Essential guides and insights for foreign investors in Japanese real estate.
116 articles
The national 180-day law is only the ceiling. Your city can lower it, zone it, season it, or ban it. A step-by-step workflow to verify short-term rental rules for any Japanese municipality in 30 minutes โ with the exact Japanese search terms.
The rate is the easy part โ the real question is who will lend to YOU. A decision guide to Japanese mortgage eligibility by residency status, plus the variable-vs-fixed framework (5-year rule, 125% rule, Flat 35) and refinancing.
Japan's most popular coastal and island minpaku areas โ Okinawa, Ishigaki, Miyako, Shonan/Kamakura, Izu/Atami, Fukuoka Momochi โ and the coastal risks foreign owners underprice: typhoon, salt corrosion, flood, tsunami, insurance.
Minpaku-specific due diligence for foreign buyers: condo bylaws, zoning, fire code, license transferability, neighbor history, and how to verify a seller's ADR and occupancy claims before you buy a short-term rental in Japan.
Japan's most popular mountain and ski minpaku areas โ Niseko, Hakuba, Furano, Myoko, Karuizawa, Hakone โ and the risks foreign owners underprice: single-season demand, snow load, remote access, disaster exposure and depreciation.
How foreign investors go from one minpaku to a portfolio in Japan: entity structure (GK/KK), financing constraints, the ยฅ10M consumption-tax threshold, management at scale, geographic diversification, and exit planning.
A demand-side map of Japan's minpaku market in 2026 โ where foreign capital is actually flowing, which nationalities buy which regions, and why. Cities, ski country, islands and akiya conversions, with honest caveats.
A first-person due-diligence investigation of a 16.4% gross-yield apartment near Myoko's Arai semiconductor plant โ where the rents checked out, but the land registry did not. A reusable property-DD framework for foreign investors.