A 45-year-old man in Tokorozawa, Saitama Prefecture, just outside Tokyo, was turned down by more than 100 rental properties before he found the apartment he lives in now with his guide dog. Japan has had a law on assistance dogs since 2002. For private rental housing, though, it only says landlords should "endeavor" not to refuse. As of October 2026, Japan's transport and health ministries plan to survey these refusals, possibly before the end of the year.

Where the law says "must not," and where it says "try"

The Act on Assistance Dogs for Persons with Physical Disabilities covers 3 kinds of dogs: guide dogs for blind people, service dogs for people with mobility impairments, and hearing dogs for deaf people. As of April 2026, Japan had 849 of them at work: 744 guide dogs, 54 service dogs and 51 hearing dogs. (For more on guide dogs themselves and how to behave around one, see our earlier piece on guide dog etiquette in Japan.)

The law sets different rules for different places. Government buildings, trains and buses, and businesses open to the general public, such as restaurants and hotels, must not refuse an assistance dog. The only exceptions are unavoidable reasons, such as a risk of serious damage.

Housing is split in two. Homes managed by the state, local governments or public corporations fall under the same "must not refuse" rule. Private housing gets a single sentence, Article 11: a manager "must endeavor not to refuse." In Japanese legal terms this is a "duty of effort."

Nothing in the law penalizes refusing an assistance dog, whether in a restaurant or an apartment.

Users have duties too. They must control their dog's behavior in public places and should keep it clean, vaccinated and regularly checked by a vet.

In April 2024, an amended disability discrimination law made private businesses legally required to provide "reasonable accommodation" (adjusting how they serve a disabled person on request, unless the burden is excessive). The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) has issued guidelines for the businesses it oversees. They list refusing an assistance dog as an example of discrimination for railways, buses and airlines. The section for the real estate business lists examples such as advertising "no disabled people" or refusing to broker a rental because of a disability. We could not find any mention of assistance dogs in it.

More than 100 refusals

According to the Yomiuri Shimbun, the man in Tokorozawa has used a guide dog for about 10 years. He started looking for a new home in September 2025, mainly in Tokyo and neighboring prefectures, phoning real estate agents. The answers came back in two forms: pets are not allowed, or the owner won't approve. He explained that a guide dog is trained and is not a pet. It did not help. He moved into his current apartment in January 2026.

His case is not unique. The Yomiuri reports that in a 2026 survey by the Japan Service Dog Resource Center, 8 of 25 respondents had been refused housing, 6 of them after the law took effect.

Housing is a small share of refusals by count. In a national survey of guide dog users covering 2024, run by a national federation of guide dog training groups, restaurants accounted for 488 refusals (42.7%) and rental housing for 54 (4.7%). But a refused restaurant table sends you to the next restaurant. A refused apartment sends you back to the start of the search.

Public landlords have not always followed the stricter rule either. At a symposium on May 20, 2026, a cross-party caucus of lawmakers discussed a case in which an assistance dog user was told by UR, a public corporation that manages large rental estates, that every resident in the building had to consent. The caucus chair, Norihisa Tamura, said this was probably a violation of the law, and that the manager may simply not have known it, according to the Fukushi Shimbun, a welfare-sector newspaper.

The landlord's side

According to the Yomiuri, owners mainly worry about damage to the unit and objections from other tenants.

A real estate writer on note, a Japanese blogging platform, goes further into the list: buildings advertised as pet-free, fear of complaints, how the dog will use hallways and elevators, odor and scratches, and the cost of restoring the unit when the tenant leaves. The biggest factor, the writer argues, is the anxiety of having no precedent to go on.

Owners also have to consider tenants who chose a pet-free building because of allergies or a fear of dogs.

Still, a guide dog is not an ordinary pet. Japan Guide Dog Association's Kanagawa training center told the Yomiuri that training lasts about a year and includes toileting manners. A professor at Osaka Health Science University told the paper that users manage their dogs' toileting and brush them daily to keep them clean. The same writer on note suggests a practical route: the agent explains to the owner what an assistance dog is, and both sides agree on rules for shared spaces before move-in, instead of refusing at the first phone call.

In the US, the textbook example is a guide dog

The United States handles the same situation through its fair housing law. A federal regulation on reasonable accommodations comes with worked examples, and the first one describes this exact case: a blind applicant wants to live with a guide dog in a building that does not allow pets. The regulation says refusing the applicant is a violation.

US law has its own limits. The Fair Housing Act exempts some small landlords, such as an owner who lives in a building of 4 units or fewer, or an individual renting out a house without an agent who owns no more than 3. According to summaries by US law firms, on May 22, 2026, the Department of Housing and Urban Development withdrew its 2020 guidance on assistance animals. Requests for untrained emotional support animals are no longer treated as presumptively reasonable. Requests for trained animals, guide dogs included, still are. A refused tenant can also file a lawsuit, in a federal or a state court, up to 2 years later.

The UK uses a similar logic. Under the Equality Act 2010, which covers England, Scotland and Wales, landlords must make reasonable adjustments for tenants with disabilities, and the obligation covers the terms of the tenancy itself. Stephensons, a British law firm, says this can mean amending a no-pets clause for an assistance dog, and that landlords should not charge extra fees for one.

The American and British laws treat a refusal as possible discrimination and give the tenant a way to challenge it, including in court. Japan's assistance dog law has a channel too: users can file a complaint with their prefecture (or, in larger cities, the city), and the local authority offers consultation, advice and guidance. There is no power to order a landlord to accept.

A law, and whether it works

The law was passed more than 20 years ago. At the May symposium, an MLIT official said lawmakers had suggested it should first grasp the actual situation, and that it had discussed this with the health ministry.

According to the Yomiuri, the survey will go through real estate industry groups. Officials are considering asking not only about refusals but also about owners' concerns and what would make it easier to say yes.

Where you live, if a landlord turned someone away because of their guide dog, what could that person do about it?

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