The first serious deposit dispute I had, about 12 years ago, I tried to charge a departing tenant 68,000 yen to replace all the wallpaper in a 1LDK they had lived in for 5 years. They pushed back, cited the government guidelines, and in the end I could legally keep about 9,000 yen of it. That lesson cost me the difference plus a lot of goodwill. Since then I have settled well over 30 move-outs using the same framework the tenant used on me, and my disputes have basically stopped. Here is how the split actually works, with the numbers.
The Core Principle: Wear Is Mine, Damage Is Theirs
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Japan’s restoration guidelines, published by the land and infrastructure ministry, draw one main line. Normal wear and the effects of aging, tsujo sonmo and keinen henka, are the landlord’s responsibility, because the rent I collect is understood to already cover them. Damage from the tenant’s carelessness, misuse, or failure to take reasonable care, zenkan chui gimu ihan, is the tenant’s responsibility. Sun-faded wallpaper, furniture dents in the tatami, pin holes from a wall calendar: mine. A cigarette burn in the flooring, a pet-scratched door, a wall stained by a leaking fish tank the tenant never reported: theirs.
Why the Tenant Almost Never Pays Full Price
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Even when damage is clearly the tenant’s fault, they do not pay to replace the item as new. The guidelines apply depreciation. Interior finishes lose value over a set number of years down to a residual value of just 1 yen, and the tenant only owes the remaining book value at move-out, not the full cost. The standard lives are roughly:
- Wallpaper and cloth wall covering: 6 years to 1 yen
- Cushion floor vinyl sheet: 6 years to 1 yen
- Carpet: 6 years to 1 yen
- Tatami facing: valued case by case, generally no straight-line depreciation, judged on condition
- Flooring board: not depreciated on its own; tied to the building’s life unless the whole floor is replaced
- Built-in equipment like an air conditioner or water heater: about 6 years
So wallpaper that is 6 years or older has a residual value of 1 yen. If a tenant trashes a wall of 7-year-old wallpaper, they owe you 1 yen for the material, plus a share of the labor. That is the rule that beat me in my first dispute.
A Worked Example
Here is a real one, lightly rounded. A tenant moved out of a 2K after 4 years. In the main room, one wall had a 40cm gouge and a large stain from something dragged against it. That is tenant damage, not wear. The calculation:
- Damaged wall area: 14 square meters
- Wallpaper supply and hang cost: about 1,100 yen per square meter, so 15,400 yen for that wall
- Wallpaper life: 6 years. Tenant was there 4 years, so 2 years of value remain, a residual of about 33 percent
- Material and installation portion the tenant owes: 33 percent of 15,400 yen, about 5,100 yen
- Only the damaged wall is charged, not the whole room, because the construction unit for wallpaper is one wall face
- I chose to repaper the whole room for presentation, about 46,000 yen, but the other three walls were my cost as normal refresh
The tenant paid roughly 5,100 yen plus a small share of the basic call-out labor, not the 46,000 yen job. Their deposit was 130,000 yen and they got almost all of it back, which is exactly why they signed the move-out sheet without an argument.
Where Depreciation Does Not Apply
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A few things push cost back toward the tenant regardless of age:
- Labor andu57fau672cu5de5u4e8bu8cbb, the basic setup and disposal cost of a repair, is generally not depreciated. If a tenant burns a hole in old flooring, the material may be near zero but they can still owe the minimum labor to patch that section.
- Cleaning to a normal standard is often assigned to the tenant by the lease as a fixed hausu kuriningu fee, commonly 15,000 to 40,000 yen depending on unit size, and that is allowed if it is written clearly in the contract.
- Damage that spreads because the tenant hid it, like a small leak they never reported that rotted a subfloor, can make them liable for the enlarged repair.
- Whole-room replacement caused by one damaged spot, such as a single scorched tatami mat in a room where mats must be uniform, can sometimes be charged more broadly, but this is argued case by case.
What Goes in the Lease and the Move-Out Sheet
The guidelines are a default. A lease can shift some cost to the tenant if the special clause is specific, reasonable, and the tenant clearly agreed to it. Vague clauses that just say the tenant restores everything to original condition do not hold up. What I put in writing now:
- A named cleaning fee by unit size, disclosed before signing
- A move-in condition checklist with photos, signed by both sides, so we agree what was already worn on day one
- A move-out walkthrough done together, with the depreciation math shown on the spot, item by item
- The deposit deduction itemized in writing, with the residual-value percentage stated for each charge
In Tokyo there is also a prefectural ordinance requiring landlords to explain the restoration rules and the wear-versus-damage split to the tenant before signing. I follow that everywhere, not just where it is mandatory, because a tenant who understood the rules at move-in argues far less at move-out.
How This Changed My Numbers
Before I used this framework, I was budgeting almost nothing for turnover finishes because I assumed tenants would pay. In reality I now plan for wallpaper and cushion floor as my cost on any tenancy over 4 years, roughly 60,000 to 110,000 yen for a compact unit, and I treat tenant charges as a small offset, usually under 15,000 yen. Deposits went from a source of conflict to a formality. Across my last 20 move-outs, only one went to the local housing consultation center, and they sided with my calculation because it followed the guideline math exactly.
The restoration guidelines are not a landlord-versus-tenant fight. They are a shared rulebook, and the landlord who learns them first stops losing disputes and starts writing move-out sheets that tenants sign without a fuss. That is the approach I use across all 9 of my properties.
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