Tokyo Metropolitan University's Minami-Osawa Campus is about a 5-minute walk from Minamiosawa Station. Here are the 15 cheapest stations within roughly 30 minutes* of it, sorted by studio rent. Balancing rent and commute time is the key to a comfortable first apartment in Tokyo — start your search from this list.
Tokyo Metropolitan University students are mostly based at the single Minami-Osawa campus, with essentially no relocation across the four years. The real favorite is Minami-Osawa Station itself, a five-minute walk away, where studio rents in the high ¥30,000s are a bargain by Tokyo university standards. Tamazakai, Keio-Horinouchi, and Tama Center stations are all just two to five minutes from campus too, making it easy to keep daily life within a few-station radius.
The ranking below centers on cheap, far-out stations along the Keio Sagamihara and JR Sagami lines, and of these, only Tamazakai matches a real favorite. Minami-Osawa Station itself, along with the other real mainstays of Keio-Horinouchi and Tama Center, doesn't appear on the list, so treat everything besides Tamazakai as a separate set of options.
Katakura is a hilly Yokohama Line suburb of Hachioji with walkable access to Keio-Katakura — two practical lines, modest rents.
Hodokubo is a green, hilly Tama Monorail stop one station from the zoo, linking to both Tachikawa and Tama Center.
In Japan there are often only a few weeks between acceptance and the start of term. A furnished apartment cuts both the setup work and the upfront costs, so you can start student life right away. See the Housing Guide (furnished / share house / standard rental) →
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Compare rents line by line on the line index, or explore the area map.
*Travel times are estimates based on local trains (plus ~6 min per transfer). Express services are often faster.
*Rents are market estimates based on SUUMO listings and vary by season and property. Station data: ©ekidata.jp