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Furnished rooms for a short stay or a 2-year lease. Compare the full cost, the actual building and your intended stay. The guides below cover rent, noise, city choices and separate application help for foreign residents.
Prices as read on September 17, 2026.
Leopalace’s lease guide prices a furnished room under 40 m² at ¥50,000 rent at ¥234,705 to move in, counting its optional items. Move-out cleaning is paid at signing in this example.
Median asking rent of a furnished 1K or 1R in each of the 14 prefectures we sampled on October 9, 2026, from 45,540 listings. The highest median is ¥96,000 and the lowest ¥44,000.
From Leopalace's own pages, Japan's construction ministry and posts by renters. Each point is sourced further down.
Our view: useful for your first months if you arrive without furniture or a guarantor, or need a place for a month or more (the shortest contract is 30 days). For a 2-year stay, add up every fee below and compare it with an unfurnished apartment before you sign.
Ask Leopalace about a furnished room
Japanese button: “If you are starting to live on your own, Leopalace21” Opens Leopalace21's site (Japanese; English version too)
Fits you if you want a furnished room and have compared the full lease cost for your intended stay. Check the documents for your own nationality and contract type.
Not for you if you have not checked the room, the total initial payment or the cancellation terms. Get those answers before committing to the move.
Have ready: your rent budget, preferred station, move-in date, length of stay and number of occupants. Foreign applicants should also explain their residence status.
Leopalace's own example for a furnished room under 40 m² at ¥50,000 rent, tax included, from its lease guide, read September 17, 2026. Key money and rent vary by property.
At signing, Leopalace's example comes to ¥234,705 with the optional items, or ¥194,830 without the optional support plan and antibacterial treatment. Both include the first month, with Leopalace's optional internet at ¥2,640; prorated rent for the month you move in is extra.
Not in that total: the rent-guarantee company fee (100% to 120% of the monthly charge at signing, then ¥15,000 a year), and ¥524 on every monthly bank debit. Each month after that costs ¥56,190 in this example. Renewal every 2 years costs ¥55,365: a ¥16,500 fee plus 2 more years of insurance and the support plan. At real rents in Tokyo, Osaka and Aichi, see Leopalace costs by city.
| Guarantor fee | Rent-guarantee company fee of 100% to 120% of the monthly charge at signing, then ¥15,000 a year Not included in the ¥234,705 example. Required for individual leases. Provider page, read October 19, 2026 |
|---|---|
| Leaving early | 1 month's notice. Leaving within 1 year of the start costs 1 month's rent Monthly contracts: 10 days' notice (up to 180 days) or 30 days (181 to 365 days), and the first 30 days are never refunded. Provider page, read September 17, 2026 |
| What you need | Residence card, a Japanese bank account in your name, and two emergency contacts Its contact center told a mystery shopper (2026-09-17): one contact must be a parent or sibling, the other someone living in Japan, 18 or older, who speaks Japanese. Both give a phone number and home address. The document list is undated and still names the alien registration certificate Japan replaced in 2012. Provider page, read September 17, 2026 |
| Payment | Rent by bank debit, paid in advance, with a ¥524 fee per debit. Card or convenience store online as an alternative Tap 部屋利用料のお支払い方法 (room fee payment methods) on that page to see the fee. Card and convenience store payment is in the &Leo app or &LeoWEB, for tenants who signed in their own name. Provider page, read September 17, 2026 |
| Language | Phone support in English, Chinese, Korean, Portuguese and Vietnamese, 10:00 to 18:30 24-hour emergency repairs line in Japanese only. Provider page, read September 17, 2026 |
A monthly contract runs from 30 to 365 days, counted by the day, and you pay the whole stay up front. Leopalace says a monthly contract needs no utility payments, and no internet fee is due. There is no renewal: a longer stay means a new contract. Stays of a year or more have to be a lease (monthly guide).
Each property has a rank from A to Z that sets its daily rate. Leopalace's 30-day example for a rank H room is ¥200,970, including a ¥44,000 monthly fee that is never refunded and an optional ¥18,040 antibacterial treatment.
Leopalace's rate tables (dated 2023) say they apply to non-residential use, such as a second home. For a room you will live in, ask a store for the rate.
Current 30-day prices in Tokyo, Osaka and Aichi are on Leopalace monthly contracts.
You can search, take a video tour, sign and receive your keys by mail without visiting a store; keys by mail need the contract signed at least 5 days before move-in (online contract page). The English room-search line is 050-3650-7576, 10:00 to 18:30. Store visits need a booking from June 2026.
Leopalace's document list for foreign applicants asks for a residence card, a Japanese bank account in your own name for the rent debit, and an emergency contact who is a relative within four degrees and has a phone. Its contact center told a mystery shopper in September 2026 that you need two: a parent or sibling, and an adult living in Japan who speaks Japanese. Leopalace screens the application and may call your employer. The list is undated and still names a document Japan replaced in 2012, so confirm the requirements with the store. One renter on Reddit paid the move-in costs by bank transfer and added a Japanese account after arriving.
It does not say which visa types it accepts or how long your permission to stay must run. Leases need a rent-guarantee company; a joint guarantor is needed only in some cases, such as minors.
Leopalace's written answers to a mystery shopper, its English phone lines and its three stores for foreign customers are on renting a Leopalace as a foreigner.
Ready to apply? Ask Leopalace about a room
Japanese button: “If you are starting to live on your own, Leopalace21” Opens Leopalace21's site (Japanese; English version too)
On a lease, give notice at least 1 month before you leave; with less notice you pay the remaining days up to a month. Leaving within 1 year of the start costs 1 month's rent, and some contracts with special terms charge 1 to 2 months (help center).
The move-out cleaning fee is ¥52,250 for rooms under 40 m² and ¥63,250 for larger ones, raised on 1 July 2026. You pay it at signing, and damage you caused is charged on top. Key money and the guarantee fee are not refunded (cleaning fee). You must attend the inspection on your last day, between 11:00 and 15:00.
Monthly contracts need 10 days' notice for stays up to 180 days and 30 days for longer ones. The first 30 days are charged whatever happens.
Leopalace's English help pages still show an older cleaning-fee table and a different notice rule. The figures here are from its Japanese pages.
In April 2018 Leopalace announced that fire-separation walls in the attics of its Gold Nail series, shown on the approved drawings, had not been built, affecting 915 existing buildings (Leopalace release). A survey of every building it had built followed. In February 2019 Leopalace and Japan's construction ministry announced defects in walls, exterior walls or ceilings in 1,324 more buildings (ministry release).
Where ceilings did not meet the fire-resistance standard, Leopalace asked residents to move and paid their moving costs. In 2019 the ministry revoked the licenses of three Leopalace architects, and in 2021 Aichi Prefecture closed its Nagoya architect office for 12 months.
The ministry requires Leopalace to keep publishing its repair progress. As of 30 June 2026, Leopalace reports repairs complete in 78,189 of the 79,489 units that needed them, leaving 1,300 not yet reported complete, of which it expects about 963 to need work. It calls these figures preliminary (progress report).
Before you sign, ask whether the building was part of the survey and whether its repairs are complete.
Leopalace publishes a wall rating only for buildings with its Non-Sound System. It rates the wall between neighboring rooms TLD-45 in wooden buildings, where ordinary life sounds can be faintly heard, and TLD-50 in steel-frame buildings, where they can hardly be heard (Non-Sound System page). Leopalace adds that how you perceive sound differs by person and that the figures differ by plan and conditions.
It says it is introducing the system in turn, mainly in newly built properties (property types), and we found no wall rating for older buildings. Ask the store whether the room you are offered is in a building with the system.
Leopalace's help center asks residents to accept that minimal living sounds, such as water, footsteps and doors, occur in an apartment building, and to report loud noise that happens often through its contact form (help center). Noise through the walls is also the complaint that comes up most in the renter posts we read, as the next section says.
We read Reddit threads about Leopalace from 2023 to 2026. Noise through the walls comes up most, followed by price for the room size, then how easy it is to get in without a guarantor. Move-out and cleaning fees are the other repeated complaint. Many posters got their Leopalace through an employer, such as an English teaching dispatch company, and some complaints are about the employer's markup on rent, not Leopalace's own terms.
Google reviews rate Leopalace's stores, not the apartments. Its Shinjuku store (Leopalace Center Shinjuku Third Branch) had 2.8 stars from 41 reviews when we checked on 17 September 2026 (Google Maps). Recent low ratings mention slow replies to inquiries; older high ones mention same-day help with moving in and out, and staff whose English varies.
“They're starter/transition/temporary/weekday housing. They're small and easy to get into, but they can be overpriced for what they really are.”
“My first two places in Japan were from LeoPalace and my experience was great.”
“I loved the Leopalace I lived in until I got a new neighbor who liked to scream karaoke in a falsetto late at night and early in the morning.”
“The good thing about monthly places like Leopalace is that it’s no nonsense. You pay the monthly rate plus a cleaning fee, and that’s it.”
“We rented a Leopalace without a Japanese bank account. We paid the initial costs via bank transfer then gave them our bank details after we arrived…”
“Leopalace told me they charge it regardless because they will have to send in their cleaners anyway.”
“The two happiest days in Japan. The day I arrived and moved into a Leo Palace. The other? The day I moved out of Leo Palace.”
Decided on Leopalace? Ask about a furnished room
Japanese button: “If you are starting to live on your own, Leopalace21” Opens Leopalace21's site (Japanese; English version too)
Costs and rules come from Leopalace's Japanese guide and help pages, read on September 17, 2026. The construction defects are described from Leopalace's own releases and Japan's construction ministry. Renter quotes were read on reddit.com that day, and the store rating on Google Maps. We don't quote Google reviews: they show no exact date and many appear in machine translation. We have not rented from Leopalace, so there is no star rating here.
The Leopalace buttons on this page are A8.net affiliate links: we may earn a commission if you sign up through them. It does not change what we write. Read our editorial policy.
Accounts from Reddit and Japanese sites about this topic. They are personal and unverified, and they describe different buildings.
The Leopalace felt flimsy and hollow compared with the Village House their friends lived in, and had mold problems.
One or two words of speech were intelligible, male voices carry further and open windows make it worse. Recommends avoiding wooden buildings and choosing a top-floor corner unit.
Says Leopalace replaces broken appliances free with no questions: the IH cooktop was swapped the next day and a friend’s air conditioner was replaced within days.
Says all teachers at their board were placed in Leopalace. They stayed just under a year, others stayed three years or more, and not buying a fridge or microwave was a big relief.
Rent and move-in cost for each prefecture we sampled, from Leopalace’s own room search.
6,828 rooms · ¥57,000
5,549 rooms · ¥44,000
4,312 rooms · ¥68,000
4,067 rooms · ¥60,000
4,041 rooms · ¥74,000
3,702 rooms · ¥56,000
3,016 rooms · ¥70,000
2,800 rooms · ¥49,000
2,716 rooms · ¥96,000
2,403 rooms · ¥47,000
2,306 rooms · ¥46,000
2,252 rooms · ¥47,000
1,283 rooms · ¥63,000
265 rooms · ¥69,000
Median rent by prefecture and the move-in bill, fee by fee.
The published wall ratings, what renters report and a viewing checklist.
Cleaning fees by size, notice steps, the early-exit charge and what counts as damage.
General and foreign-resident requirements, the guarantor fee and the online steps.
Residents’ accounts from Japanese Q&A sites, blogs and Reddit, grouped by topic, with what is verified.
Costs, building age, residents’ reviews, how to apply and where the buildings are.
Yes, and you can apply from outside Japan. Leopalace asks for a residence card, a Japanese bank account and two emergency contacts; our page on renting Leopalace as a foreigner covers the documents and who counts as a contact.
It depends on the room. In Leopalace's own example for a furnished room at ¥50,000 rent, the costs at signing are ¥194,830, or ¥234,705 if you also take the optional support plan and antibacterial treatment (¥39,875 together). Prorated rent and the rent-guarantee company fee (100% to 120% of the monthly charge) come on top. Key money varies by property.
It depends on the city. On October 9, 2026, furnished 1K and 1R rooms on Leopalace's search had a median rent of ¥96,000 in Tokyo, ¥60,000 in Osaka and ¥57,000 in Aichi, plus a common fee. Key money and the move-in fees come on top.
Yes. Monthly contracts run from 30 to 365 days, paid in full up front, with utilities and internet included. Leopalace's 30-day example is ¥200,970, but its rate tables (dated 2023) say they apply to non-residential use, so ask a store for the rate for a room you will live in.
Leopalace reports that 78,189 of the 79,489 units that needed repair were done by 30 June 2026, and it publishes progress because Japan's construction ministry requires it. Ask the store whether the building you are considering was affected and repaired.
Leopalace's own rating, for buildings with its Non-Sound System, puts the wall between rooms at TLD-45 in wooden buildings (ordinary sounds faintly audible) and TLD-50 in steel-frame ones (hardly audible). It says the system is going into new buildings first and publishes no rating for older ones, and noise through the walls is the most common complaint in the renter posts we read.
Monthly contracts include it. On a lease, Leopalace's own internet is optional and costs ¥2,640 or ¥3,630 a month, works from move-in day and has no minimum term. No speed is promised.
One month on a lease, and leaving within the first year costs one month's rent. Monthly contracts need 10 or 30 days, depending on the plan.
Set Up in Japan is an independent guide, not Leopalace's site.
Ask Leopalace about a furnished room
Japanese button: “If you are starting to live on your own, Leopalace21” Opens Leopalace21's site (Japanese; English version too)