noticed, is often done at the last minute - upon receipt of the money to pay for it!
The second and perhaps more important reason is that "gifts" are taxed under a different category, and at a lower rate, than rental property income. It is in the landlord's interest to get as much of the rent as possible up-front in the form of a "gift".
As for the finder's fee .. well even this is maybe not as bad as it might seem. All rental agencies take fees; it's just a question of whether you have their service fee deducted from the (inflated to compensate) rent each month, or just pay them up front. It's probably a wash in the end. If anything, the prospect of an imminent, and big, payday seems to spur the agencies to extraordinary levels of service to get you into one of their places.
So yeah anyway, there are reasons. Those reasons suck and benefit the other side, not you, but there are reasons! : )
And you are completely right to point out that the "ticket price" is only part of the story. Including everything it can definitely be 20% more all told. I should have mentioned that.
Oops, turned into a bit of an essay, sorry. Anyway I agree with what you said.
An internet cafe in Tokyo was easily the worst nights sleep I've ever had. The cubes aren't big enough to actually stretch out (admittedly, this might not be a problem for most Asians), so you end up folding your legs over a footrest with 8" of clearance under the desk. Every 40 minutes somebody's alarm goes off.
I keep hoping that following a certain level of technological sophistication, and in absence of further sophistication as to make your corporeal body wholly unnecessary that having no possessions and no permanent residence will be seen as normal. What could you need but the clothes on your back, the shoes on your feet, and the terminal implanted in your head?
People will probably still have sentimental attachements to souveniers. But apart from that, you may be right --- taking the current the lifestyle of some rich people as an indicator.
Of course we'd have to dramatically lower the transaction costs for short term rents of various goods that you may want to us.
Memories of the late 80s/early 90s notwithstanding, Tokyo is not at all expensive compared to other world cities. Compared to Sydney or, worse, London, it's actually pretty cheap. You could definitely do better than that. Weird.