Thirty articles. That’s how long it took to walk through every step of buying a cheap house in Otaru — from browsing akiya banks to filing taxes as a foreign homeowner in Hokkaido. If you’ve read all of them, you know more about this process than most people who’ve actually done it. This last one …
Read more “The Case for Otaru: Why This Might Be the Best Property Decision You Ever Make”
I’ve spent 28 articles telling you why buying property in Otaru is feasible, affordable, and maybe brilliant. Now I’m going to tell you everything that could go wrong. This isn’t the part where I hedge my enthusiasm with a paragraph of disclaimers and then reassure you everything will be fine. Some of these risks are …
The Japanese bureaucratic system is simultaneously the most frustrating and most functional I’ve encountered in decades of living in other countries. The forms are incomprehensible. The process is rigid. And when you come out the other side, you have health insurance that actually works, a tax ID that unlocks the entire digital government, and a …
Read more “Health Insurance, Residency Registration, and the Bureaucratic Maze”
You have the keys. The deed is recorded at the Legal Affairs Bureau. The house is yours. Now you need electricity, gas, water, internet, a way to throw away your garbage, and a relationship with the people who live on your street. All of this is doable. None of it is in English. Here’s how …
Read more “Setting Up Utilities, Internet, and a Life in a Country That Doesn’t Speak Your Language”
I bought a house in Japan without speaking fluent Japanese. I can tell you exactly how that went: the purchase itself was fine. Living in the house afterward was where things got complicated. The buying process and the living process require different levels of language ability, and most guides about buying property in Japan blur …
Read more “The Language Barrier: How Much Japanese Do You Actually Need?”
The most common question I get from people interested in buying cheap property in Japan isn’t about property taxes or visa requirements or earthquake codes. It’s this: “How do I actually find someone who will help me do this?” It’s a fair question. The Japanese real estate system is efficient, well-regulated, and almost entirely designed …
Read more “Finding a Real Estate Agent Who Works with Foreigners”