Housing Insurance in Japan

I'm sure most people out there in Japan have experienced the need to get housing insurance when entering into a rental property contract. I work in Nagoya and Tokyo, so I am writing this based on my experiences in these two cities, but we have run into a wall when it comes to housing insurance recently.

In Japan, in 80-90% of cases, owners will ask tenants to take our a simple "housing insurance" to protect themselves (and therefore the owner) from 3rd party incidents. Common ones are "flooding the apartment below you by forgetting to turn off your bath tap when filling the bath" and fires that start in your apartment (maybe due to that cigarette) that gut your neigbors property too. Sensible insurance to have, and it can also protect you from things like floods, riots (tons of them here!), mystery flying objects, but not usually typhoons or earthquakes.

Well, the situation is that Japan has tightened its laws on insurance, and the payment of insurances.
1. Insurance policies must be read and understood by the person taking them out
2. Payment of the insurance premium must be made by the individual and 3rd parties cannot make payments for that individual, unless they have received payment from that individual.

So this leaves our organization in 2 predicaments;

1. Most owners offer only policies in Japanese. We work with the foreign community in Japan, who, for the most part, don't or can't read legal documents in Japanese. For this reason, it is becoming really difficult for foreigners to sign up for Japanese policies; as the insurance agent requires them to read it back to them to make sure they understand.

2. Often our clients are coming from overseas to live in Japan for the first time. Our job as a real estate and relocation company in Nagoya and Tokyo is to coordinate things like housing insurance policies for our clients. However, even if we can get over the language hurdle, next we are not able to pay in advance for our clients, who AREN'T yet here in Japan!! We have to wait for everyone arrive, and have them make payment after arrival themselves.

The solution is obviously having an Insurance Company that provides policies in English. We used to use "Kyosaikai" a popular housing insurance company, but on the change of the insurance law they withdrew their English translation of their Japanese contract, and now refuse to work in anything other than Japanese. "ACE Insurance" is about the only company in Japan offering "English Policies", but their agents tend not to be customer orientated or able to explain the policy and answer questions about it.

This would be an excellent chance for someone else to come into the market. Furthermore, the regular "housing insurance package" that owners wish tenants to take out can normally not be added to. ie. You can't add insurance for your mountain bike and your diamond ring onto these packages. If anyone can offer such a service in Japan it just might be a hit......

In the meantime, foreigners out there need to be able to read more kanji......