Illustration of local property managers inspecting a traditional Japanese house, pruning garden trees, checking wooden shutters, and handling mail for an overseas owner.

Owning and managing

2026/10/26

Can you avoid appointing a tax representative in Japan? Only for part of the bill

Can you avoid appointing a tax representative in Japan? Only for part of the bill Some Japanese municipalities will excuse an overseas owner from appointing a tax representative for local property tax. It is a real option, and it is narrower than it sound ...

2026/10/22

Selling Japanese property from abroad

Selling Japanese property from abroad A buying guide that never mentions the exit has described half a transaction. Selling as a non-resident owner involves a withholding that takes a tenth of the price before it reaches you, a filing to recover the exces ...

2026/10/22

A second home you visit four times a year

A second home you visit four times a year Buying a house in Kyoto, Niseko, Hakuba or Okinawa to use several times a year is a different proposition from buying somewhere to live. The building is empty for most of its life, and almost everything that goes ...

2026/10/13

Owning Japanese property from another country

Owning Japanese property from another country Completion is where ownership starts. Tax, insurance, liability and maintenance all run from that day onward, in Japanese, by post, to an address in Japan. Japanese systems assume the owner is reachable here. ...

2026/10/22

Owning a house where it snows properly

Owning a house where it snows properly Niseko, Hakuba, Nozawa, the mountains of Nagano and the whole of the Japan Sea coast. Snow is why people want these places, and it is also a structural load, a scheduled cost, and the reason an unattended house there ...

2026/10/15

Owning property in Japan from abroad: the tax paperwork nobody mentions

Owning property in Japan from abroad: the tax paperwork nobody mentions You may need three separate tax representative appointments in Japan, not one. And if you rent the property out, a fifth of the rent may never reach you. It goes to the tax office bef ...

2026/10/13

The bill that arrives five months after you thought you were finished

The bill that arrives five months after you thought you were finished A completed purchase, a registered title, and nothing left to do. Then a letter reaches somebody else entirely, with two weeks left on a deadline the owner has never heard of. This is o ...

2026/10/13

When your Japanese property injures somebody else

When your Japanese property injures somebody else In most liability claims the defendant escapes by showing they took proper care. For structures on land in Japan, the owner has no such escape. A wall you never built, on a house you rarely see, is yours t ...

2026/10/13

Insuring a house in Japan that nobody lives in

Insuring a house in Japan that nobody lives in Japanese fire insurance classifies a building by how it is used, and a house with nobody living in it is generally not classified as a home. The class decides the premium, what riders you may attach, and whet ...

2026/10/13

The termite your five-year warranty does not cover

The termite your five-year warranty does not cover Treatment carried out, paperwork in the file, five years of cover. What the paperwork protects is the termite that comes up from the soil. Japan has another one that arrives by air, and it is usually writ ...

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