Recovering Rent Arrears in Japan｜Termination, Demand, Guarantors and Enforcement

The tenant has paid no rent for several months and no longer answers the telephone. Foreign owners of investment property in Japan, and foreign companies running a property business here, meet this situation regularly. The most costly mistake at this point is to change the locks or to remove what is inside. Japanese landlord and tenant law protects the occupier closely, and arrears alone do not entitle a landlord to take the premises back. What follows sets out the position under the law of Japan.

Contents

Arrears do not by themselves entitle you to terminate
The first steps
Self-help is unlawful and must not be attempted
Demand and termination by content-certified mail
Guarantors, guarantee companies and the security deposit
Prescription, the routes to recovery, and whether it is worth it
In closing
How to contact us

Arrears do not by themselves entitle you to terminate

Even where the lease states that the landlord may terminate on any late payment, the Japanese courts will not simply give effect to that clause. Under the case law of Japan — the doctrine of destruction of the relationship of trust (shinrai kankei hakai) — the landlord must first serve a demand allowing a reasonable period under Article 541 of the Civil Code of Japan, and the default must have reached a degree that destroys the relationship of trust between the parties before termination will be upheld.

In practice, arrears of around three months are often treated as a rough working benchmark, but that figure appears nowhere in the legislation. The outcome in any given case turns on the tenant’s payment record, the reason for the default, whether the tenant has engaged constructively, and how the landlord has behaved. Terminating after one or two months of arrears is very likely to fail in court.

The first steps

Create a record of every demand. Keep the date and content of telephone calls, text messages, emails and letters. At trial you will have to prove both that a demand was made and that the arrears had reached the point of destroying the relationship of trust; these records are the evidence that does it.
Notify the joint and several guarantor and the rent guarantee company. Guarantee contracts commonly impose a notification deadline, and a late notification can prejudice the claim that follows. Once a rent guarantee company has paid, it acquires a right of indemnity against the tenant.
Fix the amount of the arrears and the interest for late payment. Set out, month by month, unpaid rent, service charges and any other sums. Interest for late payment is as provided in the lease; where the lease is silent, the statutory rate under the Civil Code of Japan applies. Until the sum is fixed, no proper demand can be made.

Self-help is unlawful and must not be attempted

Japanese law prohibits self-help. However far the tenant is in arrears, none of the following may be done.

Changing the locks, or otherwise preventing the tenant from entering.
Entering the premises without the tenant’s consent.
Removing, disposing of or taking into storage the tenant’s possessions.
Posting notices, calling repeatedly at the door or using threatening language so as to drive the tenant out.

Conduct of this kind may amount to unlawful entry into a dwelling, destruction of property or theft under the Penal Code of Japan, gives rise to liability in damages, and will place the landlord in a far weaker position in the litigation that follows. The Supreme Court of Japan has also held clauses in rent guarantee company contracts — permitting termination without demand, and deeming the premises to have been surrendered — to be void under the Consumer Contract Act. However serious the arrears, possession can only be recovered through the courts.

Demand and termination by content-certified mail

The demand should be made by content-certified mail (naiyo shomei yubin), a Japanese system under which the post office certifies when a document was sent, to whom, and in what terms. Where it is later disputed whether a demand was ever made, this is decisive.

The letter will ordinarily state the period and the monthly amounts of the arrears, the time allowed for payment (usually seven to fourteen days from receipt), that the lease will be terminated if payment is not made, and a demand for vacant possession. Practitioners commonly use a conditional termination — providing in the same letter that the lease terminates automatically if payment is not made in time — so that a second letter is unnecessary. The same document should be sent to the guarantor.

Guarantors, guarantee companies and the security deposit

A guarantee given by an individual under a lease secures obligations that are not yet fixed, and is therefore a revolving guarantee by an individual. Under Article 465-2 of the Civil Code of Japan, such a guarantee is void unless a maximum amount (kyokudogaku) is stated in the contract. This point should be checked with particular care in any lease concluded or renewed on or after 1 April 2020. A guarantee company pays under its own contract, but usually subject to a notification deadline and a ceiling on what it will pay.

As to the security deposit (shikikin), Article 622-2 of the Civil Code of Japan provides that when the lease has ended and the tenant has given up the premises, the deposit is applied as of course to unpaid rent and other obligations, and only the balance is returned. The tenant, conversely, cannot require the landlord to “use the deposit for this month’s rent”. The deposit is therefore not security that can be drawn on at will: it takes effect only on surrender. As a deposit is usually equivalent to one or two months’ rent, the landlord’s exposure grows month by month once the arrears exceed it.

Prescription, the routes to recovery, and whether it is worth it

Under Article 166 of the Civil Code of Japan, a claim for rent is extinguished by prescription five years from the time the creditor became aware that it could exercise the right, or ten years from the time it could be exercised, whichever comes first. Each month’s rent runs separately, so where the matter is left, the earliest months fall away one by one. A demand by content-certified mail postpones completion of prescription for six months only; to renew prescription, proceedings must be brought or a demand for payment applied for within that period.

Demand for payment (shiharai tokusoku) — applied for to a court clerk of the Summary Court, and issued without any oral hearing. If no objection is filed within two weeks, a declaration of provisional execution may be added and an enforceable title obtained. It is available only for money, however, and cannot be used to recover possession.
Small claims action — for money claims of up to 600,000 yen, heard and decided in principle at a single hearing.
Ordinary civil litigation — required where possession is sought. In practice the claim for possession and the claim for the arrears are brought together.
Compulsory execution — once an enforceable title is held, the tenant’s bank deposits, salary or accounts receivable may be attached; possession is recovered by a court execution officer. Enforcement of possession requires an advance payment towards removal and storage, which depending on the volume of goods often runs to several hundred thousand yen.

Where the arrears are modest, compare the court fees, legal fees and enforcement costs against what can realistically be recovered. A tenant with no means will not satisfy a judgment however clearly it is won. Writing off part of the arrears in exchange for an agreed surrender is frequently the better commercial course.

If the tenant has disappeared, the premises still cannot be dealt with unilaterally. Check the resident register, the tenant’s place of work and whatever the guarantor knows; a Japanese lawyer may also make a bar association inquiry under Article 23-2 of the Attorney Act of Japan. If the tenant still cannot be traced, the termination and the proceedings can be served by publication, and possession recovered by a court execution officer once judgment is obtained. It takes longer, but it is the only lawful route.

In closing

Rent arrears reward early action. The longer the matter is left, the larger the debt and the smaller the prospect of recovery. When something is wrong, secure the records and fix the amount first, then proceed through the statutory steps — and never retake the premises yourself. We act for foreign owners of property in Japan and for foreign companies with a property business here, and are equally glad to work through the client’s own counsel abroad.

How to contact us

Telephone 03-6435-8418 within Japan, or +81-3-6435-8418 from overseas. Lines are open from 08:00 to 24:00 Japan time, including Saturdays, Sundays and public holidays. Enquiries are also received at any hour through the form on this site.

M&A Partners Law Office LPC　Katsuhiro Tsuchiya, Representative Attorney-at-Law (Tokyo Bar Association, Registration No. 26775)　17F Mori Trust Shiroyama Trust Tower, 4-3-1 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan

This article is a general explanation based on the laws and practice of Japan as at August 2026 (Reiwa 8). The outcome of any particular matter depends on its own facts, and no specific result is guaranteed.

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