You found a house. It’s cheap. It’s in Otaru. The photos show tatami floors, a small garden, and what might be water damage in the ceiling of the second bedroom. You want to buy it. Now what? The Japanese property purchase process is more formal than the American one in some ways and simpler in …
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No. I could end the article there, but the follow-up question is where everyone trips. So let me say it plainly: you do not need a visa, residency status, or Japanese citizenship to buy property in Japan. You can fly in as a tourist, sign a contract, wire the money, and fly home as the …
Akiya (空き家) means empty house. That’s the literal translation — 空 (empty/sky) and 家 (house/home). The word itself is mundane. Every language has a term for a vacant property. What makes the Japanese version different is the scale. As of the 2023 Housing and Land Survey, Japan has approximately 9 million akiya. Nine million empty …
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Less than a used car. Sometimes less than a very used car. I bought my house in Otaru for under $30,000. That number is real, not a hook. It’s a three-bedroom wood-frame house on its own lot in a residential neighborhood thirty-five minutes by train from Sapporo, the fifth-largest city in Japan. The median home …
Yes. That’s the short answer, and unlike most countries in Asia, it really is that simple. Japan is one of the most open real estate markets in the world for foreign buyers. No citizenship requirement. No residency requirement. No reciprocity clause. No foreign ownership caps. No special permits. An American, a Nigerian, a Brazilian, a …
The story of how a forgotten Hokkaido location becomes an internationally recognized property market has already happened once, close enough to Otaru to be instructive.