Japan allows foreign buyers to own land and buildings freehold with no nationality restriction, but the market behaves differently from Western ones: buildings are treated as depreciating assets, with legal useful lives by construction type, and an older house often carries little or no value, the land is the durable asset.
Market structure in brief
- Land versus building: title splits into land (tochi) and structure (tatemono), each registered separately at the Legal Affairs Bureau.
- Buildings depreciate: market practice prices older homes close to zero, demolition and rebuild are common, which changes renovation economics completely.
- Leasehold land exists (shakuchi): most homes are freehold, but land-lease properties trade at discounts and carry ground rent.
- Flat 35: a government-backed program through the Japan Housing Finance Agency offers long fixed-rate loans up to 35 years and anchors the market's rate structure.
- No single public MLS: listings pass through agent networks (REINS is the industry database), and buyer agents often show inventory across many agencies.
Vocabulary a buyer will meet
Tochi (land), tatemono (building), shakuchi (leased land), menseki (area, quoted in square meters), and Shiro-ya (used home). Registration of ownership (touki) at the Legal Affairs Bureau is the step that perfects title, usually handled with a judicial scrivener (shiho shoshi), a licensed legal specialist.