Japanese people show their anxiety towards the revision of the legal adult age

• An 18-year-old could sign a rental agreement without permission from their parents
  (researched by OHEYAGO)

TOKYO, June 1, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- A research about the change of the legal adult age in Japan and what it brings to the real estate market has been recently released by OHEYAGO( https://oheyago.jp/ ). OHEYAGO is a self-tour house hunting service owned by ITANDI.Co.,Ltd. which is a sub company of GA technologies. GA technologies Co., Ltd (Headquarters: Minato-Ku, Tokyo; CEO: Ryo Higuchi / Securities Code: 3491) is a company provides a comprehensive, one-stop real estate platform service in Japan. ITANDI focuses on bringing technology into the process of real estate transactions to make the whole process smoother and user friendly. Recently, a research result has been released by OHEYAGO based on the recent law revision of lowering the legal adult age from 20 to 18 years old in Japan（1） and what it will bring to the rental & lease market. It was an online questionnaire carried out among OHEYAGO's Twitter followers, and the answers received was 259.

Key Highlights

• When it comes to the question that "Did you know that young adults could sign a rental contract without parents' permission" based on the fact that the legal adult age has been lowered to 18 years old in Japan. Around 40% of the people being researched answered with "No".
• 57.1%, expressed their worries about this change.
• 67.6% of the people feel positive about the change. The reason for this is that "An 18-year-old is mature enough to take responsibility for themselves." In which there are also many 18-year-old already started to support themselves as adults.
• 77.7% of the people expressed their worries as "most people do not have much knowledge about the real estate market and how does it work."
• More than 80% of the people answered that they hope "the realtor should take the responsibility and explain as detailed as possible regarding the basic flow of a rental contract, rules and anything that a client needs to know. (especially to young adults)"

1.  Changes it brought to the rental & lease market along the change of the legal adult age

 About 96.1% of the people researched confirmed that they do know the change about change that the legal adult age has been lowered to 18-year-old from the original 20-year-old started from April 1st, 2022, in Japanese citizen law,

When it comes to the question" Did you know young adults could sign a rental contract without parents' permission once they reached 18?" 62.5% answered "Yes", while 37.5% answered with "No". We can see that about 40% of the people do know that the legal adult age has been lowered, but some people do not know the changes it also brings to the real estate contract process.

2．How do you feel about the fact that an 18-year-old could sign a rental contract without parents' permission?

About 45.9% of the people expressed that "they are a little bit worry" about an 18-year-old is in charge of a rental contract on his / her own without parents' permission. 29% showed that "overall they are more or less lean towards the positive side of the change." 13.9% believe that "the change is definitely a good sign." 11.2% answered that "they are certainly worried about such a change." We could see that overall, 57.1% which is more than half of the people are feeling some kind of anxiety about the change.

3．Following the question above, what is your reason for that?

There are 67.7% of the people believe that it is either certainly good or overall positive about such a change. People believe that many 18-year-old already entered the workforce to support themselves as adults, and they should be able to take the responsibility to determine a rental contract by themselves. 47.7% answered that "An 18-year-old should be mature enough to make a decision on their own." While 38.7 % of the people believe that by deciding a house contract on their own will be a lesson to these young adults about "what a sense of responsibility is."

On the other hand, 77.7% of the people worried that an 18-year-olds usually does not have much knowledge about the real estate market and how it works exactly. 70.9% worried that young adults usually do not have a stable finance to afford a rent or any expenses that come with a rental contract. While 57.4% pointed out that many 18-year-olds are still high school students and do not have the ability to support themselves independently.

【Why do you think it is good for young adults to be able to take charge of a rental contract all by themselves?】
 67.7%: "There are many 18-year-old already started to support themselves as adults"

 47.7%:" An 18-year-old is old enough to make decisions for oneself"

 38.7%:" By deciding a contract for themselves can teach these young adults a sense of responsibility"

 12.6%:" Most countries set 18 as the legal adult age so why not Japan?"

 9%:" A rental contract usually does not cost as much as a purchasing contract, and it is easier to terminate the contract if you want / must"

Why do you feel anxious about such a change?
 77.7%: "Most 18-year-old don't know much about how real estate transaction works"
 70.9%: "It is worrisome that young adults might not have the money to pay the rent and other expenses"

 57.4%: "Many 18-year-old are still high school students which don't have the money to support themselves"

 53.4%:" Young adults have to be careful not to get fooled around or becoming the target by / of some of the realtors" 

 29.7%:" I just do not think it is OK to change the legal adult age suddenly. It is just worrisome" 

4. Advice for young adults when signing a rental contract

69.1% hoping that realtors should take the responsibility and explain the details to these young adults to make the whole process as smooth as possible. 64.5% of the people worried that these young adults might get into trouble even for crimes if not paying attention to the details of the contract. 60.2% expressed their worries that it will be difficult to terminate a contract once it has been signed.

69.1%: "Realtors should explain the contracting process, rules etc. as much detailed as possible"
64.5%: "Young adults should watch out for themselves not to get into troubles when signing a contract"

60.2%: "Young adults should be careful that sometimes it might be difficult to terminate a contract once you have signed it"

40.5%: "Plan everything you need to do before & after you move accordingly"

25.5%: "Get familiar with the surrounding environment as quick as possible"

5. The responsibility of realtors when helping these first-time contractors

81.1% of the people are requesting the realtors should take the responsibility to explain the rules and process of a rental contract thoroughly in helping these young adults as first-time contractors. While "the delivery of the necessary information and documents to the contractors" comes in second with 62.2%. "An 18-year-old will still need to grant a permission from the parents if the individual is still a student before signing a contract" comes in third with 51.7%. And 38.2% of the people hoping that the realtors could also advise these young adults about the manners, rules, tips when living by themselves the first time. From the list we could see that different advises are given to the young adults in order to prepare them for a smooth transition into living alone by themselves.

What about foreigners?

There are few advice from the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport & Tourism of Japan on finding a house in Japan as a foreigner （2）.

• A guarantor or use of a rental guaranteed company is usually required: A guarantor is often required when a foreigner decided to sign a rental contract for a Japanese house. Most rental properties required the applicant to provide a contact information as the guarantor usually an individual who resides in Japan. For those of who are not able to provide a guarantor, a rental guaranteed company is often suggested. Foreigners are also recommended to seek for help from their employers or schools.
• The purpose of a guarantor: The purpose of a guarantor is to cover the unpaid expenses including but not limited to unpaid rent or unpaid repair costs when the applicant has difficulty in paying or do not pay the expenses himself / herself.
• Required documents: The following documents are required when foreigners sign the contract.  Passport, residency card, proof of earnings, employment certificate (if applied), student Visa (if applied). Contact information of the guarantor or a rental guaranteed company will also be required if being used.
• Required fees: The following payments are usually required when rent a house in Japan. Security deposit, key money, agency fee, damage insurance premium, rent for the first month paid in advance, common management fee. These could vary depending on the property or the location.
• Renewal of the contract: The rental lease agreement in Japan is usually signed for 2 years. There will be a renewal fee involved if the renter plans to continue the agreement.
• About "OHEYAGO"（https://oheyago.jp/）

OHEYAGO is a self-tour house viewing service with 3 main characteristics.  ① Everything can be done online ② Only offers a property that is definitely available on the market （3） ③ Provides you with great service with a reasonable price（4）OHEYAGO provides our customers with a fast and smooth house viewing service. House seekers can reserve an appointment 30 minutes prior based on one's own schedule. We offer a complete online service starting from house searching to the final contract signing. Customers can find a house easily all by using a smartphone. What's more is that, with an amendment revision that is going to be enacted on May 18th. Originally, the documents those required to be provided in paper form including the agreement of important matters can be offered in an electronic file（5）. OHEYAGO is putting its effort in promoting the evolution in the real estate industry of bringing a brand-new way of real estate transaction that is purely online. 

• Data Collection Method

Time period: March 24,2022 ~ April 14,2022

Number of answers received: 259

Source of research: OHEYAGO Twitter followers

Research method: Online（ Q1,Q2: single reply only, Q3,Q4,Q5: multiple answers allowed ）

• About ITANDI

Company name: ITANDI Co.,Ltd. 

Representative: Shinpei Noguchi 

Website:  https://www.itandi.co.jp/

Head office: 40F of Sumitomo real estate Roppongi Grand Tower, Roppongi 3-2-1, Minato-Ku, Tokyo, Japan 

Established: June 2012

Capital fund: 36,000,000 JPY

Service: 

• The development & operation of "ITANDI BB" : SaaS for the real estate people (B2B)
• The development & operation of "ITANDI BB +" : SaaS for accelerating the digital transformation of the real estate business (B2B)
• The development & operation of "OHEYAGO" : a B2C self-tour house hunting site

• About GA technologies

Company: GA technologies Co., Ltd.

Representative: Ryo Higuchi

URL: https://www.ga-tech.co.jp/en/

Head office: 40F of Sumitomo Fudosan Roppongi Grand Tower, Roppongi 3-2-1, Minato District, Tokyo

Year of founding: March 2013

Capital fund: 7,224,816,203 JPY  (by March 2022)

What we do:

• Running the RENOSY service, an online, one-stop real estate service platform
• Running the ITANDI BB service, a cloud service targets at real estate management companies
• Sub companies: ITANDI Co.,Ltd, Modern Standard Co., Ltd, Shenjumiausuan Co.,Ltd and 8 other companies

Reference:

• Promotion video of "OHEYAGO"（https://youtu.be/IeolLfS11Yc）
• "OHEYAGO" on Twitter（https://twitter.com/OHEYAGO）
• "OHEYAGO Journey": Lifestyle magazine（https://journey.oheyago.jp/）
• "OHEYAGO App", the iOS version（https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/id1561076788）

1. Reference source: Citizen laws amendments; "Revision of the legal adult age"; Ministry of Justice
   https://www.moj.go.jp/MINJI/minji07_00218.html
2. Reference source: "Housing advises for dealing with foreigners (rental & leasing)" Ministry of Land, Infrastructures, Transport & Tourism
   https://www.mlit.go.jp/jutakukentiku/house/jutakukentiku_house_tk3_000017.html 
3. A usual way of advertising in the real estate market is that sometimes customers would find houses that are actually not available for renting for some reasons or that has been leased out already, even a house that cannot be viewed but is posted online only for advertising purposes etc. Sometimes, these situations happened because of the administrative process on the agency's side or purely for advertising reasons. OHEYAGO is working hard to prevent such a situation from happening to provide the most updated and accurate information to our customers. 
4. OHEYAGO is bringing technology into the transaction process with a low rate of commission fee and a total online service. We are hoping to help lowering the expenses our customers have to pay by providing a new business model. 
5. Reference source: Revision on "Real estate transaction laws & regulations & laws for protecting elderly customers benefits"; Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transportation and Tourism
   https://www.mlit.go.jp/report/press/tochi_fudousan_kensetsugyo16_hh_000001_00035.html

CONTACT: Nami, (+81-90-1503-9158), Judy, GA technologies Co., Ltd., MAIL: pr@ga-tech.co.jp

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