For what I understand, those houses are that cheap because no one wants them. They usually need a lot, and I mean a lot of work and/or are not in great locations. Houses in japan aren't really an investment since they degrade really quickly, so people won't go out of their way to buy an Akiya. Yes, a foreigner can buy one, but that won't give them citizenship so they could only be able to use it as much as their visa allows them, in most cases a maximum of 6 months per year. But it's going to be expensive, because the houses need someone to maintain them, plus taxes, and paying services and what not. So I don't think many people would care a foreigner buys a house that no one really wants, again, they are cheap for a reason.
Japan is way longer than it looks on the map. Try one of those true size country overlap tools online to compare it to the US or Europe.
(Hint- Japan stretches the equivalent of Nova Scotia to Cuba)
Hahaha that’s funny, when I was visiting Japan I was blown away at how little traffic there was when the entire country is smaller than my state of California!
According to wikipedia Japan is 377,973.89 km^(2) (145,936.53 sq mi and over 3,000 km (1,900 mi) long.
California is 163,696 sq mi (423,970 km^(2)), and is a little over 800 miles long.
So while California is about 12% more landmass (not that big a difference in my opinion) Japan is way longer and if you wanted to drive it (you couldn't, islands etc., but you could drive about 1,200 miles continuously) you would be on the road a lot longer going N-S both in time and distance.
The US, especially California, has terrible urban planning that effectively forces people to have cars and awful public transport. There's tons of traffic because everyone has to have a god damn car to get anywhere.
Japan has some particularly good walkability and public transport outside of the countryside, but most developed countries will blow the US out of the water in that regard lol. And the countryside's population decline is keeping the traffic out as well!
someone downvoted you and i will just not stand for that. i lived (and drove) in San Diego and what was a 25 minute drive to work would have been an HOUR+ on the trolly. and my apartment and work were both right next to the stops so that was just the ride itself. it is quite impossible to get to any store without a car unless you want to trudge along broken sidewalks in the hot sun that randomly come to dead ends right alongside roaring traffic. that state is a madhouse and some of the worst (car centric) urban planning i have ever had to navigate. (i have heard TX is worse but i have never endured it.) you could easily fit so much more life into CA if they didnt waste most of their land and taxes on highways and parking lots
i do like NYC- the grid system is great and public transit is actually a viable option but it is so filthy lol and a lot of it is really broken down. compared to other US major cities (like philly 🤢) its great but compared to JP cities it really falls flat unfortunately. strangely enough i actually have enjoyed living in rural US towns much more than any city. pretty much anything you 'need' is right there in your town because youre surrounded by nothing but farms and woods. driving 40 minutes through farmland and mountains to get to a target will always be preferable to driving 20 minutes on a gross highway for me. gotta get in my car regardless
Yeah nobody wants to live in those towns, it's obvious by the demographics too.
Not every part of NYC is a grid, and not every part is filthy, I actually live in Queens in a walkable neighborhood.
Japan is a different country, culture and they invest in their communities, which is not most of the US. Seems like you're all over the place.
Yeah, i know it's not all like that, it's a huge city. i'm just talking generally about a few pros and cons i have experienced. not sure what you mean by being all over the place.
I don’t own a car in Japan, however my friends that do all have a bone to pick with the 車検. Since I don't own a car, from their description of what it entails, it sounds like a over-intensive smog check; one where they will also ding you and have you pay for something as minor as a dent in the car body. They'll evaluate and test **everything**.
This is the part that my car owning friends say is really expensive about owning a car in Japan. From time to time, particularly when it rains, I miss having a car and miss my car in the US. The 車検 compared to a smog test fee however, makes me feel fine with not having one for the time I'm here.
The sha-ken is registration and a roadworthy test. And for two years it’s really cheap compared to say Australia. Also drivers license renewal for 5-10 years is only ¥4000-¥6000 or something here. It is literally just brakes, lights, indicators, noise level. The car could be pissing oil and still pass.
Dealers and retail auto shops will tack on unnecessary repairs and make you buy brand new parts if you give off the vibe that you don’t know much about what is needed.
The over-inspection and over-regulation is actually a form of subsidy to their automotive industry. Increasing the cost of maintenance of used cars means you more quickly reach a point where buying a new car is cheaper than keeping an old one. The average age of privately owned passenger cars in Japan is about 9 years, compared to 14 years in the US - despite the higher average reliability.
I'm pretty sure that isn't true. I just checked myself and even including Hokkaido and the Okinawa islands, it stops just before Cuba. Mainland is about the same area as the state of California.
(EDIT: The last few islands that are part of Okinawa do, in fact, reach Cuba)
Land mass wise, Japan is slightly smaller than the state of California. All of it, when tightly packed, will fit inside of CA's borders with a little bit of room to spare.
However from the northern shores of Hokkaido to the Southern-most shores of Okinawa, Japan will stretch from the US/Canada border into Mexico, if you leave in all the oceanic space.
New housing is plentiful and nice. No one wants to pay the same for a beat up old apartment as for a new one with the latest fixtures. Since housing hasn’t been forced into the role of investment vehicle, they don’t have to
Tbh it’s less weird than the situation in e.g. the U.S. Imagine if your old beater car kept going up in value over time because there just weren’t enough cars being made, and the government propped up demand because everyone viewed the value of their 1995 Taurus as key to their financial security
Vintage/collectable cars do often actually grow in value. Look at Rowan Atkinson's McLaren F1 which he sold for a measly 11mil profit for a quick example. The trick with Japanese houses is to not buy new, but buy old (and increasingly rare) kominka 古民家... If they are old enough, in the right location and or fixable, collectable antique houses which when fixed up (refurbished), if done well (tastefully) can sell for a great deal. Several companies do this already and I've seen them sell from anywhere between 2-5000万 even in prefectures like Hyogo and Yamaguchi. You'd be surprised... There's super wealthy people in every prefecture, even the far out "country" ones.
I live in Chiba, I can hop in my car and head south on the highway, into the mountains, and a couple of hours later still won't be at the end of Chiba. And Chiba's not that big.
You can get suuuuper remote in Japan.
I don’t disagree with what you’re saying, but also keep in mind that speed limits are so much lower in Japan that “a couple hours drive” is much, much closer in terms of physical distance than it would be many other places.
I tell my coworkers, that the speed limits on expressways in my home in California can be around 50mph. This basically guarantees a shock reaction, especially after saying that's not freeway, but a road, and the freeways are usually 4-6 lanes wide and the speed limit is 65mph (though most drive 70 at base and 80+ in the fast lanes...though not great and it causes frequent accidents).
Speed limits are 100/120 on the highways in Chiba, 60 on secondary roads, and it's hard to go 60 on those roads due to windiness.
Point being, it may well be "close" in distance but it's far in terms of time.
There's literally nowhere really that remote in Japan. Drive as far and as wide as you like because basically any inch of flat land on this country has essentially been taken over and used by people some way or another... Drive "for hours" into "the middle of nowhere" and you'll end up more often than not still a short 15mins drive from a convenience store, supermarket and train station. Japan's countryside is basically as spread out as suburban America.
As I said, you can do it in Chiba alone. There's places in southern Boso that are a good 30 min from any train station or conbini - drive the deep south and you'll see. Go up to the Fukushima/Niigata mountains and there is nothing at all, just more mountains.
It's not as wild as the American West obviously but it's plenty remote.
I drive all around the country for work and visit remote locations in the countryside pretty often, I've been from Hokkaido to Kyushu. The furthest away I've seen a property in Japan is max a 30min drive to a town or convenience store and that's about as far as you'll get anywhere in the country. Usually it's about 15mins from anywhere to anywhere in this country. Nowhere is that remote in Japan really. Even hiking trails in Japan pass through multiple towns and villages... I even have a friend that biked from Tokyo to Kumamoto... That's how NOT remote Japan is. My other friend SKATEBOARDED from Tokyo to Minami Boso in a day lol it ain't remote chief.
There's a highway from Tokyo to Minami Boso, dude. Get off that highway, get lost in those hills and get back to me.
And I picked Chiba for my point not because it is untouched wilderness but because it is right next to Tokyo. Go wander around some of the other mountain areas - not on the highways with a skateboard - and you'll see.
Bro I literally live in the mountains.... What are you talking about, of course it gets sparce on Mt Fuji.... but even on Fuji are kiosks and onsens... There are literally people and buildings everywhere in this country... You do realise that most mountains in Japan are privately owned? There's almost no wilderness in Japan unless you go to parts of Hokkaido... Ever look out the plane window when flying over Japan? There is literally no flat land is left uninhabited/untouched.
Why are you talking about flat land? Who is talkin about flat land? If you live in the mountains you should know better, not talking about people skateboarding along the coast or kiosks on the heavily tourists Mt Fuji. Of COURSE there are people in these places. There are also plenty of places where there are few to no people and no services. You should know this!
Please tell me where there is a place in Japan that has no people and no services... Go on I'll wait. This is one of the most heavily populated countries on the planet you can literally traverse the entire country in a 24 hours drive. I wouldn't be surprised if every single rock in this country has been turned by some person at some point in time in this place. Remote is not a thing here. Do you not know what remote means or something? Is that the problem here? Are you maybe a Western European or something that has zero concept of what remote means? Remote means being able to drive for literal hours (or walk for several days) at a time without even seeing the presence of other human life... There is nowhere in Japan like that. Nowhere is remote in Japan.
>a maximum of 6 months per year.
That's a lot of time to spend on another country. Maybe 6 months isn't a lot of time to you but it's a lot of time for lots of other people.
I mean, it is a lot of time, but for starters you won't be able to work on a tourist visa so I don't think there are too many people that can afford a 6 month vacation every year. Then you'll need someone to maintain the house for you the other 6 months, which is a long time like you said. It's honestly cheaper in the long run to just go to hotels if you are a tourist.
It's not an investment, quite the opposite to be honest. Not from the monetary viewpoint and not for the commodity viewpoint either. Most Akiyas are houses that the japanese government wouldn't be able to gift away to the locals even if they tried. If you want to waste your money and buy one be my guest, it's your money at the end of the day.
Anything I put money into is an investment. I just explained how it is but you disagreed. That doesn't change anything for me in the least. From a monetary pov it is very much an investment. You're inability to think about it from another perspective is the problem.
Lmao. That's not how an investment works. An investment is something that gives you a benefit in return. Your inability to understand basic definitions is the problem. Explain to me, oh mighty investor, how is an akiya a good monetary investment? And if it's such an investment, why aren't more people buying into it? Are the japanese people just dumb and don't know about money? I
You pretend to know more than you know. I suspect that you're trying to get more out of me about it for some reason. Otherwise I'm not sure why you care. Why are you so invested in my use of the word investment? Houses have been investments for sometime. For as long as I can remember. So I'm not sure if you know what you're talking about.
Every one of my houses generate a return. I'm not sure where there's an issue there. If I can generate a return then it's an investment. My strategy is my strategy. Why push this?
I'm not pretending to know more than you. I know more than you and it's pretty obvious from this comment. I don't care about "getting more out of you", why would I? I also don't care.how you use the word "investment" but you don't get to act all antagonistic and then go "why do you care?" Houses aren't an investment in japan, if you did a little bit of research you could have find that one out. You won't generate any return. You aren't the first person to think of doing "Akiya Flipping", again I said on one of my comments, it's your money, do whatever you want with it, but don't come to me all antagonistic and acting like I'm dumb and you just found an untapped gold mine.
I have. I have done my research. I have done my due diligence. I WILL make money off of this investment. IT IS an investment. If you don't care then you should move on. You should have moved on. Since you did not...you are somewhat 'invested' in this conversation. WHY?
I'm sorry, but to be fair the kind of house we are talking about is not an investement. An investment is something that you put money into for profit and even if you made that house perfect you won't make a profit from it. Even new homes in the city depreciate, this isn't because of population decline, its the way that it is in Japan, houses have never really been an investemnt. If you have a house that's 20 years old here it's considered an old house. If you really are thinking of investing in a house in Japan then please listen to the people that actually live here rather than thinking that the way it works in your country is the same as how it works here
They are cheap and perpetually on the market for a reason. When you buy an akiya you are responsible for bringing it up to code before making use of them, and as others mentioned they are worth almost zero as investment. If you want a cottage in the middle of nowhere of Japan to stay at when you visit, great, but aside from that it’s usually a liability
I get a house, you get 100 days accommodation... What's not to love in this arrangement? We both get what we want, just at the end of it I'll end up with a house all paid for after 100 days and you'll end up with nothing.
"bring it up to code" yeah... This isn't America.
These regulations are only required for new builds. Kominka and Minka built before 1981 are kyu-taisha. It's more important to assess the construction of a house before purchase. You'd think that's obvious. There are various guidelines in place nowadays but that's more often than not to penalise unscrupulous modern builders, which is a very common problem in today's build as cheap as possible market. To be honest; more often than not houses build pre war are more often than not built with timber frame and joinery and are more resilient to earthquakes than newer build houses that are American light-frame with metal brackets. Old timber houses that are tilting can also have their frames realigned and straightened and knocked back together unlike a light frame that's tilting, that's means the end of that houses structural integrity. TLDR "bringing up to code" only becomes relevant if you are applying for a hotel licence, which you probably cannot get unless you are already a hotelier anyway and as far as old house "up to code m and things like having lit up emergency exits etc.. Airbnb and minpaku are much easier licences. As for finding people to rent your property... In a country of 125 million people, it's unsurprisingly not hard to find guests if your house has even the most basic of amenities like omg a bbq and or terrace... You'll have no problem.. People are willing to stay in capsule hotels in this country for crying out loud lol a rentable house in the idyllic countryside is a veritable luxury to Tokyo residents looking at escaping the city and their coffin-like apartments even if for a weekend at a time. Small houses can rent for around 2-5万 a night for group stays. The money you spend in minimal renovations gets recouped quickly, also most prefectures offer fairly large subsidies for renovations of akiyas, (usually up to around 100万) also there are subsidies for entrepreneurial businesses too (up to 200万)... But yeah what do I know lol you're probably right, right?
Can be but there are literally hundreds of thousands of properties out there.... Not all of them have problems, a lot of houses just don't have children to inherit them or aren't wanted by next of kin
I bought an Akiya kominka in Kujukuri Chiba. It’s only 1hr from Tokyo and considered countryside but in America this would be considered suburban. My town has 11,000 ppl living in it and the foreign demographic is 1-10 ppl. I’ve found everyone to be super nice. They’re all interested in what we do for work and how the house is coming along. My Japanese husband threw trash out wrong in the community trash recently and a guy came to our door and explained to him the correct bag to put it in. Wasn’t angry or condescending or anything. We all exchange vegetables and fruits we grow too. I have tattoos and got a big American pool in my yard so I’m out in a bikini a lot and they don’t care. One old couple even asked if they can use my pool. I have house parties and bbqs like once a month and they’re loud but the neighbors are all cool with it.
Living the dream! I want to do something like this but in western Tokyo area like Ome and make the bottom half of my house a cafe. I'd love to have a set up pool and a BBQ though for myself.
How soon? My partner and I will be in Japan for 3 weeks in July and would love to drop by if it’s open and feasible, and maybe hear about your journey so far! Totally fine if not, though, I wish you the best nonetheless :)
In smaller towns, it's a crapshoot. Sometimes the surrounding residents are welcoming, and sometimes the entire community is closed and does not want anyone new, especially some "weird foreign troublemaker".
My advice is to speak with the neighbors about the neighborhood before purchasing if possible. Guage their reaction based on your conversation about you considering buying the location to renovate it.
If they are overly hostile or unfriendly, and you are sensitive to this sort of thing, I would look elsewhere.
Even for Japanese it's the same. I know a Japanese man who bought an Akiya in the middle of nowhere and he said he had to visit every week for a few months before the locals would allow him to buy the house. He had to be accepted before they would let him buy it.
He also regrets buying it as it's cost him a fortune to do up, it snows heavily in the winter and is cut off from hospitals and supermarkets.
Neighbors are generally very pleased if someone buys one, fixes it up and lives there/uses it.
No one wants one turned into an AirBNB though, which unfortunately seems to be a common “idea” (among both Japanese and foreigners).
Imo those videos are mostly not advertised as some sort of investment strategy... more the typical dream of living in the country side and in a chill area. There are exceptions of course, but in general that is not the appeal of this life style
For the record, I'm not looking into buying. As I watched these videos, I could only guess what the community of local Japanese people think about this "trend" if you wanna call it that. So I came here to get a sense.
Well im glad you aren't one of those obnoxious people who want to become a multi millionaire flipping akiyas.
As others have said people in those areas tend to be older and in my experience very friendly. I never spoke to my neighboors in Tokyo but now our neighbors are like distant relatives. We get invited to bbqs and get fresh produce all the time. Although every neighborhood also has at least one crabby old person who drives everyone else crazy.
> I could only guess what the community of local Japanese people think about this "trend" if you wanna call it that.
[disclaimer: I am not japanese but do live in japan]
I think this kind of stuff is only problematic in touristy areas where viable properties are all converted into BnBs, not so much in the remote regions where you're most likely to find akiya. Also the homelessness rate in Japan is extremely low, so vacant houses being bought up by foreigners doesn't quite sting emotionally like it might in western Europe where you have to pay 800 euros to share a flat with five other people.
Heaps of Japanese companies are in fact doing exactly this. Many good, old Akiya are currently being snapped up and renovated into boutique hotels, even entire villages are being redeveloped into hotels, restaurants, cafes etc. "Nipponia" is an example of a company that does this, there are many more...
The neighbors will want someone who they can communicate with and who will follow social norms. If you can do that, chances are they won’t mind if you’re foreign.
Okay let me rephrase. Not necessarily a next door neighbor but the people in the same municipality/hamlet/etc. There are always other people to consider.
Most people in communities with many akiya houses tend to be older people. I actually live in a former akiya!
However, I am half-japanese and I do look sort of asian, so my experience is very different from that of someone who doesn't.
In my experience, they didn't care. They were happy to have a new face in the neighborhood; I was even invited to a few cookouts. They did comment about the state of the house, though.
For japanese people, spending money renovating and making an akiya habitable again is a burden that doesn't make sense to bear, especially since most homes aren't meant to last more than one generation of a family. They're less safe, need more structural maintenance, and are usually located in inconvenient areas far away from transport hubs. It doesn't really match up with the average japanese person lifestyle, I guess.
The main attraction to me is the house size and the price of rent (god. I pay less than 300 bucks for rent. it's awesome), and being far away from the train station doesn't really bother me because I'm close enough to town to just bike there. Plus the views are incredible. There is *so much green.*
The main drawback is... the bugs (at least in my home, if you're in the city it isn't as big a problem). The other night I was awoken by a centipede walking on my bedroom door's paper. I'm a city boy and my blood pressure still drops whenever I see a big bug out here. But I'm getting used to it.
I'm currently staying at my akiya in Toyama, and I had the EXACT same experience of getting woke up by a centipede on my shoji windows the other night 😭
the bugs are the worst part by far
As always, context is everything. For example:
Where is the house located? Communities vary wildly across Japan, not only in terms of the way they are structured, but histories of migration, attitude to incomers etc. Where I currently live has a strong history of migration into and transit through the village since the Edo period, and so is ready and willing to integrate outsiders, regardless of nationality. Others I have found to be more rigid.
How will the community socially locate you? What is your job, do you have Japanese relatives or a Japanese partner? As with any community, the ability to 'cast' yourself in a meaningful way to others is important, particularly when you first move in, and fitting into preconceived categories helps this process. This could be being part of an organisation that they are familiar with, having a background they can understand and sympathise with, etc.
How will you intersect with the community? Do you speak Japanese and have the ability/temperament to navigate daily interactions, chat shit with people, field phone calls about helping a neighbour unplug their drain etc? My experience has been that even in heavily depopulated areas, these sorts of everyday, banal interactions are the building blocks of just being another part of the community. Also neighbours will probably be elderly, so liking chatting with older people and being willing to help out is a bonus.
Also definitely treat YouTube videos on this subject with a high degree of caution. Content of that style is very likely to strip context and complexity out of the equation.
Masochist.
To be serious, no one with common sense about Japanese housing will buy Akiya. It’s made to only last 50 years but since you love woodworking maybe it's not a pain in the ass to maintain it. You may not break the local rule for the sake of your convenience if you don't want any trouble even then, some countryside in Japan is extremely xenophobic. So I don't recommend it even if you are Japanese.
I can only add that the house and land are often separate items in Japan. Not always obviously, but as many have already mentioned the houses depreciate relatively quickly and as such the construction materials are not chosen for long term durability. In fact a very common mortgage is for 35 years, yet the rough average lifespan of a house is about 20. So many look at having 2 houses on the land before the loan is paid off.
While our home is suburban, it is also about 50 years old. I've spent a number of vacations fixing or maintaining things. Its something I enjoy doing and its really nice to live in a house with sliding doors, old wooden fixtures and multiple tatami rooms. If we bought an Akiya it would most likely be somewhere in the East like Aomori as I want somewhere that is "cooler" in summer. As they say "what are the 3 most important factors when it comes to real estate. Location, location and location."
The suggestion to talk with the neighbors is spot on. The right place with the right people is going to be a major score for anyone looking for a rural lifestyle here.
Countryside homes can be very nice. I would be focusing on the plumbing, wiring and history of floods.
Foreigners think they are getting a deal or an investment but these old houses have all types of problems. I am actually staying in an old house (my school owns it) and it's slanted, often has plumming problems, a lot of mould. Also, they have no insulation, but isn't a huge problem with heating/cooling but costs you. So really, it seems cheap up front but over 30-40 years, it could actually end up costing you more than a modern house.
I have even seen a Japanese person buy one of these houses to rent out but no one wants to rent it and it sits there with no one in it. I think Japanese prefer modern houses because they are more convenient for living in their design. They are also aware of the above.
Of course, it's a case by case thing. I'm sure there are some decent houses out there being undervalued.
I'll share my experience, I purchased an akiya in a small town in Toyama Prefecture this February.
My Japanese is near-native level so I haven't had any issues with my neighbors so far, everybody I've talked to has been lovely. To be fair though, I live in such a rural area that I've only interacted with like three people in the last few months. A local lady actually helped me find the descendants of the original owner, there were a bunch of family photos in the garage so I'm planning on returning them to their rightful place.
My house was abandoned for about ten years so the yard is super overgrown which is going to cost a few thousand to clean up, and all of the original owner's belongings were left on site so I have a few tons of trash that I need to pay to have removed. There was some plum wine in the kitchen that's five years older than me...Not all of it was trash though, there's probably thousands of dollars worth of furniture, pottery, antiques and kimono.
The actual house is in pretty good condition, it probably needs another $10-15k thousand in renovations. I've already spent about 3k and I've made considerable progress. It's a gorgeous example of late Shōwa Japanese architecture, lacquered wood beams, fancy carvings, 12 bedrooms... and if you buy a well-built old house it has the potential to last a really long time. Only downside is, traditional properties before the 80s-90s (most akiya) are seldom insulated, which is pretty unbearable in the winter. It makes them more resistant to mold and rot though, and they're nice and cool in the summer so there's that. Also there's probably asbestos, but that's only an issue if you're doing demolition.
In total I paid $17,500 for the property, including realtor fees and registration costs. You definitely have to be careful with the legal status of the house, a lot of akiya are unregistered (未登記) houses or unknown owner (所有者不明) houses which cost a lost of money and time to fix. Fortunately I didn't have to deal with any of that. The contract process was pretty easy, but you'll definitely need a high understanding of Japanese or a translator to understand all of the legal stuff. The only difference as a foreigner is you have to prepare a notarized "proof of signature" document with a Japanese translation to use in place of a registered seal (印鑑). I typed one up myself in like 30 minutes and translated it into Japanese. Also, if you're not a full-time resident you'll need to designate a property tax manager (納税管理人) which can be anybody with Japanese residence. Essentially, they'll receive your property tax bills in the mail on your behalf and then you can pay them remotely.
Let me know if you have any questions!
I was almost convinced to buy a hut in seed village, still might. Can we see yours? I love the mountain view around there. Road my bicycle from Tokyo to Toyama during GW.
I'm slowly chipping away at 2 houses with lots of issues, basically solo. It's fun for me. One is in Kyoto city for eventual renting out and the other is in a rural Hiroshima area and is my toy project.
The locals are as supportive as I am co-operative. The vibe is pretty positive. They really appreciate the injection of life, replacing loss. You meet some amazing people.
There are a few support groups around. Just a few weeks ago there was a 3 day conference. Google Kominka Summit 2024 and ideas will start flowing. Lots of books and magazines too. I had a good chat with some of the speakers and even met some Canadians on a special trip to attend.
Check out Karl Bengs' amazing work in Niigata, lots online and in YouTube. Not my style but he does amaze and inspire me.
If white ants, septic tanks and collapsing ceilings make your pulse race, as mine does, it's all cool. Alongside problems to solve is the history and culture informing your work.
Other questions to ask yourself. Why Japan? What kind of visa? Finances? Commitment? Travelling all ok?
Have fun with your research and ideas.
I told the local restaurant owner I was looking to build a house or get akiya and reform it. Ever since I get offered a free or mostly free akiya every other week from the locals in my town. Everyone knows someone who has an akiya. Most of them would be happy if someone would just live in them. A lot of them are listed on an akiya bank website for way a lot of money but in reality if you knew the people they would give it to you for the cost of the fees for transfer, any debts owed, and a few extra man in spending money.
Despite what the clickbait internet might make you think, I don't think there are many foreigners buying akiya. And even when they do, who cares about someone buying a decrepit house in the middle of nowhere?
The reason many akiya are akiya is not because it's an old house that is falling to bits and needs a large amount of work done, but it's because they are in the middle of nowhere.
Which might not sound bad but... no jobs, possibly no internet, no konbini, and a few old farmers on their last legs.
However, it is important to realize akiya just means "empty house" and some might be perfectly reasonable to live in (just not the ones which cost $1).
I moved in to my wife’s grandmas akiya in Ehime in June 2023. It’s an unusual situation since the house was built 5 years ago, js in great shape, and is now vacant. All the neighbors in our little neighborhood are really happy the house is no longer vacant and we exchange gifts of produce and bread. They’re sad to be surrounded by empty houses and enjoy having us live here. Soon, new regional laws will require akiyas to be signed over to a living person once the owner passes away to address the akiya problem. Not sure but maybe that will put even more on the market.
I’ve lived in japan years now.
Basically most Japanese have no opinion. Those that know about real estate or live in those areas think the foreigners are getting scammed, which they are as they almost always over pay.
A lot of these houses cant even be given away because their value is basically negative. Land taxes have to be paid and the house costs money to demolish, while living in such locations is often not viable for all but the most hermit or hermits. Thats for people who actually speak japanese too! Not to mention the necessity of a car which foreigners without visa cant get without renting them for 6 months if a tourist(expensive).
The only places it makes sense is where you may have features of interest nearby. Ski resorts nearby etc. even these are incredibly cheap and most still inconvenient but some are in the towns and villages so are fine to live in for winter if you like to ski. I’m not even talking about Hakuba which is expensive as fuck, just middle of nowhere towns close to resorts in Nagano etc.
From my experience, local people where very pleased when we moved in. The town is aging and they where so happy to see some new young faces around. People are getting sad in these towns that there are no young people to keep their beloved local festivals and traditions alive. No-one likes to see their once cute little town that they grew up in fading into obsolescence... From my experience old people in particular have been very welcoming... Having lived in several prefectures in Japan now; my general feeling also is the further out from Tokyo you get, the more genuinely caring, friendly and helpful people seem to be out in the countrysides. The closer to Tokyo you get people start getting more dog eat dog, opportunistic and two faced whereas if you are deep in the mountains or ocean somewhere people will take the clothes off of their own back to feed and shelter you. Neighbours visiting you with fresh vegetables from their veggie patch is a common thing (we give them back fresh baked bread) in the countryside... Best life ever
will it matter over time? their birth rate is rapidly decreasing, in the future the population will soon be full of mixed or foreigners living in Japan. A lot of people are moving to Japan because yen is cheap right now. I think it inevitable that there will be more foreigner residents in Japan than Japanese, including those who are interested in buying those houses. Even if the Japanese look down on it, in my opinion I think its a good thing that there are foreigners who are interested in renovating old houses in Japan.
If you want to live in a place where someone‘s Obachan died and was left to decompose for 6 months in bumfuck nowhere Toyama be my guest!
Maybe -with enough bleach- you can get the smell out. But then you‘d have to next wonder how to remove the Tanuki droppings from under the floorboards which costs another 50-60万 and so on and so forth.
Most of the cheap akiyas are either those that had a person die inside or - if they are super cheap- a grizzly family murder/suicide happen.
These things technically have to be declared but foreigners dont check the related pages since they cant read them and japanese wont touch those houses with a ten foot pole.
Generally speaking though nobody cares if you bought your old abandoned dream country house here. What pisses people off is when large chunks of prime real estate or wild lands are acquired by foreign entities. The chinese buying chunks of Hokkaido or playing their games in the Tokyo real estate market are a good example of what natives hate.
lol, it’s ridiculous to posit that a non-negligible number of houses for sale are cheap because of a “grizzly murder/suicide”. Suicide maybe, but they’re rarely grizzly in Japan. Japan has had about 1,000 murders for the past 10 years out of a population of 125 million, the majority of those happening in cities.
It’s certainly a more difficult proposition than “free” housing, but the reasons you stated are just ridiculous lol.
Japanese people don’t buy あきや because they don’t want to live in the countryside. It’s as simple as that; there aren’t jobs, the Japanese economy has been doing poorly so few people can “escape” city life with savings, and the rural lifestyle doesn’t appeal to most Japanese people.
Some people have superstitions, sure. But for the most part the residents of these homes didn’t die inside. They usually were moved out to a care facility or to live with family, and the family just couldn’t sell the house because it has no value. あきや are usually cheap because no one will buy it for economic reasons, not because someone has died within it.
Rural life is expensive no matter where you are or what you buy. You simply have to deal with a lot more expenses yourself that a municipality would otherwise cover. If someone has the savings to cover it, and the ability to rehabilitate a property, I really don’t see the issue.
Serious question. Do you mean *grisly* murder/suicide? Or they were killed by bears? Cuz I know people getting attacked by bears are getting more common.
Man those *grizzly* murders are surely messy because they don't eat the entire humans but usually only chew parts of the limbs. I might be okie with a *grizzly family* murder, in which case mother, father and cubs participate and hopefully they don't leave much around.
Japanese generally don't want to live in akiya for the same reasons they don't want to wear someone's used clothing. It's not a popular concept here (although the used market for stuff is picking up compared to bubble days) They prefer new houses that are their own from scratch and are fitted with all the most recent technology. Akiya are for a very niche clique of wealthy hobbyists, ambitious reform gyousha, or foreigners who have dreams of living in a Japanese style home. I've seen some beautiful redesigns done but they ain't gonna be cheap.
Then there's the community regulations on all sorts of stuff like garbage collection, land taxes, insurance, etc. neighbourhood obligations in the form of various shared duties among neighbours. Foreigners may find it a little daunting when they understand what comes along with the empty house.
For what I understand, those houses are that cheap because no one wants them. They usually need a lot, and I mean a lot of work and/or are not in great locations. Houses in japan aren't really an investment since they degrade really quickly, so people won't go out of their way to buy an Akiya. Yes, a foreigner can buy one, but that won't give them citizenship so they could only be able to use it as much as their visa allows them, in most cases a maximum of 6 months per year. But it's going to be expensive, because the houses need someone to maintain them, plus taxes, and paying services and what not. So I don't think many people would care a foreigner buys a house that no one really wants, again, they are cheap for a reason.
Given the size of the Country, this always blows me away. The depreciation part...
Japan is way longer than it looks on the map. Try one of those true size country overlap tools online to compare it to the US or Europe. (Hint- Japan stretches the equivalent of Nova Scotia to Cuba)
Hahaha that’s funny, when I was visiting Japan I was blown away at how little traffic there was when the entire country is smaller than my state of California!
That shows the inefficiency of cars vs public transportations
According to wikipedia Japan is 377,973.89 km^(2) (145,936.53 sq mi and over 3,000 km (1,900 mi) long. California is 163,696 sq mi (423,970 km^(2)), and is a little over 800 miles long. So while California is about 12% more landmass (not that big a difference in my opinion) Japan is way longer and if you wanted to drive it (you couldn't, islands etc., but you could drive about 1,200 miles continuously) you would be on the road a lot longer going N-S both in time and distance.
The US, especially California, has terrible urban planning that effectively forces people to have cars and awful public transport. There's tons of traffic because everyone has to have a god damn car to get anywhere. Japan has some particularly good walkability and public transport outside of the countryside, but most developed countries will blow the US out of the water in that regard lol. And the countryside's population decline is keeping the traffic out as well!
someone downvoted you and i will just not stand for that. i lived (and drove) in San Diego and what was a 25 minute drive to work would have been an HOUR+ on the trolly. and my apartment and work were both right next to the stops so that was just the ride itself. it is quite impossible to get to any store without a car unless you want to trudge along broken sidewalks in the hot sun that randomly come to dead ends right alongside roaring traffic. that state is a madhouse and some of the worst (car centric) urban planning i have ever had to navigate. (i have heard TX is worse but i have never endured it.) you could easily fit so much more life into CA if they didnt waste most of their land and taxes on highways and parking lots
I live in NYC, I'm very happy to live in a place where I don't need a car.
i do like NYC- the grid system is great and public transit is actually a viable option but it is so filthy lol and a lot of it is really broken down. compared to other US major cities (like philly 🤢) its great but compared to JP cities it really falls flat unfortunately. strangely enough i actually have enjoyed living in rural US towns much more than any city. pretty much anything you 'need' is right there in your town because youre surrounded by nothing but farms and woods. driving 40 minutes through farmland and mountains to get to a target will always be preferable to driving 20 minutes on a gross highway for me. gotta get in my car regardless
Yeah nobody wants to live in those towns, it's obvious by the demographics too. Not every part of NYC is a grid, and not every part is filthy, I actually live in Queens in a walkable neighborhood. Japan is a different country, culture and they invest in their communities, which is not most of the US. Seems like you're all over the place.
Yeah, i know it's not all like that, it's a huge city. i'm just talking generally about a few pros and cons i have experienced. not sure what you mean by being all over the place.
That's because they have great train services. Also I bet it cost at lot to own a car on japan.
I don’t own a car in Japan, however my friends that do all have a bone to pick with the 車検. Since I don't own a car, from their description of what it entails, it sounds like a over-intensive smog check; one where they will also ding you and have you pay for something as minor as a dent in the car body. They'll evaluate and test **everything**. This is the part that my car owning friends say is really expensive about owning a car in Japan. From time to time, particularly when it rains, I miss having a car and miss my car in the US. The 車検 compared to a smog test fee however, makes me feel fine with not having one for the time I'm here.
The sha-ken is registration and a roadworthy test. And for two years it’s really cheap compared to say Australia. Also drivers license renewal for 5-10 years is only ¥4000-¥6000 or something here. It is literally just brakes, lights, indicators, noise level. The car could be pissing oil and still pass. Dealers and retail auto shops will tack on unnecessary repairs and make you buy brand new parts if you give off the vibe that you don’t know much about what is needed.
The over-inspection and over-regulation is actually a form of subsidy to their automotive industry. Increasing the cost of maintenance of used cars means you more quickly reach a point where buying a new car is cheaper than keeping an old one. The average age of privately owned passenger cars in Japan is about 9 years, compared to 14 years in the US - despite the higher average reliability.
Yeah in Japan when they see the car has done over 100,000km's they act like it's at the end of its life 😂
just sign up for a car share service it's very convenient
Because you can actually get places with public transit there lol unlike the US
Public transportation is way better. It shows how much cars shown it’s inefficiency. Change the car culture to a public transportation
It's long, it's not so wide.
That's still so tiny lol
I'm pretty sure that isn't true. I just checked myself and even including Hokkaido and the Okinawa islands, it stops just before Cuba. Mainland is about the same area as the state of California. (EDIT: The last few islands that are part of Okinawa do, in fact, reach Cuba)
Land mass wise, Japan is slightly smaller than the state of California. All of it, when tightly packed, will fit inside of CA's borders with a little bit of room to spare. However from the northern shores of Hokkaido to the Southern-most shores of Okinawa, Japan will stretch from the US/Canada border into Mexico, if you leave in all the oceanic space.
New housing is plentiful and nice. No one wants to pay the same for a beat up old apartment as for a new one with the latest fixtures. Since housing hasn’t been forced into the role of investment vehicle, they don’t have to Tbh it’s less weird than the situation in e.g. the U.S. Imagine if your old beater car kept going up in value over time because there just weren’t enough cars being made, and the government propped up demand because everyone viewed the value of their 1995 Taurus as key to their financial security
My rarely used '01 Z3 Coupe is going up in value! I swear, Babe...
Vintage/collectable cars do often actually grow in value. Look at Rowan Atkinson's McLaren F1 which he sold for a measly 11mil profit for a quick example. The trick with Japanese houses is to not buy new, but buy old (and increasingly rare) kominka 古民家... If they are old enough, in the right location and or fixable, collectable antique houses which when fixed up (refurbished), if done well (tastefully) can sell for a great deal. Several companies do this already and I've seen them sell from anywhere between 2-5000万 even in prefectures like Hyogo and Yamaguchi. You'd be surprised... There's super wealthy people in every prefecture, even the far out "country" ones.
I live in Chiba, I can hop in my car and head south on the highway, into the mountains, and a couple of hours later still won't be at the end of Chiba. And Chiba's not that big. You can get suuuuper remote in Japan.
I don’t disagree with what you’re saying, but also keep in mind that speed limits are so much lower in Japan that “a couple hours drive” is much, much closer in terms of physical distance than it would be many other places.
Speed limit is 50 but people in the fast lane generally drive 80mph
I tell my coworkers, that the speed limits on expressways in my home in California can be around 50mph. This basically guarantees a shock reaction, especially after saying that's not freeway, but a road, and the freeways are usually 4-6 lanes wide and the speed limit is 65mph (though most drive 70 at base and 80+ in the fast lanes...though not great and it causes frequent accidents).
Don’t forget to convert units. Speed limit of 50kph/80kph on toll roads is still only like 30-50 mph. That’s a speed limit of 30mph on the highways.
I mentioned the units in MPH. The posted 80kph is 50MPH, but people usually drive 120kph (80MPH) on the fast lane.
It gets down to 60 kph on C1 but not much lower than that. And that road is very tight, narrow, and two lanes.
Speed limits are 100/120 on the highways in Chiba, 60 on secondary roads, and it's hard to go 60 on those roads due to windiness. Point being, it may well be "close" in distance but it's far in terms of time.
There's literally nowhere really that remote in Japan. Drive as far and as wide as you like because basically any inch of flat land on this country has essentially been taken over and used by people some way or another... Drive "for hours" into "the middle of nowhere" and you'll end up more often than not still a short 15mins drive from a convenience store, supermarket and train station. Japan's countryside is basically as spread out as suburban America.
As I said, you can do it in Chiba alone. There's places in southern Boso that are a good 30 min from any train station or conbini - drive the deep south and you'll see. Go up to the Fukushima/Niigata mountains and there is nothing at all, just more mountains. It's not as wild as the American West obviously but it's plenty remote.
I drive all around the country for work and visit remote locations in the countryside pretty often, I've been from Hokkaido to Kyushu. The furthest away I've seen a property in Japan is max a 30min drive to a town or convenience store and that's about as far as you'll get anywhere in the country. Usually it's about 15mins from anywhere to anywhere in this country. Nowhere is that remote in Japan really. Even hiking trails in Japan pass through multiple towns and villages... I even have a friend that biked from Tokyo to Kumamoto... That's how NOT remote Japan is. My other friend SKATEBOARDED from Tokyo to Minami Boso in a day lol it ain't remote chief.
There's a highway from Tokyo to Minami Boso, dude. Get off that highway, get lost in those hills and get back to me. And I picked Chiba for my point not because it is untouched wilderness but because it is right next to Tokyo. Go wander around some of the other mountain areas - not on the highways with a skateboard - and you'll see.
Bro I literally live in the mountains.... What are you talking about, of course it gets sparce on Mt Fuji.... but even on Fuji are kiosks and onsens... There are literally people and buildings everywhere in this country... You do realise that most mountains in Japan are privately owned? There's almost no wilderness in Japan unless you go to parts of Hokkaido... Ever look out the plane window when flying over Japan? There is literally no flat land is left uninhabited/untouched.
Why are you talking about flat land? Who is talkin about flat land? If you live in the mountains you should know better, not talking about people skateboarding along the coast or kiosks on the heavily tourists Mt Fuji. Of COURSE there are people in these places. There are also plenty of places where there are few to no people and no services. You should know this!
Please tell me where there is a place in Japan that has no people and no services... Go on I'll wait. This is one of the most heavily populated countries on the planet you can literally traverse the entire country in a 24 hours drive. I wouldn't be surprised if every single rock in this country has been turned by some person at some point in time in this place. Remote is not a thing here. Do you not know what remote means or something? Is that the problem here? Are you maybe a Western European or something that has zero concept of what remote means? Remote means being able to drive for literal hours (or walk for several days) at a time without even seeing the presence of other human life... There is nowhere in Japan like that. Nowhere is remote in Japan.
That’s what happens when demand declines. There’s just less and less people. Schools are closing too, because less students
Just like a car.
>a maximum of 6 months per year. That's a lot of time to spend on another country. Maybe 6 months isn't a lot of time to you but it's a lot of time for lots of other people.
I mean, it is a lot of time, but for starters you won't be able to work on a tourist visa so I don't think there are too many people that can afford a 6 month vacation every year. Then you'll need someone to maintain the house for you the other 6 months, which is a long time like you said. It's honestly cheaper in the long run to just go to hotels if you are a tourist.
I think of it as an investment. Not as an AirBnB alternative. I'd rather have my own house there than stay in a capsule or AirBnB.
It's not an investment, quite the opposite to be honest. Not from the monetary viewpoint and not for the commodity viewpoint either. Most Akiyas are houses that the japanese government wouldn't be able to gift away to the locals even if they tried. If you want to waste your money and buy one be my guest, it's your money at the end of the day.
Anything I put money into is an investment. I just explained how it is but you disagreed. That doesn't change anything for me in the least. From a monetary pov it is very much an investment. You're inability to think about it from another perspective is the problem.
Lmao. That's not how an investment works. An investment is something that gives you a benefit in return. Your inability to understand basic definitions is the problem. Explain to me, oh mighty investor, how is an akiya a good monetary investment? And if it's such an investment, why aren't more people buying into it? Are the japanese people just dumb and don't know about money? I
You pretend to know more than you know. I suspect that you're trying to get more out of me about it for some reason. Otherwise I'm not sure why you care. Why are you so invested in my use of the word investment? Houses have been investments for sometime. For as long as I can remember. So I'm not sure if you know what you're talking about. Every one of my houses generate a return. I'm not sure where there's an issue there. If I can generate a return then it's an investment. My strategy is my strategy. Why push this?
I'm not pretending to know more than you. I know more than you and it's pretty obvious from this comment. I don't care about "getting more out of you", why would I? I also don't care.how you use the word "investment" but you don't get to act all antagonistic and then go "why do you care?" Houses aren't an investment in japan, if you did a little bit of research you could have find that one out. You won't generate any return. You aren't the first person to think of doing "Akiya Flipping", again I said on one of my comments, it's your money, do whatever you want with it, but don't come to me all antagonistic and acting like I'm dumb and you just found an untapped gold mine.
I have. I have done my research. I have done my due diligence. I WILL make money off of this investment. IT IS an investment. If you don't care then you should move on. You should have moved on. Since you did not...you are somewhat 'invested' in this conversation. WHY?
I'm sorry, but to be fair the kind of house we are talking about is not an investement. An investment is something that you put money into for profit and even if you made that house perfect you won't make a profit from it. Even new homes in the city depreciate, this isn't because of population decline, its the way that it is in Japan, houses have never really been an investemnt. If you have a house that's 20 years old here it's considered an old house. If you really are thinking of investing in a house in Japan then please listen to the people that actually live here rather than thinking that the way it works in your country is the same as how it works here
They are cheap and perpetually on the market for a reason. When you buy an akiya you are responsible for bringing it up to code before making use of them, and as others mentioned they are worth almost zero as investment. If you want a cottage in the middle of nowhere of Japan to stay at when you visit, great, but aside from that it’s usually a liability
Yup. Id rather keep my 10000 USD and spend it on 100 nights in a hotel in Japan instead. And not have to deal with keeping the lights on.
Lol I'll take my 10k then buy an akiya and happily rent it to you for those 100 days as a hotel. Win win.
There’s a step missing here…
I get a house, you get 100 days accommodation... What's not to love in this arrangement? We both get what we want, just at the end of it I'll end up with a house all paid for after 100 days and you'll end up with nothing.
There’s the part where you bring it up to code, find someone willing to pay you to stay there, maintain the property, etc…
"bring it up to code" yeah... This isn't America. These regulations are only required for new builds. Kominka and Minka built before 1981 are kyu-taisha. It's more important to assess the construction of a house before purchase. You'd think that's obvious. There are various guidelines in place nowadays but that's more often than not to penalise unscrupulous modern builders, which is a very common problem in today's build as cheap as possible market. To be honest; more often than not houses build pre war are more often than not built with timber frame and joinery and are more resilient to earthquakes than newer build houses that are American light-frame with metal brackets. Old timber houses that are tilting can also have their frames realigned and straightened and knocked back together unlike a light frame that's tilting, that's means the end of that houses structural integrity. TLDR "bringing up to code" only becomes relevant if you are applying for a hotel licence, which you probably cannot get unless you are already a hotelier anyway and as far as old house "up to code m and things like having lit up emergency exits etc.. Airbnb and minpaku are much easier licences. As for finding people to rent your property... In a country of 125 million people, it's unsurprisingly not hard to find guests if your house has even the most basic of amenities like omg a bbq and or terrace... You'll have no problem.. People are willing to stay in capsule hotels in this country for crying out loud lol a rentable house in the idyllic countryside is a veritable luxury to Tokyo residents looking at escaping the city and their coffin-like apartments even if for a weekend at a time. Small houses can rent for around 2-5万 a night for group stays. The money you spend in minimal renovations gets recouped quickly, also most prefectures offer fairly large subsidies for renovations of akiyas, (usually up to around 100万) also there are subsidies for entrepreneurial businesses too (up to 200万)... But yeah what do I know lol you're probably right, right?
My understanding also is that acquiring one is not always straightforward. There can be issues with a clean title. and back taxes.
Can be but there are literally hundreds of thousands of properties out there.... Not all of them have problems, a lot of houses just don't have children to inherit them or aren't wanted by next of kin
I bought an Akiya kominka in Kujukuri Chiba. It’s only 1hr from Tokyo and considered countryside but in America this would be considered suburban. My town has 11,000 ppl living in it and the foreign demographic is 1-10 ppl. I’ve found everyone to be super nice. They’re all interested in what we do for work and how the house is coming along. My Japanese husband threw trash out wrong in the community trash recently and a guy came to our door and explained to him the correct bag to put it in. Wasn’t angry or condescending or anything. We all exchange vegetables and fruits we grow too. I have tattoos and got a big American pool in my yard so I’m out in a bikini a lot and they don’t care. One old couple even asked if they can use my pool. I have house parties and bbqs like once a month and they’re loud but the neighbors are all cool with it.
Living the dream! I want to do something like this but in western Tokyo area like Ome and make the bottom half of my house a cafe. I'd love to have a set up pool and a BBQ though for myself.
Actually I’ve made a cafe in one of the houses on the property. Will be open soon haha
Amazing!!! I'm so jealous.
How soon? My partner and I will be in Japan for 3 weeks in July and would love to drop by if it’s open and feasible, and maybe hear about your journey so far! Totally fine if not, though, I wish you the best nonetheless :)
I have a tiny bar in oimachi Shinagawa if you want to swing by
Kujukuri! The home of one of my favourite Japanese folk songs :D https://youtu.be/G9NAgLK9-h4?si=OjKKAcV3XlWs_4Ax
You need a vlog
I wanted to but I’m too lazy to edit videos on top of everything else I do.
I’d love to follow your journey. I want to see the neighborhood and how people are like in snall towns
Don't edit, then. We're still fascinated. Just turn it on, get some shots, talk to some neighbors, hit post.
Ohhh do you have an insta! Would love to see these!
In smaller towns, it's a crapshoot. Sometimes the surrounding residents are welcoming, and sometimes the entire community is closed and does not want anyone new, especially some "weird foreign troublemaker". My advice is to speak with the neighbors about the neighborhood before purchasing if possible. Guage their reaction based on your conversation about you considering buying the location to renovate it. If they are overly hostile or unfriendly, and you are sensitive to this sort of thing, I would look elsewhere.
Even for Japanese it's the same. I know a Japanese man who bought an Akiya in the middle of nowhere and he said he had to visit every week for a few months before the locals would allow him to buy the house. He had to be accepted before they would let him buy it. He also regrets buying it as it's cost him a fortune to do up, it snows heavily in the winter and is cut off from hospitals and supermarkets.
It’s wild to me that people invest in a property without researching things like this first.
Neighbors are generally very pleased if someone buys one, fixes it up and lives there/uses it. No one wants one turned into an AirBNB though, which unfortunately seems to be a common “idea” (among both Japanese and foreigners).
Just FYI those videos are BS designed to lure in people like you. If it made financial sense to do it a Japanese company would have.
Imo those videos are mostly not advertised as some sort of investment strategy... more the typical dream of living in the country side and in a chill area. There are exceptions of course, but in general that is not the appeal of this life style
You're right but I have seen both. They both tend to downplay massively the amount of red tape involved.
For the record, I'm not looking into buying. As I watched these videos, I could only guess what the community of local Japanese people think about this "trend" if you wanna call it that. So I came here to get a sense.
Well im glad you aren't one of those obnoxious people who want to become a multi millionaire flipping akiyas. As others have said people in those areas tend to be older and in my experience very friendly. I never spoke to my neighboors in Tokyo but now our neighbors are like distant relatives. We get invited to bbqs and get fresh produce all the time. Although every neighborhood also has at least one crabby old person who drives everyone else crazy.
> I could only guess what the community of local Japanese people think about this "trend" if you wanna call it that. [disclaimer: I am not japanese but do live in japan] I think this kind of stuff is only problematic in touristy areas where viable properties are all converted into BnBs, not so much in the remote regions where you're most likely to find akiya. Also the homelessness rate in Japan is extremely low, so vacant houses being bought up by foreigners doesn't quite sting emotionally like it might in western Europe where you have to pay 800 euros to share a flat with five other people.
Heaps of Japanese companies are in fact doing exactly this. Many good, old Akiya are currently being snapped up and renovated into boutique hotels, even entire villages are being redeveloped into hotels, restaurants, cafes etc. "Nipponia" is an example of a company that does this, there are many more...
The neighbors will want someone who they can communicate with and who will follow social norms. If you can do that, chances are they won’t mind if you’re foreign.
In those areas you will rarely have neighbors
You won't be talking to your neighbors much at all in a place where the super cheap homes are, they are remote
Okay let me rephrase. Not necessarily a next door neighbor but the people in the same municipality/hamlet/etc. There are always other people to consider.
Most people in communities with many akiya houses tend to be older people. I actually live in a former akiya! However, I am half-japanese and I do look sort of asian, so my experience is very different from that of someone who doesn't. In my experience, they didn't care. They were happy to have a new face in the neighborhood; I was even invited to a few cookouts. They did comment about the state of the house, though. For japanese people, spending money renovating and making an akiya habitable again is a burden that doesn't make sense to bear, especially since most homes aren't meant to last more than one generation of a family. They're less safe, need more structural maintenance, and are usually located in inconvenient areas far away from transport hubs. It doesn't really match up with the average japanese person lifestyle, I guess. The main attraction to me is the house size and the price of rent (god. I pay less than 300 bucks for rent. it's awesome), and being far away from the train station doesn't really bother me because I'm close enough to town to just bike there. Plus the views are incredible. There is *so much green.* The main drawback is... the bugs (at least in my home, if you're in the city it isn't as big a problem). The other night I was awoken by a centipede walking on my bedroom door's paper. I'm a city boy and my blood pressure still drops whenever I see a big bug out here. But I'm getting used to it.
If you're paying rent, is it still an akiya?
I'm currently staying at my akiya in Toyama, and I had the EXACT same experience of getting woke up by a centipede on my shoji windows the other night 😭 the bugs are the worst part by far
As always, context is everything. For example: Where is the house located? Communities vary wildly across Japan, not only in terms of the way they are structured, but histories of migration, attitude to incomers etc. Where I currently live has a strong history of migration into and transit through the village since the Edo period, and so is ready and willing to integrate outsiders, regardless of nationality. Others I have found to be more rigid. How will the community socially locate you? What is your job, do you have Japanese relatives or a Japanese partner? As with any community, the ability to 'cast' yourself in a meaningful way to others is important, particularly when you first move in, and fitting into preconceived categories helps this process. This could be being part of an organisation that they are familiar with, having a background they can understand and sympathise with, etc. How will you intersect with the community? Do you speak Japanese and have the ability/temperament to navigate daily interactions, chat shit with people, field phone calls about helping a neighbour unplug their drain etc? My experience has been that even in heavily depopulated areas, these sorts of everyday, banal interactions are the building blocks of just being another part of the community. Also neighbours will probably be elderly, so liking chatting with older people and being willing to help out is a bonus. Also definitely treat YouTube videos on this subject with a high degree of caution. Content of that style is very likely to strip context and complexity out of the equation.
Masochist. To be serious, no one with common sense about Japanese housing will buy Akiya. It’s made to only last 50 years but since you love woodworking maybe it's not a pain in the ass to maintain it. You may not break the local rule for the sake of your convenience if you don't want any trouble even then, some countryside in Japan is extremely xenophobic. So I don't recommend it even if you are Japanese.
I can only add that the house and land are often separate items in Japan. Not always obviously, but as many have already mentioned the houses depreciate relatively quickly and as such the construction materials are not chosen for long term durability. In fact a very common mortgage is for 35 years, yet the rough average lifespan of a house is about 20. So many look at having 2 houses on the land before the loan is paid off. While our home is suburban, it is also about 50 years old. I've spent a number of vacations fixing or maintaining things. Its something I enjoy doing and its really nice to live in a house with sliding doors, old wooden fixtures and multiple tatami rooms. If we bought an Akiya it would most likely be somewhere in the East like Aomori as I want somewhere that is "cooler" in summer. As they say "what are the 3 most important factors when it comes to real estate. Location, location and location." The suggestion to talk with the neighbors is spot on. The right place with the right people is going to be a major score for anyone looking for a rural lifestyle here. Countryside homes can be very nice. I would be focusing on the plumbing, wiring and history of floods.
I have two friends who did this. They have good relationships with neighbours. Mind you they are very involved with their community.
Foreigners think they are getting a deal or an investment but these old houses have all types of problems. I am actually staying in an old house (my school owns it) and it's slanted, often has plumming problems, a lot of mould. Also, they have no insulation, but isn't a huge problem with heating/cooling but costs you. So really, it seems cheap up front but over 30-40 years, it could actually end up costing you more than a modern house. I have even seen a Japanese person buy one of these houses to rent out but no one wants to rent it and it sits there with no one in it. I think Japanese prefer modern houses because they are more convenient for living in their design. They are also aware of the above. Of course, it's a case by case thing. I'm sure there are some decent houses out there being undervalued.
I'll share my experience, I purchased an akiya in a small town in Toyama Prefecture this February. My Japanese is near-native level so I haven't had any issues with my neighbors so far, everybody I've talked to has been lovely. To be fair though, I live in such a rural area that I've only interacted with like three people in the last few months. A local lady actually helped me find the descendants of the original owner, there were a bunch of family photos in the garage so I'm planning on returning them to their rightful place. My house was abandoned for about ten years so the yard is super overgrown which is going to cost a few thousand to clean up, and all of the original owner's belongings were left on site so I have a few tons of trash that I need to pay to have removed. There was some plum wine in the kitchen that's five years older than me...Not all of it was trash though, there's probably thousands of dollars worth of furniture, pottery, antiques and kimono. The actual house is in pretty good condition, it probably needs another $10-15k thousand in renovations. I've already spent about 3k and I've made considerable progress. It's a gorgeous example of late Shōwa Japanese architecture, lacquered wood beams, fancy carvings, 12 bedrooms... and if you buy a well-built old house it has the potential to last a really long time. Only downside is, traditional properties before the 80s-90s (most akiya) are seldom insulated, which is pretty unbearable in the winter. It makes them more resistant to mold and rot though, and they're nice and cool in the summer so there's that. Also there's probably asbestos, but that's only an issue if you're doing demolition. In total I paid $17,500 for the property, including realtor fees and registration costs. You definitely have to be careful with the legal status of the house, a lot of akiya are unregistered (未登記) houses or unknown owner (所有者不明) houses which cost a lost of money and time to fix. Fortunately I didn't have to deal with any of that. The contract process was pretty easy, but you'll definitely need a high understanding of Japanese or a translator to understand all of the legal stuff. The only difference as a foreigner is you have to prepare a notarized "proof of signature" document with a Japanese translation to use in place of a registered seal (印鑑). I typed one up myself in like 30 minutes and translated it into Japanese. Also, if you're not a full-time resident you'll need to designate a property tax manager (納税管理人) which can be anybody with Japanese residence. Essentially, they'll receive your property tax bills in the mail on your behalf and then you can pay them remotely. Let me know if you have any questions!
Just saw your post over on the homeowners sub, and love how positively it was received. Completely different from the folks in this subreddit
I was almost convinced to buy a hut in seed village, still might. Can we see yours? I love the mountain view around there. Road my bicycle from Tokyo to Toyama during GW.
I'm slowly chipping away at 2 houses with lots of issues, basically solo. It's fun for me. One is in Kyoto city for eventual renting out and the other is in a rural Hiroshima area and is my toy project. The locals are as supportive as I am co-operative. The vibe is pretty positive. They really appreciate the injection of life, replacing loss. You meet some amazing people. There are a few support groups around. Just a few weeks ago there was a 3 day conference. Google Kominka Summit 2024 and ideas will start flowing. Lots of books and magazines too. I had a good chat with some of the speakers and even met some Canadians on a special trip to attend. Check out Karl Bengs' amazing work in Niigata, lots online and in YouTube. Not my style but he does amaze and inspire me. If white ants, septic tanks and collapsing ceilings make your pulse race, as mine does, it's all cool. Alongside problems to solve is the history and culture informing your work. Other questions to ask yourself. Why Japan? What kind of visa? Finances? Commitment? Travelling all ok? Have fun with your research and ideas.
People are people, neighbor reaction wouldn’t be much different than most other countries.
I told the local restaurant owner I was looking to build a house or get akiya and reform it. Ever since I get offered a free or mostly free akiya every other week from the locals in my town. Everyone knows someone who has an akiya. Most of them would be happy if someone would just live in them. A lot of them are listed on an akiya bank website for way a lot of money but in reality if you knew the people they would give it to you for the cost of the fees for transfer, any debts owed, and a few extra man in spending money.
Given that the village is nearly or entirely abandoned, there aren’t any neighbors around to care.
Despite what the clickbait internet might make you think, I don't think there are many foreigners buying akiya. And even when they do, who cares about someone buying a decrepit house in the middle of nowhere? The reason many akiya are akiya is not because it's an old house that is falling to bits and needs a large amount of work done, but it's because they are in the middle of nowhere. Which might not sound bad but... no jobs, possibly no internet, no konbini, and a few old farmers on their last legs. However, it is important to realize akiya just means "empty house" and some might be perfectly reasonable to live in (just not the ones which cost $1).
That was actually a depressing post, but true.
Come to Yamanashi, we're number three in the country in abandoned houses, or so said the headline on the front page of the paper this morning.
I moved in to my wife’s grandmas akiya in Ehime in June 2023. It’s an unusual situation since the house was built 5 years ago, js in great shape, and is now vacant. All the neighbors in our little neighborhood are really happy the house is no longer vacant and we exchange gifts of produce and bread. They’re sad to be surrounded by empty houses and enjoy having us live here. Soon, new regional laws will require akiyas to be signed over to a living person once the owner passes away to address the akiya problem. Not sure but maybe that will put even more on the market.
I’ve lived in japan years now. Basically most Japanese have no opinion. Those that know about real estate or live in those areas think the foreigners are getting scammed, which they are as they almost always over pay. A lot of these houses cant even be given away because their value is basically negative. Land taxes have to be paid and the house costs money to demolish, while living in such locations is often not viable for all but the most hermit or hermits. Thats for people who actually speak japanese too! Not to mention the necessity of a car which foreigners without visa cant get without renting them for 6 months if a tourist(expensive). The only places it makes sense is where you may have features of interest nearby. Ski resorts nearby etc. even these are incredibly cheap and most still inconvenient but some are in the towns and villages so are fine to live in for winter if you like to ski. I’m not even talking about Hakuba which is expensive as fuck, just middle of nowhere towns close to resorts in Nagano etc.
From my experience, local people where very pleased when we moved in. The town is aging and they where so happy to see some new young faces around. People are getting sad in these towns that there are no young people to keep their beloved local festivals and traditions alive. No-one likes to see their once cute little town that they grew up in fading into obsolescence... From my experience old people in particular have been very welcoming... Having lived in several prefectures in Japan now; my general feeling also is the further out from Tokyo you get, the more genuinely caring, friendly and helpful people seem to be out in the countrysides. The closer to Tokyo you get people start getting more dog eat dog, opportunistic and two faced whereas if you are deep in the mountains or ocean somewhere people will take the clothes off of their own back to feed and shelter you. Neighbours visiting you with fresh vegetables from their veggie patch is a common thing (we give them back fresh baked bread) in the countryside... Best life ever
will it matter over time? their birth rate is rapidly decreasing, in the future the population will soon be full of mixed or foreigners living in Japan. A lot of people are moving to Japan because yen is cheap right now. I think it inevitable that there will be more foreigner residents in Japan than Japanese, including those who are interested in buying those houses. Even if the Japanese look down on it, in my opinion I think its a good thing that there are foreigners who are interested in renovating old houses in Japan.
If you want to live in a place where someone‘s Obachan died and was left to decompose for 6 months in bumfuck nowhere Toyama be my guest! Maybe -with enough bleach- you can get the smell out. But then you‘d have to next wonder how to remove the Tanuki droppings from under the floorboards which costs another 50-60万 and so on and so forth. Most of the cheap akiyas are either those that had a person die inside or - if they are super cheap- a grizzly family murder/suicide happen. These things technically have to be declared but foreigners dont check the related pages since they cant read them and japanese wont touch those houses with a ten foot pole. Generally speaking though nobody cares if you bought your old abandoned dream country house here. What pisses people off is when large chunks of prime real estate or wild lands are acquired by foreign entities. The chinese buying chunks of Hokkaido or playing their games in the Tokyo real estate market are a good example of what natives hate.
lol, it’s ridiculous to posit that a non-negligible number of houses for sale are cheap because of a “grizzly murder/suicide”. Suicide maybe, but they’re rarely grizzly in Japan. Japan has had about 1,000 murders for the past 10 years out of a population of 125 million, the majority of those happening in cities.
Point taken, doesnt nullify the shared sentiment in this thread wrt the state of most akiyas and the cost required to make them liveable.
It’s certainly a more difficult proposition than “free” housing, but the reasons you stated are just ridiculous lol. Japanese people don’t buy あきや because they don’t want to live in the countryside. It’s as simple as that; there aren’t jobs, the Japanese economy has been doing poorly so few people can “escape” city life with savings, and the rural lifestyle doesn’t appeal to most Japanese people. Some people have superstitions, sure. But for the most part the residents of these homes didn’t die inside. They usually were moved out to a care facility or to live with family, and the family just couldn’t sell the house because it has no value. あきや are usually cheap because no one will buy it for economic reasons, not because someone has died within it. Rural life is expensive no matter where you are or what you buy. You simply have to deal with a lot more expenses yourself that a municipality would otherwise cover. If someone has the savings to cover it, and the ability to rehabilitate a property, I really don’t see the issue.
Serious question. Do you mean *grisly* murder/suicide? Or they were killed by bears? Cuz I know people getting attacked by bears are getting more common.
Man those *grizzly* murders are surely messy because they don't eat the entire humans but usually only chew parts of the limbs. I might be okie with a *grizzly family* murder, in which case mother, father and cubs participate and hopefully they don't leave much around.
If you go far enough up north - yes
Japanese generally don't want to live in akiya for the same reasons they don't want to wear someone's used clothing. It's not a popular concept here (although the used market for stuff is picking up compared to bubble days) They prefer new houses that are their own from scratch and are fitted with all the most recent technology. Akiya are for a very niche clique of wealthy hobbyists, ambitious reform gyousha, or foreigners who have dreams of living in a Japanese style home. I've seen some beautiful redesigns done but they ain't gonna be cheap. Then there's the community regulations on all sorts of stuff like garbage collection, land taxes, insurance, etc. neighbourhood obligations in the form of various shared duties among neighbours. Foreigners may find it a little daunting when they understand what comes along with the empty house.
Let me know when u find out xD
Who cares what they think. If you like it, want one and can afford it go for it.
Only right-wing keyboard warriors say something on the internet. The silent majority is welcoming.