[Wasabista]

My experiences with rental agents (fudosan), when I was renting, have ranged from crap to horrible -- in Tokyo. In the "countryside" (suburbs) there was only one fudosan where I lived, and he found me a very nice apartment, no problems at all, except of course for the various "deposits" that were never returned.

In Tokyo I found I needed an introduction to get an apartment. Once, when I walked in the door of a fudosan, the boss came running out at me shouting "gaijin dame!" Another time, a nice-seeming old lady sat down with me very patiently (we were speaking Japanese) and explained that Japan is an ancient society, you see, and it has many customs, don't you know, that are very hard for foreigners to understand, you see... all to the effect that no, she wouldn't show me any apartments.

That was 15-17 years ago, when I was an English teacher.

Nowadays, I know a fudosanya-san who is a great contact and looks for ways to save me money. Of course, he is a contact introduced by a good friend -- and also I'm a buyer now, not a renter.

If what I hear from you, Nyororin and 3M, is that this is no longer the case, it's very good news, and a welcome update of my impressions.

But I'm going to test this out myself. Next time I'm back in Japan I'll walk in a few fudosan near the train station and see what kind of reception I get.