Negotiating a Lease for Your Guesthouse in Japan: What Foreign Operators Need to Know About Key Money and Subletting Clauses
When I signed the lease on my first guesthouse property in Tokyo, I got two surprises in the same afternoon. The first was the size of the upfront check — key money, deposit, agent fee, and guarantor company fee all due before I got the keys. The second, more important one, was a single line buried in the terms: the landlord’s standard lease prohibited subletting entirely, and short-term rental guests count as subletting.