Housing in Tokyo’s 23 wards
for foreign residents, 2026.

It is a city whose housing market, ward offices and building-management practices are being reshaped by them.

As of 1 January 2026, 783,701 foreign residents were on Tokyo’s resident register, up 62,478 people (8.66%) in a single year. They account for 5.57% of the prefecture’s 14,077,552 people (Japanese residents: 13,293,851). Inside the 23 special wards the concentration is higher: 655,945 foreign residents out of 9,796,723, or 6.70%.

Separately, the Immigration Services Agency’s year-end Statistics on Foreign Residents put the national stock at 4,125,395 at the end of 2025, of whom 947,125 held permanent-resident status. That is a different series from the resident register. Do not mix the two in the same percentage.

On the 2020 census breakdown used in TMG housing-policy materials, households that include a foreign national were already concentrated in private rented stock (about 52% of those households, versus about 41% of all Tokyo households). Newer register data do not republish tenure, so this briefing does not pretend to have a 2026 tenure census.

This is written from a central-Tokyo real-estate practice. It is not an argument for or against immigration policy. It maps what the two-layer system — Tokyo Metropolitan Government coexistence policy on one side, national immigration control on the other — means for people who need to rent, let, buy or house staff in the 23 wards.

TMG’s January 2026 resident-register release is unusually clear about age structure. The largest five-year age band among Japanese residents is 50–54 (1,115,308 people). The largest band among foreign residents is 25–29 (131,267 people).

That single fact explains a large part of rental demand. Foreign residents in Tokyo are concentrated in the ages that form new households, change jobs and move often. They are also disproportionately represented among students, working-age specialists, Specified Skilled Workers and dependants — categories that often enter the rental market when they first arrive in Japan.

TMG’s revised Tokyo Guidelines for the Promotion of Intercultural Cohesion (June 2025) states that foreign residents come from 187 countries and regions, that more than half are in their twenties and thirties, and that Tokyo holds a large share of Japan’s specialists and international students. Those figures are the guidelines’ description of the 2025 situation, not a fresh calculation from the January 2026 register.

Share of foreign residents in selected 23 wards, 1 January 2026. Headcounts: TMG resident register. Percentages calculated from those headcounts.

Two maps are in play. Share is highest in Shinjuku, Toshima and Arakawa. Headcount is highest in Edogawa, Shinjuku and Adachi. A company housing a single executive and a company housing twenty Specified Skilled Workers are not looking at the same wards or the same product.

China remains the largest nationality on the Tokyo register (299,831), followed by Korea (90,766). Other large groups include Myanmar (39,198), Taiwan (24,550), India (20,003) and Indonesia (15,909). Clusters are local: India in Nishi-Kasai, Korea around Shin-Okubo, Myanmar around Ikebukuro. In our experience, Western expatriate searches also concentrate in Minato and parts of Shibuya and Setagaya.

TMG does not set visas. It sets the local operating system: multilingual information, consultation desks, grants to civic groups, disaster communication, and pressure on the national government to fix gaps in education, social insurance and housing.

The June 2025 revision of the intercultural-cohesion guidelines restates three goals: mechanisms so foreign residents can work and participate; support to live with reassurance; and mutual awareness, including wider use of plain Japanese.

The Governor’s September 2025 urgent request stated that about 720,000 of Japan’s then foreign residents lived in Tokyo, that the foreign share of Tokyo’s population had exceeded 5%, and that education, social insurance and housing were among the systems lagging demographic change. A follow-up request was filed on 24 March 2026.

Permanent residence is still a draft change. On 4 August 2026 the Immigration Services Agency published a draft revision of the Guidelines for Permission for Permanent Residence. The Justice Minister confirmed the outline the next day. The draft would treat permanent residence as requiring especially careful examination; consider whether household income has continuously exceeded the average for Japanese households; add a projected pension level equivalent to 30 years of Employees’ Pension; write language and knowledge of Japanese rules more explicitly into the national-interest test; and lengthen the spouse exception from three years of marriage and one year of residence to five years and three years.

Timing as stated by the Minister on 5 August 2026: the package is aimed at applications from 1 April 2027, except that the income item is to apply from a revision date of 1 October 2026, including applications filed from about 1 April 2026 that are still pending. As of this briefing the February 2026 guideline remains the operative text. The Agency has not published the exact statistical series it will use for “average Japanese household income.”

Fees from 1 October 2026 are confirmed. Window fees for change or extension of status rise from a flat ¥6,000 to a period-based scale. Permanent-residence permission at the window rises from ¥10,000 to ¥200,000. Applications received by 30 September 2026 keep the old fee even if permission is issued later.

The published online schedule does not list a separate online fee for permanent-residence permission. Reductions exist but are narrow. For change or extension, a person in hardship comparable to public-assistance need and requiring humanitarian consideration may be reduced to ¥10,000. For permanent residence the published path is more limited (largely specified family relationships plus defined humanitarian cases). Reduced PR fee: ¥20,000. Do not assume a low-income applicant qualifies.

A working group is examining whether numerical targets or category caps should be set. A national Japanese-language and daily-life learning programme has been discussed for trial in fiscal 2028. Whether attendance will later be read into status reviews is under discussion, not decided.

The housing implication is indirect but real. People whose status is shorter, more expensive to renew, or harder to convert to permanent residence behave differently in the rental market. Employers become more important as housing intermediaries.

1. Listings that screen out non-Japanese applicants still exist — sometimes politely (“Japanese speaker only”), sometimes bluntly. We do not have an official 2026 percentage for the 23 wards, and we make no claim that the practice has receded.

Foreign nationals are listed among persons requiring consideration in securing housing under the Housing Safety Net Act. Registration as safety-net housing is voluntary. An amendment that took effect on 1 October 2025 also created residence-support housing. That is a supply-side tool, not a ban on private refusal of a named applicant.

What works on the ground is a file: residence card, employment contract or acceptance letter, tax and income documents, an emergency contact in Japan, and a guarantor-company pre-approval.

2. Guarantors are now a product problem. Traditional joint guarantors are often scarce for newcomers. Many private-market deals now rely on a rent-guarantee company. Other routes remain: a company as tenant, an employer-provided room, UR housing, or an owner’s own screening. UR remains the cleanest institutional alternative — no key money, no conventional agent fee, no private-lease guarantor — but supply in the central wards is limited.

3. Language at contract is still a liability event. Material-matter explanations, leases and house rules are still often Japanese-only. A tenant who signs without understanding early-termination penalties or restoration standards is the tenant who later generates the complaint that makes the next foreign applicant harder to place.

4. Initial costs punish short stays. Deposit, key money, brokerage, guarantee and other fees can easily amount to several months’ rent. The mix varies widely. This is one reason furnished monthly mansions and service apartments in Minato, Chiyoda and Chuo absorb so much corporate demand.

5. Address registration is an important operational step. For medium- and long-term residents, moving-in notification matters because many subsequent procedures depend on a registered address. Experienced agencies walk clients to the ward office. Quality of consultation desks varies by ward.

1. Fix status documents first. A short remaining period of stay can make screening more difficult when the proposed lease runs well beyond it.
2. Decide product type before ward: ordinary lease, UR, safety-net housing, company dormitory or serviced apartment.
3. Use a guarantor company that has already approved your visa category.
4. Budget the October 2026 fee schedule if you will renew status this winter.
5. Read house rules as carefully as rent.
6. Register at the ward office, then ask once about any housing consultation or rent support your status actually qualifies for.

Specified Skilled Worker (i) receiving organisations must include housing-securing support in the obligatory support plan. Where the organisation itself provides the dwelling, ISA guidance requires 7.5 m² or more of room area per person. Loft, storage, corridor, bath and toilet are not counted. This is not a general legal minimum for every foreign employee in Japan. A 4.5 m² bedroom exception exists for some Technical Intern Training (ii) transitions.

That is a compliance requirement, not a retention strategy. In our experience, staff housed in shared rooms at the regulatory minimum leave quickly. For specialists and intra-company transferees, one common central-Tokyo pattern is a furnished 1LDK or serviced apartment for the first three to six months, then a conversion to an unfurnished lease.

Write the housing clause before the offer letter.

Foreign demand is not one bid. It is at least four: corporate expatriate; specialist on a two-year lease; student or service-sector worker; and end-user or investor purchaser.

Screen for income, status length and guarantee approval rather than using “no foreigners” as a default filter. Put house rules in plain Japanese and one other language on day one. Decide company-as-tenant versus individual contracts in advance. For condominiums with overseas owners, appoint a Japan-based manager who can attend the management association and keep fees current.

As of 7 September 2026 there is no general nationality-based ban in the Civil Code or the Building Lots and Buildings Transaction Business Act on a foreign national buying an ordinary condominium or house in the 23 wards. June 2026 reports said a foreigner-only condominium restriction had been set aside for now, while amendment of the Important Land Survey and Regulation Act would tighten control of land around defence and other sensitive facilities on a nationality-neutral model. A Japanese nominee does not create a safe harbour if the land is designated. Confirm the map and the current statute before treating this as legal advice.

Two market observations should not be collapsed into one number. Industry comments in 2025 described a high foreign share in some ¥200 million-plus central-Tokyo products. A MLIT-based tally cited by the Yomiuri in June 2026 put non-resident foreign buyers at 3.0% of new condominiums sold in Tokyo in January–June of the previous year. Those are different universes.

On 7 September 2026 Sankei reported that Shinjuku intends to prohibit lodging businesses in principle in residential areas and around schools, including existing facilities, with an amending ordinance the following year. That is an announced direction, not yet law.

Headcounts above are official. What follows is our working view, not a survey.

Shinjuku. Highest foreign share. Consultation infrastructure is relatively deep; friction over nightlife and lodging is also more visible.

Minato, Chiyoda, Chuo. A common corporate pattern: serviced apartments, furnished high-rises, bilingual agencies. Rents often assume a company is paying.

Toshima. High share and an active matching culture between vacant rooms and tenants who are hard to house.

Edogawa (Nishi-Kasai) and parts of Koto. For many family searches, school access and storage matter more than nightlife.

Setagaya, Meguro, western Shibuya. For many family assignments we handle, international-school commutes drive the shortlist.

Adachi, Katsushika, northern Itabashi, Kita. Larger absolute foreign populations, more worker and family rentals, more sensitivity to initial cost.

These are working assumptions, not forecasts we would underwrite.

1. Foreign resident numbers in the 23 wards will keep rising in 2026, even if the national debate turns toward caps.
2. Permanent residence is likely to become more expensive, and potentially harder if the August 2026 draft is adopted. The fee increase from 1 October is confirmed; the tighter examination standards are still a draft.
3. Employers will take more of the housing function, especially for Specified Skilled Workers and newly arrived specialists.
4. Serviced and flex product in the central wards will stay tight.
5. Building rules will tighten before purchase law does.
6. A national daily-life and Japanese-language programme, if tied even loosely to renewal, will change what “good tenant” documentation looks like.