30-day minimum · A lease, not a hotel room
Stay a month.
Live the neighbourhood.
A Kichi is a furnished house in Japan, booked by the month. Your own front door, a real kitchen, a neighbourhood to learn. Houses from lakeside Otsu to the Goto Islands, each on a straightforward fixed-term lease.
The honest maths
More house than a hotel, for less.
Two weeks in a decent city hotel often costs more than a whole month in a Kichi. The month gets you a kitchen, a washing machine, a living room and a front door of your own, at a resident's monthly price instead of a visitor's rate. Stay the full month and the comparison stops being close.
Hotel figure: a typical mid-range city double over 14 nights. Kichi pricing is monthly only; utilities are arranged per house and explained before you sign.
The houses
Open now. More on the way.
Every Kichi house meets the same standard: tested Wi-Fi, laundry, proper bedding and a kitchen you can actually cook in.
Kichi Itako
A three-bedroom house on its own plot in the Suigo lake country, with utilities and wi-fi in the monthly price and no deposit to find.
Kichi Otsu
A 1970s timber house between Lake Biwa and the Kyoto line. Ten minutes to the water, around twenty to Kyoto Station.
Kichi Chikura
A freshly renovated 2DK, five minutes' walk from a quiet Pacific surf break and about ninety minutes from Tokyo.
Kichi Narao
Two floors and around 150 m² above a Goto Islands harbour, minutes from beaches most of Japan has never heard of. The first Kichi.
Kichi Higashi-Osaka
An urban house twenty minutes from Namba. Being furnished now.
Kichi Itako is photographed. The other cards show the place, not the house, until each one opens.
How it works
One lease, one payment,
no nightly anything.
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Tell us your dates
Send an enquiry with your move-in date and how long you want the house: one month, two, three. We ask for at least three weeks' notice so your Kichi is ready.
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We confirm the fit
We check availability, talk honestly about whether the house suits your plans, and answer everything. For partner-owned houses a licensed Japanese real-estate agent prepares and explains your lease.
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Sign once, pay once
You sign a fixed-term residential lease and make one secure prepayment by Wise, in your own currency. No cleaning fees stacked per night, no surprise line items.
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Move in and settle
Self move-in, utilities and Wi-Fi running, an English house guide waiting, a local contact one message away. The neighbourhood does the rest.
Every Kichi is booked as a genuine fixed-term residential lease of at least 30 days. That is a booking condition, not small print. It is what makes your stay a legal tenancy rather than lodging, and it is why the prices look the way they do. Bookings cannot be shortened below 30 days, before or after signing. Read the terms.
Why a month
Two weeks is a trip.
A month is a life.
A month is when the supermarket staff stop being surprised by you, the coffee counter knows your order, and the house starts feeling like yours. That is the point of a Kichi.
A real kitchen
Cook what you find at the morning market. Eating in Japan gets better, and far cheaper, when you have your own stove.
Laundry at home
A washing machine of your own. Pack for a week, stay for three months.
Room to work
Wi-Fi, a desk, and a time zone that overlaps neatly with US evenings and European mornings.
A neighbourhood, not a lobby
Your own front door, your local sento, your regular coffee counter. The Japan a front desk can't hand you.
Resident prices
Monthly rents, not nightly rates. The longer you stay, the further your budget goes.
A proper lease
A real fixed-term tenancy with transparent terms. Your name on a lease, not a booking reference in a grey zone.
The name
Kichi means base.
基地. Every Japanese adult remembers building a himitsu kichi, a secret base, as a kid: the den where you lived your real life. A Kichi is that idea grown up. Not a room you pass through on the way to somewhere else, but the house you live from. The full story.
Who's behind this
Run by people who manage Japanese houses for a living.
Kichi is operated by Property Pilot Japan, a bilingual property consultancy that helps overseas owners buy and manage homes across Japan. We are not a booking site with an inbox in another time zone. We hold the keys.
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Houses we know personally
Every Kichi is inspected, set up and managed by us. We have stood in every kitchen.
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Bilingual, on the ground
We speak fluent English and Japanese, and deal with owners, agents and neighbours directly.
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Licensed where it matters
Leases for partner-owned houses are prepared and executed by licensed Japanese real-estate agents, with the legally required explanations given in plain English too.
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Straight terms
One lease, one payment, one clearly stated minimum. If a house isn't right for your plans, we say so.
Questions
The things everyone asks
Why is there a 30-day minimum?
Because every Kichi is a genuine fixed-term residential lease under Japanese tenancy law, not accommodation law. Thirty days is the line that keeps it that way, so it is a hard booking condition on every house. It is also where the value is: monthly rents in Japan are dramatically cheaper than nightly hotel pricing.
Is this a hotel or a vacation rental?
No. You sign a residential lease and become a tenant, with a tenant's privacy and a tenant's home. There is no daily housekeeping and no front desk, and we are not a hotel, minpaku or lodging business. What you get instead is a whole house at a resident's price.
Can I cancel, leave early or shorten my stay?
You can always leave early, but the lease itself cannot be shortened below 30 days, before or after signing, and rent is not refunded in a way that would turn your stay into a sub-30-day booking. Cancellation terms for each house are stated clearly before you sign. Details here.
How do I pay from overseas?
One prepayment through Wise before move-in, from your own bank account in your own currency, at the mid-market exchange rate. No Japanese bank account needed. For stays beyond three months we agree a payment schedule with you directly.
What about visas?
Most Western passport holders can spend up to 90 days in Japan visa-free, which fits one- and two-month stays comfortably. Japan also offers a six-month digital nomad visa. Check your own situation; we can't give immigration advice, but we can tell you what our guests typically do.
Book a Kichi
Tell us about your month.
No accounts, no instant-book roulette. Tell us when you're coming and what you're hoping for, and a human replies within a day.