Average rent in Japan, by prefecture
Monthly rent across the 23,853 active listings on this site, grouped into the 21 prefectures with enough inventory to average, ordered by median rent from cheapest. Hokkaido is the cheapest at ¥50,000; Tokyo the most expensive at ¥161,000.
| Prefecture | Median rent | Average | Range | Listings |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Hokkaido | ¥50,000 | ¥58,404 | ¥25,000 – ¥150,000 | 130 |
| Kagoshima | ¥52,000 | ¥52,958 | ¥18,000 – ¥150,000 | 452 |
| Kumamoto | ¥56,000 | ¥58,358 | ¥22,000 – ¥142,000 | 312 |
| Okayama | ¥58,000 | ¥59,026 | ¥38,000 – ¥98,000 | 405 |
| Nagano | ¥61,000 | ¥62,312 | ¥20,000 – ¥175,000 | 485 |
| Miyagi | ¥62,000 | ¥63,745 | ¥31,000 – ¥148,000 | 919 |
| Niigata | ¥64,000 | ¥65,236 | ¥25,000 – ¥150,000 | 382 |
| Nara | ¥65,000 | ¥67,123 | ¥18,000 – ¥160,000 | 432 |
| Ishikawa | ¥66,000 | ¥67,438 | ¥23,000 – ¥144,500 | 398 |
| Shizuoka | ¥66,000 | ¥70,569 | ¥26,000 – ¥180,000 | 322 |
| Aichi | ¥67,550 | ¥75,163 | ¥14,100 – ¥238,000 | 1,412 |
| Okinawa | ¥69,000 | ¥75,927 | ¥36,000 – ¥210,000 | 277 |
| Kyoto | ¥71,000 | ¥83,431 | ¥20,000 – ¥520,000 | 1,651 |
| Hyogo | ¥71,100 | ¥80,909 | ¥10,900 – ¥350,000 | 1,532 |
| Chiba | ¥72,000 | ¥75,477 | ¥30,000 – ¥180,000 | 894 |
| Fukuoka | ¥73,000 | ¥81,261 | ¥30,000 – ¥539,000 | 1,244 |
| Hiroshima | ¥74,000 | ¥77,250 | ¥25,000 – ¥280,000 | 657 |
| Osaka | ¥75,000 | ¥86,561 | ¥11,000 – ¥350,000 | 3,013 |
| Saitama | ¥77,000 | ¥84,924 | ¥10,000 – ¥250,000 | 849 |
| Kanagawa | ¥90,000 | ¥104,317 | ¥40,000 – ¥700,000 | 2,151 |
| Tokyo | ¥161,000 | ¥208,490 | ¥13,000 – ¥4,300,000 | 5,936 |
Advertised monthly rent only — management fee, deposit, key money and agency fees are charged on top and commonly add three to five months' rent up front. Prefectures with fewer than 20 listings are excluded. Ordering uses the median rather than the average, because a handful of luxury listings pulls an average well above what most listings actually cost.
Frequently asked questions
- Where is rent cheapest in Japan?
- Of the 21 prefectures listed here, Hokkaido has the lowest median rent at ¥50,000 a month, across 130 listings. Tokyo is the highest at ¥161,000 — about 3.2× as much.
- How much is rent in Japan per month?
- Across the 23,853 active listings on this site, median rent by prefecture ranges from ¥50,000 to ¥161,000 a month. The middle prefecture of the 21 is Aichi at ¥67,550 — that is a typical prefecture, not a national average. Rent is the largest single cost but not the only one: deposit, key money and agency fees are charged separately and commonly total three to five months' rent up front.
- Is rent cheaper in Osaka than Tokyo?
- Yes. Median rent is ¥161,000 in Tokyo against ¥75,000 in Osaka, based on 5,936 and 3,013 listings respectively.
- How are these figures calculated?
- From the advertised monthly rent of the 23,853 active listings on this site — management fees, deposit and key money excluded. Prefectures with fewer than 20 listings are left out, because an average drawn from a handful of listings is noise presented as a fact. These are figures for the listings we carry, not an official statistic for the whole rental market.