Community Case Studies

Purchase Process: Komoro

<aside> 💡 it is possible to purchase property as a foreigner on any kind of visa (including tourist visas)

</aside>

Good starting point for pitfalls:

1. Individuals or corporations of any country can directly own property in Japan without special parperwork, licenses, or Japanese entities
2. Buying and owning a property in Japan does not give you a visa to live in there
3. This article does a great job of highlighting all the potential pitfalls (tho I prefer a more optimistic approach)

https://www.quora.com/Can-Foreigners-claim-Japanese-Akiya-property

https://blog.gaijinpot.com/buy-abandoned-house-in-japan/

other resources

https://www.kalzumeus.com/2018/10/19/japanese-hometown-tax

https://www.kalzumeus.com/2014/11/07/doing-business-in-japan/

• @patio11 seems to be a good resource (wrote the posts above) and looks accessible via twiter

https://www.rethinktokyo.com/blog/2021/07/05/what-everyone-gets-wrong-about-akiya-japan/1625450443

• super interesting/informed take on akiyas (not all are abandoned, many are dream homes built by aging tokyo residents looking to move into nature. Then they get too old and move back to get care. Houses are well maintained, far from free but still much cheaper.

Sourcing takes ages as there isn’t a nationwide or even prefectural level databases of akiya listings - each city within each prefecture maintains and administers their own akiya bank. Since each municipality manages their own inventory, it isn’t as simple as searching a property portal. We have to go into each city’s akiya bank looking for the diamonds in the rough.

• from Akiya & Inaka