Welcome to Black Tokyo! Dream homes can come true if you know all the right things

So you are ready to be king of your own castle in Japan. Adios to the days when you, a mere rent-paying tenant of a grotty apartment, worried about landlords taking you to the cleaners for spilling tea on the [...]

The following are the experiences of four foreigners who have ventured into property purchase in Japan.

Jim (American; 45 years old; 17 years in Japan) House for a family of two in Yokohama purchased in September 2008 for ¥65 million.
“I thought it would be difficult to find a rental where I could park a car and [...]

Foreigners in a market gone from boom to bust and back (a bit)

Foreigners and the Japanese property market — the two sound like unlikely bedfellows, but in recent years their “liaisons” have been the focus of much media attention — and not all of it positive.

 
First it was investments by foreigners driving up land prices; [...]

CAMP FOSTER, Okinawa — In a country like Japan, where available land is scarce, real estate can be a lucrative investment. And military land is no exception.
More than a third of the 57,580 acres of military land on Okinawa is owned by individuals, according to the Okinawa prefectural government.
The government of Japan paid about $706 [...]

Buying land as a foreigner is not that hard, especially if you’re looking for a holiday home outside of the major cities. There are no residency requirements, and so long as you have cash, realtors are happy to deal with all-comers – especially since in many rural areas the market for spare land has been in a deep funk for [...]