.png)
What buying a house in Japan actually costs, and how the process works
Foreign buyers can own property in Japan outright. No residency, no citizenship, no special permission. What trips people up is not eligibility. It is the gap between the listing price and the money that actually leaves your account, and the fact that almost every document in the chain is in Japanese.
This is the part most listing sites skip. Here is how the numbers and the process actually work, so you can decide whether this is doable for you before you commit to anything.
What houses cost
Prices vary more by location than by condition. A vacant house two hours from a shinkansen station and a house in central Fukuoka are not the same market, and treating them as one is the most common mistake early buyers make.
Rural vacant houses: roughly 500,000 to 3,000,000 yen for the cheapest tier, often needing full renovation
Regional city houses in liveable condition: roughly 5,000,000 to 20,000,000 yen
Urban houses and condos in major cities: 20,000,000 yen and up, with Fukuoka new builds now averaging over 50,000,000 yen
The cheap end is cheap for a reason. A house listed at 500,000 yen is usually signalling that the seller expects the buyer to absorb a demolition or a rebuild.
To model a specific property against a specific budget, run the numbers in the free Japan Property Purchase Cost Calculator before you fall in love with a listing.
The costs on top of the price
Budget 6 to 10 percent of the purchase price in closing costs for a typical resale house, and more in percentage terms on very cheap properties, because several of these costs are flat fees rather than percentages.
Registration tax (toroku menkyozei). Charged on the assessed value, not the purchase price. Land transfer is 2 percent as standard, reduced to 1.5 percent under a measure now extended to March 2029. Buildings are 2 percent, reduced to 0.3 percent for qualifying residential houses.
Real estate acquisition tax (fudosan shutokuzei). A one-time prefectural tax, 4 percent as standard, reduced to 3 percent for land and residential buildings. Again assessed on the assessed value, which for an old rural house is often a small fraction of what you paid. Deductions can reduce this to zero on a modest property. It is not billed at closing. The prefecture sends the notice months later, so do not spend the money.
Judicial scrivener (shiho shoshi) fees. In practice a scrivener handles the title transfer registration. Expect roughly 50,000 to 150,000 yen plus the registration tax above. This is a real line item that almost no English-language guide mentions.
Stamp duty (inshizei). Paid on the sales contract itself. A few thousand yen at low price points, tens of thousands higher up.
Agent commission. The statutory maximum is 3 percent of the price plus 60,000 yen, plus 10 percent consumption tax on that figure. Since July 2024 there is an important exception for cheap houses: on properties at 8,000,000 yen or under, an agent may charge up to 330,000 yen including tax from each side. On a 1,000,000 yen house that is 33 percent of the price, not 3 percent. This rule exists because the old formula made cheap listings uneconomic for agents to handle at all. Knowing it exists is the difference between reading a quote as a scam and reading it correctly.
Fixed asset tax (kotei shisanzei). Roughly 1.4 percent of assessed value annually, plus a city planning tax of up to 0.3 percent in designated areas. Small residential land normally gets a one-sixth reduction. Be aware that a house formally designated as poorly managed or as a specified vacant house under the vacant house law can lose that reduction, which multiplies the annual bill.
Renovation. Highly variable and the number most often underestimated. Roof, foundation, plumbing, wiring, insulation, and termite damage are the usual suspects in a house that has sat empty. Local governments often offer renovation subsidies, commonly in the several hundred thousand to one million yen range, usually conditional on registering residency in the municipality.
The Akiya Property Viewing Checklist is built for this stage. It gives you the specific things to look at and photograph on a viewing so you can get a defensible renovation estimate rather than a hopeful one.
How the purchase actually works
A licensed agent (takken gyosha) is a normal and, for most transactions, a legally structured part of this process. The licensee is the party who prepares and delivers the explanation of important matters (juyo jiko setsumeisho) before contract, and that document is where the encumbrances, zoning limits, road access, and infrastructure problems surface. The goal is not to route around that. The goal is to understand it well enough to ask the right questions while you can still walk away.
Find properties. Municipal vacant house banks, Japanese portals, and local agents. Municipal banks list directly. Most other listings run through an agent.
Get the registry record. Request the tokiji jiko shomeisho (the modern form of what older guides call tokibotohon) from the Legal Affairs Bureau or the online registry service. It shows the registered owner, the land and building details, and any mortgage or lien. Note that Japanese registration does not carry a state guarantee of title, so it confirms what is recorded, not that the record is beyond dispute.
View the property. In person if at all possible. A remote purchase of an old house is a bet on photographs.
Make an offer. Usually a written purchase application (kaitsuke moshikomisho), not yet binding.
Receive and read the juyo jiko setsumeisho. This is the single highest-risk document for a foreign buyer, because it is dense, technical, Japanese-only, and delivered shortly before signing. Reconnection costs for water and sewer, unbuildable-plot status, and shared private road access all live here.
Sign the contract (baibai keiyakusho) and pay the deposit. Typically 5 to 10 percent.
Settle and register. Pay the balance, and the scrivener files the transfer at the Legal Affairs Bureau on the same day.
Handle the tax follow-up. File the acquisition report with the prefecture within the window it specifies, and expect the fixed asset tax bill to follow based on ownership as of 1 January.
The Due Diligence Kit covers steps 2 and 5, which is where the money-losing surprises cluster.
What is different if you are not a resident
Ownership is unrestricted, with one narrow exception: land near defence installations, border islands, and other designated areas falls under the Important Land Survey Act and can require notification or review.
The practical friction is elsewhere:
Address and identity proof. Registration normally uses a juminhyo, which you do not have as a non-resident. The standard workaround is a notarized affidavit of address, often executed at a Japanese embassy or consulate.
Tax administrator (nozei kanrinin). If you do not live in Japan, you must appoint someone in Japan to receive and handle your tax correspondence. Without this, the fixed asset tax notices go nowhere and you accrue arrears.
Financing. Most Japanese banks will not lend to non-residents. Some products exist for residents with certain statuses, but the terms often hinge on residence status rather than income. Assume cash unless you have confirmed otherwise.
Power of attorney. If you cannot attend settlement, a notarized POA is required.
Rental income. Taxable in Japan, and payments to a non-resident landlord are generally subject to 20.42 percent withholding at source unless a specific exemption applies.
If short-term rental is part of your plan, the Airbnb Reality Guide covers the minpaku 180-day cap, the licensing routes around it, and what the platform fee structure actually leaves you.
Where to start
If you are still deciding whether this is realistic at all, start with the free Should You Buy an Akiya? decision tool. It takes a few minutes and is designed to talk some people out of it.
If you have a prefecture in mind, the market reports cover one region at a time in depth, including price direction, access, hazard exposure, and rental yield data: Fukuoka, Kumamoto, and Miyazaki.
If you have decided you are doing this and want the whole process in one place, The Akiya Guide is the 358-page version of everything above, with the document walkthroughs, worksheets, and the Japanese-to-English glossary you will need when the paperwork arrives.
Comments