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For apartments, the rent you have to pay to NTT is less than 8,000-yen per month. In addition to that, there is a management fee which, depending on your apartment, may vary between 3,000-yen and 8,000-yen. This means that the total costs for your apartment will be between 8,000-yen and 15,000-yen. In addition to this, you will have to pay the utility bills for water, gas and electricity. The amount will, of course, depend on your consumption but a total of 20,000-yen per month appears to be a typical amount. The apartment will, most likely, be located within an area of 60 min. commuting time; in fact a number of apartments are located within walking distance from the Labs.
The size of the apartment will depend on the size of your family accompanying you. The usual size for a single person will be 30-40m^2 consisting of a kitchenette and one or two rooms. A couple or a couple with a child will have 45-50 m2 available consisting of a kitchenette and two rooms or a dining kitchen and two rooms. The apartment is equipped with a gas or electric cooking stove (including a small grill but no oven), a refrigerator and a heating/air conditioner system. In some cases the bedrooms have large cupboards for storage of clothing and other items. Please check with NTT for the actual layout of your apartment. The rest of the furniture you will have to supply yourself according to your needs and taste (for more information see also Out of Work Hours: Shopping). For the first month, NTT provides rented futons, plus bedding, which will give you some time to buy your own. Futons are more commonly used than beds as they can be easily stored away allowing for more space for daytime use.
If you wish, you can also find your own apartment. In this case, NTT will provide some subsidy to the rent. However, the high rents in the Musashino area (the typical rent for an apartment of the size and standard as provided by NTT will cost in excess of 100,000-yen unfurnished and without heating/air conditioning) as well as refundable deposits (6 months' to 1 year's rent), non-refundable key money (2-3 months' rent) and realtor fee (1 months' rent) make it highly unattractive to rent for only a short period of time.
Single, undergraduate or graduate students working for NTT as "trainees" are usually provided with dormitory accomodation. Female students mostly get a small apartment. There are a lot of dormitories, and where you will end up depends on the availability of rooms. Commuting time is typically more than one hour. The size of the room is approximately 3 x 4 meters and the room will be completely empty when you arrive. It is possible to rent a futon, a traditional Japanese bedding set, but this turns out to be rather expensive: depending on the size from 5000-yen to 10000-yen per month. So for a three month stay it would be better to buy a simple Futon set (about 10000-yen). The fee for the dormitory is a monthly 8000-yen, and the food (about 800-yen per day) is billed additionally. A laundry service is available, as well as washing machines and dryers. There are shared bathrooms and toilets. Since there is no air conditioning in the rooms, you probably need a fan during the hot summer months.
At Ibaraki, accomodation for researchers is located in Mito. Mito is a city of about 250 000 inhabitants located approximately 25 km from the research lab. This works out to be 35-45 minute commute by car and even longer by public transport. In Mito there are two housing options available. The first is dormitory accomodation, which is specifically for singles and is currently all-male. The other option is an NTT apartment. The size of the apartment will depend on your family but usually comprises at least a bedroom, a bathroom, a toilet, a kitchen/dining room and a lounge.
When arranging for your NTT connection, you must specify that you require an international line. This will immediately enable you to use KDD, ITJ, IDC and any other international long distance company (as described in the English language telephone directory, City Source, see Written Information Sources, below). There is no special charge for international lines. Long distance phone bills can be paid for at post offices and some convenience stores.
Electricity, Gas, Water: These services will be arranged for you by NTT before your arrival. You will be billed monthly, except for water, which is on a bimonthly basis. Bills can be paid at the bank, post office, or utility office. You can also arrange to have the amount transferred automatically from your bank account.
To make a closer look at the insurance you require during your stay in such accommodation, we can divide a standard policy into three categories of insured event:
Building Insurance.
The insurance with respect to the building in Japan is certainly different to that which many foreigners are used to. The landlord who owns a given apartment is not necessarily responsible for holding a policy to cover the whole structure of the building against accidental damage such as fire which may have originated in one of the apartments. It is often up to the individual tenant to obtain such insurance. The accommodation selected for you by NTT may be a part of a small private apartment block, or in one of the NTT shataku (larger apartment blocks). NTT act as the lessee in the eyes of the landlord and hence know the level of responsibility that is passed on to you: It is in fact possible that you may not need to buy this category of insurance. In a standard policy the insurance company will reimburse you in the case that you are charged with the legal responsibility to compensate your landlord in respect of damage caused to the structure as a whole in the case of fire, explosion, leaks etc.
Third Party Insurance.
This may be events as simple as breakages you cause in a department store or the over flowing bath that ruins the TV set in the apartment below you. However this also covers you against accidental injury that you inflict on a third party . In general the insurance company will reimburse you in the event that you, or members of your family, are charged with the legal responsibility to compensate for third party liabilities.
Housing General Insurance.
This third category covers your personal possessions and furnishings against several events.
Basic categories are:
On the up side, you may well be pleasantly surprised at the cost of insurance in Japan. The crime rate is low in Tokyo and this is reflected in relatively low premiums compared with those in most major cities throughout the world. You can expect to pay roughly 8,000-yen for a one year period for an average 2LDK apartment. This will give you 10,000,000-yen and 5,000,000-yen of cover in each of the above categories respectively. However, in general natural disaster insurance to cover earthquake and tidal wave comes separately and at a cost in Japan, again contributing to these relatively low premiums. Presumably the insurance companies don't want to go bust with everyone else when the big one comes. It is possible to get such insurance to cover household contents from any company and typically you can expect to pay 1300-yen per 1,000,000-yen insured on top of the premium mentioned above. If you buy any insurance, please consult with the administration staff.
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