Three years ago, one of my tenants stopped paying rent for two straight months. When I finally tried calling his guarantor, his older brother, who had signed the lease as backup, the phone number was disconnected and the address on file turned out to be a share house that had closed down two years earlier. That single gap cost me roughly 180,000 yen in unpaid rent before I found a workaround, and it taught me that a guarantor on paper is worthless if you cannot actually reach them when you need to.
A guarantor, or in Japanese a rentai hoshounin (joint guarantor), is supposed to be your safety net when a tenant cannot pay. But people move, change jobs, get new phone numbers, or simply go quiet once they realize what they are actually being asked to cover. After managing 9 properties for over 15 years, I have had this happen four separate times, and I now have a fairly reliable process for handling it.
- Step 1: Confirm the Guarantor Is Actually Unreachable
- Step 2: Send the Registered Letter Before You Do Anything Else
- Step 3: Put the Request to the Tenant in Writing
- Step 4: Know the Difference If You Used a Guarantor Company
- Step 5: Replace the Guarantor or Switch to Insurance
- What I Changed Across All 9 Properties After This
Step 1: Confirm the Guarantor Is Actually Unreachable
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Before assuming the worst, I run through a short checklist over 2 to 3 days. A surprising number of guarantor no-response cases turn out to be a wrong number written down years ago on the original application, not an actual disappearance. Out of my four cases, one turned out to be nothing more than a landline that had been cancelled when the guarantor switched to a mobile-only plan, and a single email to the tenant cleared it up in a day. So I never treat the first missed call as a real emergency; I treat it as a data problem to solve methodically before I panic about lost rent.
- Call the phone number on file at three different times of day across 2 to 3 days
- Send a registered letter with proof of delivery (naiyo shoumei) to the address on file and watch whether it comes back undeliverable
- Check whether the original application listed an employer, and try contacting that company directly
- Ask the tenant in writing to confirm or update the guarantor’s current contact information within 7 days
Step 2: Send the Registered Letter Before You Do Anything Else
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This step matters more than most landlords realize. A registered letter with delivery confirmation costs around 1,500 yen and creates a paper trail showing you made a documented attempt to contact the guarantor. If it comes back stamped as undeliverable, that document becomes important evidence later if you end up going to small claims court or filing for payment order against the tenant. I keep every one of these envelopes, unopened, in a folder for each property for at least 5 years.
Step 3: Put the Request to the Tenant in Writing
Once I know the guarantor is unreachable, I do not just call the tenant, I send a written notice, dated, stating that their guarantor could not be reached and that I need updated contact details or a replacement guarantor within 14 days. Verbal conversations get forgotten or disputed; a dated letter does not. In two of my four cases, the tenant already knew the relationship with their guarantor had broken down (one had actually had a falling out with the brother who guaranteed the lease) and simply had not told me. I always give tenants a realistic reason to come forward early rather than stall, so the notice spells out plainly that failing to respond within the 14-day window puts the lease renewal itself at risk, not just the guarantor question. That single sentence has gotten me a response within 3 days in every case since I started including it.
Step 4: Know the Difference If You Used a Guarantor Company
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About 70% of my leases signed in the last 5 years use a guarantor company (hoshou gaisha) instead of, or in addition to, a personal guarantor. This is the single biggest upgrade I have made to my screening process. If a tenant pays through a guarantor company, that company is contractually obligated to cover missed rent even if you can never locate the individual behind it. The monthly or annual fee, usually 30% to 50% of one month’s rent paid upfront by the tenant, is worth every yen from a landlord’s perspective, because the company cannot simply stop answering the phone the way an individual can.
Step 5: Replace the Guarantor or Switch to Insurance
If the tenant cannot produce a new personal guarantor within your notice period, I offer two paths. First, they can enroll with a guarantor company mid-lease, which most companies allow even outside the initial signing. Second, for tenants who are otherwise reliable and simply had bad luck with a guarantor going silent, I sometimes accept a rent guarantee insurance policy instead, which typically runs 1% to 2% of annual rent. Either option protects you going forward even though it does not retroactively cover the gap that already happened. I generally give the tenant a choice between the two rather than dictating one, because a tenant who feels forced into the pricier option tends to become resentful and harder to work with later, while a tenant who picks their own path usually completes the paperwork within a week without needing a second reminder from me.
What I Changed Across All 9 Properties After This
Since that first incident, I require a guarantor company on every new lease and every renewal, no exceptions, even for tenants I have known for years. I also added a clause requiring guarantors, personal or corporate, to reconfirm contact details every 2 years at renewal. It adds maybe 10 minutes of paperwork per unit, but it has completely eliminated the unreachable-guarantor problem across my portfolio since I put it in place.
A guarantor you cannot reach is really no guarantor at all, so I stopped relying on personal connections alone and built a system that checks itself. That’s the approach I use across all 9 of my properties now, and it’s saved me more than one sleepless month of chasing unpaid rent.
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