Don't buy these old japanese houses, they're literally made of mud and sticks and have absolutely fuck all for insulation.
Living in nature is all fun and games until you're expected to sleep in 50 degree weather while your split unit struggles to keep your paper box of a bedroom cool.
Most of the time the closest hospital is like 2-3 hours away on a bus that only comes twice a day, so you better hope you never get in an accident cause the ambulance won't come for hours and your only other hope is the only other person in neighborhood: your 90 year old neighbor who you're not sure is even still alive.
Source: lived in one for multiple years.
Edit: also when I say old I mean as soon as 1995 Before they majorly overhauled the earthquake and insulation codes nationally
There are way more complexities than meet the eye here.
Not the least of which: just buying property doesn't give you a way to extend a visa beyond the normal tourist period (usually 90 days per 6-month period). Japan ultimately is still an isolationist country, and it shows the most in its immigration policies.
As others in this thread have said, buying a property in Japan doesn't extend your Visa or grant you residence in the country. This would be a waste of time if you didn't already have that lined up. However, there are countries that do. Some have what's called the Golden Visa program, or Investor/Real Estate Visa program (there are other names, but if you're doing a search, this should turn up decent results). Here's a list of some countries that do this, and the minimum amount you need to spend.
Portugal - Golden Visa Investment - €500,000 ($540k USD) or €350,000 ($380k USD) for lower population areas, or properties that need to be renovated Residency benefits - Residency permit for 5 years, with the opportunity to apply for permanent residency after that
Spain - Golden Visa Investment - €500,000 ($540k USD) Residency benefits - Residency permit for 1 year, renewable as long as you own the property, and you can apply for permanent residency after 5 years
Greece - Golden Visa Investment - €250,000 ($270k USD) Residency benefits - Residency permit for 5 years, renewable as long as you own the property, and you can apply for permanent residency after 7 years
Thailand - Thailand Elite Visa Investment - THB 1,000,000 (about $30k USD) for a 5 year Visa Residency benefits - Renewable every 5 years with no residency requirement
Ecuador - Investor Visa Investment - $42,500 in real estate Residency benefits - Grants you permanent residency
Malaysia - Malaysia My Second Home (MM2H) Investment - RM 1 million (about $240k USD) in real estate Residency benefits - Grants you a 10 year renewable Visa
Philippines - Special Resident Retiree Visa Investment - $50k in real estate Residency benefits - Grants you permanent residency
When I was looking into bailing on the US, I made a Libre Office spreadsheet with like 70 countries and all this info plus a bunch of other personal requirements for what I was looking for, so some of it may be outdated. Hell, some of it may be straight up incorrect, so feel free to double check it.
The catch is that rural Japan is a a shithole rife with xenophobia, privacy violations, bullying, and problematic neighbors. And that's for ethnically Japanese people, so it's be way worse if you were actually a foreigner.
There's a reason why people in Japan try so hard to move away from rural areas into cities.
I actually looked into that property once; there was no way it was going to happen for a number of reasons. I ended up buying a house in much better condition in another area.
I really need to do a video about the topic or something. There are many, many landmines with stuff like this. For a very TL;DR and assuming every single other thing is perfect: owning a home does not give you the right to spend any extra time in Japan nor grant a visa; you are on the hook for taxes, fees, septic maintenance (though the above property may have been a pit toilet; I don't remember), and other bills which will have to be paid from a Japanese bank account. There are also certain neighborhood association obligations, property maintenance, fire control, etc.
I'm sure you could find a cheap condemned shit hole in your nearest rural area too. That doesn't mean that it's a good deal.
It's so cheap because the current owner doesn't want to spend the money on demolishing the structure before selling vacant land. And if it is still available it is because no developer has looked at it and thought that they could make money on the flip.
Because these houses are located in remote, rural areas. They have been abandoned because people are moving closer to the cities or the owners are old/dying and they can't continue maintaining them. The money you save from the initial purchase will all come out of the expenses to renovate and maintain the house because a lot of them are run-down.
Of course if you're the type who wants to live in the middle of nowhere, and you have the money and skills to renovate, this can be for you.
I'd have to be near retirement age while still nimble enough to renovate it and hope my pension and savings would be enough to cover the costs.
Even then, it would be difficult to navigate renovations in that environment where you don't speak the language, have no idea how their houses are supposed to be built, waste disposal and the myriad of other issues that will surely arise.
Getting a job is going to be a bitch - thus the retirement age requirement.
Getting citizenship is going to be an even bigger a bitch.
I'd be an outcast cause of my skin color and inability to communicate.Because Japanese visa will never allow for you to live there
You can get 180 days total per year in two sets of 90 so to live in this house you'd have to:
- live there for 3 months
- leave Japan
- live there for 3 more months
- leave Japan for 6 months and have someone look after your house.
This is no way sustainable not to mention as a tourist you wouldn't have access to anything that requires full residency which is very complicated.
You can get long term visa like education or business investment or work permit etc but those are really expensive and can be very hard to get.
Will I meet the Totoro?
Because you have to pay taxes including the very incredibly expensive purchase tax and annual property tax. And you lack a visa.
because it's falling apart and needs a lot of investment to renovate and make it habitable.
I can imagine this would make your taxes wacky
That's a 3.5k shed with no utilities is probably why. Running power, gas and plumbing to that place would cost more than a town of houses.
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なぜだめなのw
Because getting permission to live there is arguibly harder than becoming rich.
I followed PewDiePie and even for him it took massive effort and many years.
