Abstract
The quality of rental housing depends on not only landlord maintenance but also tenant maintenance. In the presence of the Japanese Tenant Protection Law (JTPL), courts may pass the judgment that gives the tenant a right to use housing unit, although it is more efficient to give it to the landlord. If this situation is anticipated, landlord investment for maintenance will decrease, while that of the tenant will increase in the tenancy period. We show that if landlord maintenance and tenant maintenance are perfect substitutes, and the maintenance cost function of tenants is the same as that of landlords, then the JTPL leads to less maintenance. Consequently, the JTPL lowers the quality of rental housing. Otherwise, it is indeterminate whether the JTPL leads to less maintenance.
