The Leopalace felt flimsy and hollow compared with the Village House their friends lived in, and had mold problems.
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Are Leopalace walls thin? Ratings, reviews and a viewing checklist
Leopalace publishes a wall rating only for buildings with its Non-Sound System. Older buildings have no published rating, and renters’ accounts range from silent to “you hear everything”. Here is what the rating means and how to test the room you are offered.
On this page
What Leopalace publishes
Leopalace’s Non-Sound System page gives a wall rating for each structure and says people hear sound differently. The scale below shows both ratings and the gap they leave.
What the ratings do and do not tell you
The wall rating describes the wall between neighboring rooms in a building with the Non-Sound System, and floors have their own rating. No rating captures how you will hear footsteps, doors, pipes or a neighbor’s voice in one particular room, and Leopalace says it is introducing the system in turn, mainly in newly built properties. We found no wall rating for older buildings on its site.
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.
What renters report
Accounts from Reddit and Yahoo! Chiebukuro (知恵袋, a Japanese Q&A site). They are personal and unverified, and they describe different buildings.
Loved the apartment until a new neighbor sang karaoke in falsetto late at night and early in the morning.
In both apartments they noticed neighbors’ voices.
Says sound passes through almost completely.
Lives in a steel-frame Leopalace built five years earlier and finds it very comfortable.
Mixed reports are normal. Wooden and steel-frame buildings, corner and middle units, and different neighbors give different results. A rating cannot promise silence, and a bad review of one building does not describe yours.
How to test a room at the viewing
- Ask which specification the building hasDoes it have the Non-Sound System, which wall and floor ratings apply, and is the room wooden or steel-frame? Ask for it in writing if the answer is yes.
- See the room you would rentNot a model room. Listen with the air conditioner off and the windows closed.
- Listen for the shared wallsNote where the neighbors’ bathrooms, kitchens and entrances sit against yours. A corner or top-floor room has fewer shared walls, but it does not guarantee silence.
- Check the stairs, doors and roadWalk the stairwell and corridor. Doors, stair noise and traffic carry into rooms near them.
- Ask about the floor aboveAsk the agent whether noise complaints have been reported in the building, and who lives above and below if they can tell you.
- Go at a time that matters to youIf you work from home or sleep early, view at a time when the building is busy, and keep a written record of the answers.
If noise starts after you move in
- Keep a dated logWrite the date, time, how long it lasted and what you heard.
- Report through Leopalace’s contact formLeopalace asks residents to report loud noise that happens often through its contact form. Ask what evidence it needs and what it can do.
- Check your cancellation terms before you decide to leaveLeaving a lease within a year of the start costs one month’s rent, and some special contracts charge one to two months. A noise complaint does not remove those charges by itself.
Related Leopalace guides
Moving out
Cleaning fees by size, notice steps, the early-exit charge and what counts as damage.
Screening
General and foreign-resident requirements, the guarantor fee and the online steps.
Leopalace review
Costs, thin walls, the construction defects and what renters say.
Leopalace’s apartment search
Japanese button: “If you are starting to live on your own, Leopalace21” Opens Leopalace21's site (Japanese; English version too)
Leopalace FAQ
Are Leopalace apartments soundproof?
Not as a rule. Leopalace rates buildings that have its Non-Sound System: TLD-45 for the wall between rooms in wooden buildings and TLD-50 in steel-frame ones. It publishes no rating for older buildings.
What is Leopalace’s Non-Sound System?
A sound-insulation specification that Leopalace says it is introducing in turn, mainly in newly built properties. Its page rates the wall and floor for buildings that have it.
Which Leopalace buildings are quietest?
Buildings with the Non-Sound System and steel-frame construction have the higher published wall rating, TLD-50. Ask the store which buildings have it, and listen in the room.
Can I break my Leopalace lease if the neighbors are too loud?
Not without cost. A lease ended within a year of the start costs one month’s rent, and special contracts charge one to two months. Report the noise through Leopalace’s contact form and keep a log.
What does TLD mean?
TLD-45 and TLD-50 are the wall sound-insulation grades Leopalace uses on its Non-Sound System page. A higher number is quieter.
Set Up in Japan is an independent guide. It is not the property operator’s website.
Leopalace’s apartment search
Japanese button: “If you are starting to live on your own, Leopalace21” Opens Leopalace21's site (Japanese; English version too)
How we checked
The ratings and the help-center guidance are from Leopalace’s Non-Sound System page, its structure page and its help center, read on September 17 and October 5, 2026. The reviews are paraphrased from the Reddit and Yahoo! Chiebukuro posts linked on each card. We have not lived in a Leopalace and make no claim about any one building.
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