Transcript
Speaker: Welcome to the Buying a House in Japan podcast. My name's Take. And I'm Joey. And we're two friends who just quit our corporate jobs and bought a cheap house in rural Japan. The goal of this podcast is to document the highs and lows of the process while informing you of every step you need to take in order for you to do it yourself too. We're by no means experts and we're doing this for the first time, but we hope this gives you a realistic expectation if you embark on this journey yourself and we hope you enjoy the show.
Speaker: Hello. Hello. We're coming to you today from Istanbul, Turkey. That's right. East meets West the crossroads. Real poetic joy. I like it. Yeah. Coming from North America on our way to Japan and with a little brief stopover in Istanbul. So a little bit of a poetic journey for us. Hell yeah. We're, as we get to Tokyo, we're actually picking up a car. We're driving down to our abandoned house, picking up the keys and starting this whole DIY adventure.
Speaker: Yeah, we haven't even picked up the keys yet. So we're very excited. Okay. Getting to it episode two. Today, we want to talk you through five reasons to buy a house in Japan and five reasons why not to buy in Japan. So playing a little good cop, bad cop. You'd be the good cop. I'll be the bad cop. Is that the deal? Okay. Yeah. Let's start it off with.
Speaker: Reasons to buy first and then we'll go into reasons not to buy. So starting with reason number one, you do not need to be a resident and could have never stepped foot in Japan and still have purchased a house with the same rights as a Japanese citizen. That's right. And that's what we did. I did this all from my bedroom in Canada. You did it from California.
Speaker: Again, as mentioned in previous podcasts, go through an intermediary. We recommend Ziv. He makes it all possible to do from home. You don't need to be a resident. You don't need a bank account. You don't need to have ever been to Japan before in your life. I would recommend going to Japan, but you don't need to. Yep. We just sat at our computer's state side and sent over the money. And lo and behold, we have successfully, I think, purchased a house. But what about viewing and property, Take? Some viewers might ask.
Speaker: Yeah. So we've done it all via Zoom. Yeah. We did a virtual viewing on Zoom. It was great. And in fact, you can talk to the real estate agents as well through the Zoom meeting. Okay. All right. So moving on to reason number two to buy. The exchange rate is at an all time high right now for the US dollar. So at the time of recording, it's one US dollar to around
Speaker: 150, we rounded up a little bit Japanese yen. This is crazy. Joey and I studied broad back in Tokyo in 2010. At that time, I think it was like one to 75 yen. So our purchasing power has nearly doubled since 2010. And it's a really good feeling to buy something at a quote unquote discount. Especially if you're making money in USD. Yeah. When you get, you can hook up your American bank account to an Amazon account too. So even like furnishing your apartment, like you're just getting such a big bonus with the current exchange rates.
Speaker: Reason number three to buy, houses are cheap and the cost of living is cheap. You've probably seen a lot of Wall Street Journal articles on cheap houses in Japan and it is not a scam, I would say. These houses are actually cheap largely because of the aging population and the younger generation moving to more of the metropolitan cities like Tokyo and Kyoto.
Speaker: So there are a lot of abandoned houses that the one we actually got was abandoned. It's quite cheap, $42 ,000. But also the cost of living is really cheap. Food is still relatively affordable. I think in North America, we've seen a lot of inflation. We've seen prices of groceries growing up. Japan hasn't felt that yet. Things price -wise are still constant. And honestly, living in Japan is a lot cheaper than living in the United States at this point.
Speaker: I'm looking forward to those 700 yen Teishoku. When I was, when we were students in Tokyo, we were getting Kaisendon for 800 yen. That's what I'm looking forward to. I did a little bit of searching around our new property in Beppu. Looks like you can still get pretty bomb lunch, 700 yen.
Speaker: The full deal Teishoku, that's what I'm looking forward to, cost of living. Teishoku for the people who don't know, it's like a Japanese lunch, set lunch, I'd say. Yeah, you get pickles, rice, grilled fish or whatever the main is. Kaisen no. Kaisen no, it's like a sashimi over rice thing. It's so cheap, so good. Really looking forward to the food in Japan.
Speaker: Speaking of food in Japan, our reason number four is Japan is dope. We think the food, the culture, the climate, the infrastructure all make it a really comfortable place to live. It is very much a first world country. I think it's, if you go there, it'll feel different, but it also, you will be able to find a lot of the comforts, I think in your home country, as far as developed buildings, trains, food, things like that. For me, this was my main reason for wanting to buy a place in Japan too. Like I miss Japan having spent a bunch of time there when I was in school.
Speaker: Japan is pretty dope, just across the board and I'm excited to have a reason to spend more time there each year. Reason number five, I think we're going to highlight safety here. Something as we were looking at properties in Japan hit us like, wait a second, there are no bad areas. There aren't really any ghettos or places that you have to be really afraid of living. Yeah, there's no hood.
Speaker: Yeah, I'd say Japan's crime rate is very low. There's no guns allowed. I think there's an excessive amount of police officers it feels like pulling you over on your bike and stuff to check your IDs. It can be annoying at times, but safety is definitely such a highlight of Japan, whether it be raising a kid, living there yourself, or just wandering around at night. Always feel safe. And I think that's a huge point. Yep. Don't have too much to add there. Extremely safe environment for everyone of all ages.
Speaker: Yep. So there you have it, the five good cop reasons of why we honestly bought in Japan and why we recommend people to buy in Japan. Joy, I'm turning it over to you, AKA bad cop. All right. He's crazy, man. You got to just do what he says. All right. Bad cop reasons. Okay. Five reasons.
Speaker: Why you shouldn't buy a house in Japan. Number one, the homes likely need more work than you think. When you look at these homes on Akiya Mart or cheap houses, Japan, sometimes they only show the good pictures. You really need to go in there, see if the floors are squishy. If there's mold, homes aren't insulated traditionally in Japan. I remember when I was in high school, we out, my whole family, we would like close all the doors and huddle around in the living room around like one kerosene burner. So it can be a little bit uncomfortable if you're not.
Speaker: are used to that and if you're not prepared to put in the work or pay the money for to pay someone else to put in the work to bring these houses up to a more North American standard of living. So yeah, first reason is you see these little price points, but just be prepared. These houses likely need much more work than you think.
Speaker: An additional note to that is construction quality in terms of natural disasters specifically, earthquakes is a consideration. Some of these older buildings don't have necessarily like earthquake standards that newer buildings have. So when looking for these really old would beam structures, things like that are there to be considered. But at the end of the day, yeah, construction quality is different just because you see a house that's built in the 1980s. Don't expect that to be the same as your home country. Reason number two, why you should not buy a house in Japan
Speaker: is the language and cultural barriers. They're real in Japan. Obviously it's a different language, but it's also a different alphabet on top of that. Japan is pretty good with a bunch of having their signs in English as well, but it's a different language. On the cultural side of things, Japan is a very conservative society. I had a little bit of a rude awakening when I went to high school there and very much the saying goes that the nail that sticks up gets hammered down. It's a very conformative society.
Speaker: And a lot of foreigners have this idea in the West of individuality, and that is not as appreciated as much in Japan, I would say, as in the West. But yeah, just be prepared for a potentially culture shock in that sense. It's not going to be like living in America or Canada.
Speaker: Although Tokyo and some of those more metropolitan cities in Japan are more international, people speak a little bit more English. I think by large, a lot of these rural spots where we're looking at some of these cheaper houses, they haven't had too much English experience. You're going to need to know a little bit of Japanese or at least attempt to do it. Just be warned, the cultural barriers are real, so are the language. One of the big things in cultural wise, it's
Speaker: Really again, the rule following there's, it's real black or white. I think in America, a lot of times we try to go in the gray zone, ask for exceptions. Some of those things are definitely not accepted in Japan. So just know that. And an additional point, both Joe and I are not fluent in Japanese. We, I can read, I think we both can read and it's not too hard, but just calling out if you're coming in with a zero Japanese knowledge, that is okay, but it's going to be, there's going to be a learning curve. Yeah.
Speaker: Pro tip, bring a lot of little souvenirs, omiyage. It'll go a long way in your first dealings with neighbors and that kind of stuff. Yeah. Definitely try to learn some Japanese and speak to it. I think we're going to traveling anywhere, trying to speak the language here in Turkey, for example. We've learned a couple of words and it's really well received when foreigners are trying to speak the local language.
Speaker: All right. Number four reason not to buy a house in Japan. Real estate in Japan is a depreciating asset. Unlike in probably the rest of the world, houses in Japan depreciate from the time that you buy them.
Speaker: Maybe you'll get your money back if you try to sell it. Maybe you won't think, but very unlikely it will increase in value in, especially in the ways that we've seen in the West since COVID. Yeah. I'm not a real estate expert. I'm going to talk to you. We've got anything else to say there. Also not the real estate expert, but comparatively in California, let's say you buy honestly a piece of crap in a good location.
Speaker: The land value continues to go up. You can buy a teardown and flip it. And that kind of ability to do in Japan is a little bit harder. Again, most of these places are considered depreciating assets. They are mostly the value stays within the land. So don't expect to buy something rural Japan and expect, hey, it's going to go up at the same rate it would, let's say in your home country. I'd say in our situation, we're trying to make our property cashflow with your maybe Airbnb or something like that. Yeah.
Speaker: And the final reason not to buy a house in Japan, reason number five, natural disasters are a real thing there with the Fukushima tsunami and earthquake and nuclear disaster in 2011 to just general earthquakes across the country. Landslides are a larger and larger risk.
Speaker: Japan has lots of natural disasters that you need to be cognizant of. Yeah. Where we bought a place in Southern Japan happens to be quite a landslide prone area. And in fact, we shied away from another property for that exact, actually maybe a few other properties for that exact reason they backed up onto cliffs. So, you know, you don't want to be in that situation. People die each year in the country as a result of landslides. So it is definitely something that you need to consider when thinking about purchasing a property in Japan.
Speaker: Yeah, it's hard to time, right? Nobody knows when these natural disasters are happening, but just geographically where Japan is, it's going to get earthquakes. It's going to get hit by really bad kind of tsunamis. I'd say it's quite often. So just have being ready for that and looking at specific properties and knowing that's going to happen sometime in the next.
Speaker: Yeah, next number of years. And newer buildings, Japan is great for this type of infrastructure and code quality thing. Like they, they do have building standards there that reflect the earthquakes in the country, but obviously older buildings and potentially more rural buildings are going to be more relaxed when it comes to that compared to newer buildings. So that is something to consider as well. The age of the building when you're thinking about, especially earthquakes. Joey, you forgot reason not to buy number three.
Speaker: Oh, did I skip one? You skip it. Go for a bad cop. All right. Let's change this to reason number five or three. It's far. Oh yeah. Okay. This is an important reason. It should be reason number three. Japan is far. I, for example, I live in Nova Scotia, Canada, which is on the East coast of Canada. It's very far. I need to fly to Vancouver first and then get on and even getting a Vancouver is a little bit difficult sometimes.
Speaker: But it's pretty much like a, I don't know, first an eight hour flight and then I'd be getting on a 12 hour flight. So it could be 20 hours in the air, not counting at the airports and stuff like that. It's a difficult trip. In fact, I'm trying to get my parents out there. My parents are in their late sixties right now. And that's one of the biggest concerns that we have getting them out there. They're thinking of saying with a brother of one of my uncles in Vancouver first, it's far to get to Japan. It's about even farther if you live in Europe, maybe. So that is a real consideration. How often are you actually going to.
Speaker: go out there to your property in Japan? Luckily, I'm coming from California. So that flight is not nearly as bad as coming from Nova Scotia. And if you're a listener, you're coming from, let's say, Singapore, Taiwan, that's going to be way different. But if you're our main target demographic, US -based, North America -based listeners, it is a far flight. I would highly recommend, again, fly out there first. Make sure that you're comfortable with that. And luckily, I tell the airports in Japan are
Speaker: Pretty dang good. It's easy to get flights in and out. Trains are great. So infrastructure there as good cop. I'm saying once you get into Japan and the experience of going through Japan is great. I think we were just stuck in an airport for six hours two days ago in Montenegro. I was quite happy to be flying into Japan and confident it'll be a smooth journey.
Speaker: Yeah. And that's something I forgot to mention too. For example, if you're, if the house you're looking to buy is not in Tokyo, for example, you're going to fly into Tokyo pretty much regardless of where you come from. You're going to have to get on another plane when you get to Japan or Shinkansen or something like that. So you need to consider that travel time as well inside the country.
Speaker: You've heard it from both Good Cop, me and Bad Cop Joey, the five reasons to buy, the five reasons not to buy. Ultimately, we ended up going with the buy. We feel like given our situations, the reasons to buy definitely outweigh a lot of those negatives. But, you know, again, we're going to Tokyo. We're doing this for the first time. We're going to keep you updated on some of those reasons not to buy and also some of the reasons to buy. We'll do a little post -mortem to walk you through our experiences. These are what we have read, things we've heard, things we've experienced. I'm sure there's a lot more.
Speaker: and everyone's going to have their own reasons, but ultimately, it's good to know these things walking in, eyes wide open, I'd say. Anything else, Joey? Thank you, Seth, at all. Okay. Thank you for listening to episode two. I believe the next episode, we're actually going to be coming live from Japan. We've made it. East meat sweats, Joey. Can't wait to get there finally. I know. Let's go. All right. Thanks for listening.
