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賃借人、不満をぶちまける
日本来て17年。
日本に暮らす外国人ゆえの不愉快なこともなく、日本での生活にも慣れてきた。
それでも筆者にはどうにも理解しがたいことがある。
家を借りるときにはやたらとお金がかかることだ。
A renter's rant
After 17 years in Japan, I've pretty much adjusted to life here, but there's just one thing that still drives me crazy.
For my first 15 years or so in the land of wa, my spouse was Japanese, and when I would receive official-looking mail that I couldn't read, I could just ask my wife; "Honey what's this?" and she would reply; "Oh it's nothing, just give me that," and I'd be none the wiser.
After getting divorced, I realized how truly inadequate my Japanese language skills were (still are), and it took a couple of years to learn to come to grips with handling national tax, ward tax, national pension payments, national health insurance, rent, water, gas, etc. Now I can even order a pizza on the phone.
I love living here and have never suffered the usual immigrant complaints like racism, trouble fitting into society, etc. Of course, the weather is miserable, but that falls into the category of "can't be helped."
There is however, one thing about Japan I will never understand. That is the overwhelming cost and difficulty involved in renting a place to live. It is something that affects foreigners and Japanese alike, and is definitely something that "could be helped."
In Los Angeles, for example, when renting a place to live, your landlord will ask you to pay first and last month's rent and a small security deposit. As an adult, you are legally empowered to enter into contractual agreements with other parties. After you sign the contract, you move in. If your apartment rent was $1,500 (¥150,000) per month, then your cost to move in would be $3,500 (around ¥350,000).
7 Compare this to Tokyo, where to rent a ¥150,000-per-month apartment, you need to pay as much as 4 months' rent in deposit (shikikin), 2 months' rent to thank the landlord for taking your money (reikin), 1 month rent to the agent, and finally your first month's rent. That means ¥1,200,000 to move in - over three times the cost of renting in L.A.!
And to add insult to injury, if you don't have a personal guarantor, in nearly all cases, you can't even sign the contract - once again a serious problem for foreign residents and Japanese alike.
This almost feudal system amounts to an immense and unnecessary transfer of wealth from tenants to landlords. It makes it difficult for people on the bottom rungs of the Japanese economic ladder to survive.
I hear the government is desperately groping for ways to get the economy moving again. Why not start with a reform of this unfair rental system? It would sure free up a lot of cash that people could put to use toward stimulating the economy.
- renter
- 賃借人
- rant
- 長々とぐちを言うこと
- (have)adjusted to 〜
- 〜に適応してきた
- drives me crazy
- 私をひどくいらいらさせる
- spouse
- 配偶者
- official-looking
- 公的機関からの通知のように見える
- I'd be none the wiser
- 少しも賢くならなかった
- come to grips with 〜
- 〜に真剣に取り組む
- national tax, ward tax, national pension payments, national health insurance, rent
- 国税、特別区税、国民年金、国民健康保険、家賃
- usual immigrant complaints
- 普通移民が持つ不平不満
- racism
- 人種差別
- trouble fitting into society
- 社会に溶け込めないという悩み
- weather is miserable
- 筆者は米西海岸出身なので日本の天気はひどいと感じている
- can't be helped
- 仕方のないこと
- overwhelming
- 半端じゃない
- could be helped
- 何とかなること
- landlord
- 家主
- security deposit
- 保証金
- are legally empowered to 〜
- 法律的に〜する権利が与えられる
- enter into 〜
- 〜を結ぶ
- contractual agreements
- 契約上の合意
- parties
- 当事者
- move in
- 引っ越す
- agent
- 不動産業者
- to add insult to injury
- さらに追い討ちをかけるのは
- guarantor
- 保証人
- feudal system
- 封建制度
- amounts to 〜
- 結局〜となる
- immense
- ばく大な
- tenants
- 間借り人
- people on the bottom rungs of 〜ladder
- 〜の階層の最下位にいる人たち
- is desperately groping for 〜
- 〜を必死になって模索している
- free up 〜
- 〜を解放する