How We Compare
How this site decides what to recommend, where every fact comes from, how we make money, and what we refuse to do for it.
Every comparison site says it is impartial. Here is what that means here, in enough detail that you can check it.
Where our facts come from
Every requirement in our tables carries a mark showing its source. There are three, and they mean different things:
| Mark | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Stated by company | The company says this in its own published terms or FAQ. The mark links to that page. |
| We asked them | Not published anywhere. We wrote to the company and this is their answer to us. |
| Not stated | The company publishes no rule on this. It is decided case by case. |
A cell marked “Not stated” is the important one. Most English-language guides to leasing in Japan state confidently that you need a Japanese credit history of a certain length, or a Japanese guarantor. Those numbers appear in no company’s published terms. When we cannot find a source, we show you an em dash rather than a plausible-sounding figure.
We would rather be useless on a question than wrong about it.
Where our facts do not come from
We do not use other comparison sites as sources. We do not use company sales material. We do not use what a salesperson said on the phone unless we can point you at something in writing.
For rules and procedures — license conversion, documents, tests — we use the police: the National Police Agency and prefectural police forces. Not law firm blogs, not immigration consultancies, however well informed. Where the police publish nothing, we say so.
Every page carries a date
At the top of each article you will find when it was last updated, and when we last checked its sources against the original.
Prices and company terms change. A page that was accurate in March may not be in September. The date is there so you can judge for yourself whether to trust it, rather than assuming that anything published is current.
If you find something out of date, tell us.
How we make money
Some links on this site are affiliate links. If you apply through one and the company pays a referral fee, we receive it. It costs you nothing and changes nothing about your application.
Three rules govern this, and they are the whole point of the page you are reading:
1. Payment does not affect the ordering. Our comparisons are ordered by what fits your situation, not by what pays. The clearest demonstration is that KINTO — the provider we currently rate highest for residents without permanent residency — pays us nothing. No affiliate programme for it exists that we can join. We recommend it anyway, and say so on the page.
2. Every affiliate link is labelled, at the top of the page. Not buried in the footer, not in small print at the bottom of an article. Japanese advertising law requires that paid placement be disclosed clearly, and we apply it to every page whether or not it carries a link.
3. We turn down money that would make the site worse. Some of the best-paying referrals in this market are for in-house financing — dealers who lend without a credit check, at rates that reflect the risk. They convert well among people who have just been refused a lease, which is exactly why we will not link to them. We will explain what they are, so you can recognise one — and we will send you nowhere.
What we do not do
- We do not accept payment to appear in a comparison, or to rank higher in one.
- We do not write sponsored articles.
- We do not act on your behalf. We explain procedures; we do not accompany you to the license centre or fill in your forms.
- We do not give legal, immigration or financial advice. We tell you what companies and authorities have published, and where.
Who we are not
We are not a leasing company, a broker, or an agent. We are not owned by any company that appears in our comparisons, and none of them has any say in what appears here.
When we get it wrong
We will. Rules change, companies revise their terms, and we misread things.
If something here is wrong, tell us and we will correct it and change the date at the top of the page. We do not quietly edit pages; a correction that matters is noted on the page it affects.