Advertising Disclosure
Which links on this site earn us money, how they are labelled, and what that does and does not change about what we publish.
Some links on this site are affiliate links. If you apply for a service through one, we may receive a referral fee from that company.
That notice appears at the top of every page on this site. This page explains it.
What an affiliate link is
An affiliate link is an ordinary link with a tracking code attached. If you click it and later apply for the service, the company can tell that you came from us, and pays us a fee.
It costs you nothing. The price you pay is the same as if you had gone to the company directly, and your application is assessed exactly the same way.
Why every page carries the notice
Japan’s Act against Unjustifiable Premiums and Misleading Representations requires advertising to be identifiable as advertising. Since October 2023, presenting paid promotion as though it were neutral opinion — “stealth marketing” — is prohibited.
We are based in Japan, so this applies to us regardless of the language we publish in, and regardless of where you are reading from.
We show the notice at the top of every page, in English, rather than in the footer or in small print. We show it on pages that carry no affiliate links at all. That is deliberate: a notice you have to look for is not a notice, and a rule with exceptions is a rule people forget to apply.
What it does not change
Payment does not affect our comparisons. The tables on this site are ordered by which provider fits your situation, not by which pays most.
The clearest test of that claim: KINTO, the provider we currently rate highest for residents without permanent residency, pays us nothing. No affiliate programme we can join exists for it. We recommend it anyway.
We also refuse referrals we could take. In-house financing — lending without a credit check, at correspondingly high rates — pays well and converts well among people who have just been refused a lease. We do not link to it.
The full reasoning is in How We Compare.
Cookies
Affiliate links work by setting a cookie in your browser when you click one, so the company can recognise you if you apply later. That cookie is set by the advertising network or the company, not by us.
This site itself sets no cookies and runs no tracking scripts. We do not use Google Analytics. Nothing is stored in your browser unless you click an outbound link, and then it is the destination that stores it. See our privacy page.
Questions
If anything here is unclear, or you think a link is not labelled properly, tell us.