Moving to Tokyo｜A Checklist from Two Months Out to Moving Day
Signing the lease is where the work starts. Ward office paperwork, utilities, movers — organised into a chronological checklist, with the steps that can only be done before you move clearly marked.
Moving to Tokyo
Signing the lease feels like the finish line, but this is where things actually start slipping through the cracks. In particular, some municipal paperwork can only be done before you move — miss it and you'll be travelling back to your old ward office.
Here it is as a chronological checklist.
Two months out — getting moving
- Give notice on your current place (critical)
- Request quotes from movers (three or more)
- Shortlist candidates for the new place
Give notice first
Most Japanese leases require notice one month before you leave. Check the notice period in your contract — some specify two months.
Being late with this means paying rent on a place you no longer live in. You can give notice before your new place is confirmed, as soon as the month is fixed.
Always get competing quotes
The same load on the same date can differ by nearly a factor of two between companies. Get three quotes and tell each one what the others offered.
During peak season (mid-March to early April), you can be fully booked out two months ahead. If you're moving then, lock it in first.
One month out — the paperwork wave
- Contact electricity, gas and water to close and open accounts
- Transfer your internet line (do this earliest)
- File a mail forwarding request
- Sort out fire insurance
- Dispose of unwanted items, book oversized rubbish collection
Internet is the long pole
Of everything on this list, line installation takes the longest. In peak season, connection can be one to two months out.
If you work from home, a gap with no internet hits your job directly. Contact them the moment your place is confirmed. Whether the building already has fibre installed is also worth checking before you sign.
Mail forwarding
Japan Post will forward mail from your old address for one year once you file. You can do it at a counter, by post, or online (e-Tenkyo).
Forwarding expires after a year. Use that year to update your registered address with each individual service.
Oversized rubbish needs a booking
Municipal collection of oversized items is by appointment, and in peak season the wait runs two to three weeks. It's very easy to hit moving day with something you can't dispose of, so start early.
Two weeks out — the ward office (before-move-only)
- Moving-out notification (tenshutsu todoke, if changing municipality)
- Deregister from National Health Insurance
- Notification ending child allowance
- Cancel your seal registration
The moving-out notification can only be filed at your old ward office
This is the important one. If your new home is in a different municipality, you must file a moving-out notification at your current ward office before you move. You receive a moving-out certificate, which you then need for the moving-in notification at your destination.
Some municipalities allow filing up to around 14 days after the move, but if you're moving any distance that round trip isn't realistic. Do it before you go.
Moving within the same municipality doesn't need this — a single change-of-address notification after the move covers it.
If you have a My Number card
Special moving-out procedures using a My Number card can be completed online in a growing number of municipalities. In that case no paper certificate is issued.
One week out — packing and utilities
- Pack, starting with what you don't use
- Eat down the fridge
- Drain the washing machine
- Plan the layout of the new place
- Reconfirm the shut-off dates for the old place
Fridges and washing machines need preparation
Unplug the fridge the day before and let it defrost and drain. Unplug it at the last minute and it will leak in the van.
Washing machines need both the supply and drain hoses drained. The manual explains how. Movers will sometimes do it, usually for a fee.
Gas connection requires you to be there
Electricity and water generally don't need you present, but the gas connection requires the account holder on site. Slots fill up on moving day, so book early. No gas in winter means no bath.
Moving day
- Clean the old place
- Attend the move-out inspection
- Return the keys
- Be present for the gas connection
- Greet the neighbours (optional)
Don't sign at the move-out inspection
You may be shown a restoration cost estimate and asked to sign there and then. If anything on it doesn't sit right, you can decline to sign.
Wear from normal use — furniture indentations, sun-faded wallpaper — is the landlord's cost under the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport guidelines. Photos you took when you moved in are what wins this conversation.
Photograph every mark and stain when you move in. It's work you do for your future self. Make sure the date is recorded.