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. And we're back.
Speaker: Happy New Year's Joey. How are you doing? New year, new me. You're of the dragon, right? Yeah. You're the dragon. That's right. That's I'm, I'm year of the dragon 1988. You're the dragon. Strongest, strongest one of them all is the strongest character. I would agree. I would agree actually. I wish I was a dragon or maybe a snake. There's a year of the snake too, right? What's your animal? I'm a year of the horse. Pretty strong too. Oh yeah. 1990, my brother's horse too. Yes, sir.
Speaker: It's what year is it in Japan? Like they, uh, Ray was six though. I don't know if it like starts at a different time of the year or if it's January 1st, but yeah, 2024 Ray was six.
Speaker: Yeah, for anyone listening, Japan has this like weird year system that goes off. Is it emperors or? I don't even know. It's emperor related at least. Okay. Okay. I like to flex. I tell it when people like ask how old I am in Japan, I'm going, I'm Heisei Ninen. Just to show that I know, know about Japan a little bit. I'm Showa. I'm the last year of Showa.
Speaker: I don't know. Yeah, I totally don't even understand what all that means. But anyways, Akio me is what we say in Japan. Happy New Year's. The the only it's fine. Whatever the emperor year thing, the only annoying like the only time it's been annoying.
Speaker: is cars, they like the, the cars that you, you go to the, they use car lot and you're trying to figure out how old they say something and you got to do the calculation on your phone. I can't everyone just use 2024. Happy 2024. I like the numbers, 2024 feels good. It's going to be a good year, Joey. I agree.
Speaker: All right. Well, lots happened. Whoa. What a couple of weeks. We usually try to record every week, but we missed one week here. Give us some updates, Joey. What's been happening on everything. AccuMart, everything we've been doing a lot has changed.
Speaker: Yeah, so January 1st, AkiyaMart Hard Launch, V1 launch. So this is a project me and Taki have been working on since I think May of 2023, which is our website, Akiya -Mart .com. Yeah, it's a search and discovery tool to find properties in Japan, you know, there's properties on here.
Speaker: $5 ,000 all the way up to $5 million. It's got a pretty good user interface. So definitely check it out. January 1st was our launch date. Up until then, it was in beta. And yeah, we've got users now. Air horns in this, Jerry. I think we definitely, there we go. Congrats to us. We got a product now. Yeah. Right before the hard launch, you know, we,
Speaker: I'm honest, to be honest, I wasn't sure how well received it would be. We hadn't done too much external posting, but we did post on LinkedIn, most viral post I've ever posted. Thanks Joey, GPT for crafting that first off. I think we got a thousand likes or something like that. We got 150 ,000 impressions.
Speaker: hundreds of DMs and requests and so much positive support. So thank you everyone. If you're listening to this from LinkedIn, it means a lot that we've been working hard on this for the past couple of months without.
Speaker: Really too much positive feedback until now. I feel like we've got an overflow tidal wave of positive feedback, which feels great. So this hard launch has actually opened up quite a few doors. We've had a lot of people coming up from every different direction to support us. And we've got a lot of cool ideas and a couple.
Speaker: cool products hopefully coming out. Be on the lookout for maybe a wait list, right Joey? That might be coming out soon. A yet wait list for new products. We're definitely on the lookout for the direction to take Accumart in now. We did get a lot of good feedback from that viral LinkedIn post. That was really great. And now we're sort of trying to
Speaker: Figure out the right product market fit, you know, where now that people are actually using it and giving us, you know, telling us what they think about the product. Yeah, we're trying to pivot to whatever direction the product needs to go in. So that's sort of where our heads are at.
Speaker: Yeah, even us buying the house, it got so much support. I think so many people have been laid off this year and seeing that unaffordability in the US and seeing how much we bought it for Japan, I think we did gain a lot of followers. We haven't launched this podcast on LinkedIn, hopefully doing that next. But if you're listening to this, you're laid off and just know there's an alternative to buying a cheaper house in Japan.
Speaker: You know, there's, there's other options out there. So, so much support and love there that feels like we made the right decision, Joey, even though in the moment we were like, who, this seems, I don't know if we should do this kind of thing, right? Yeah. I mean, it's a risk. I moved back home with my parents to start this. So definitely, you know, you got to take some risks to do this kind of thing. It was scary, but yeah, 20, 20, 23, we made a bunch of big moves. 24. Let's see what happens. We haven't made it yet. Our bank accounts are pretty weak.
Speaker: But just wanted to say we are donating for the month of January and February, all proceeds from Akiya Mart to the Noto Earthquake Relief Fund by the Japanese Red Cross Society. So we're not making a lot, but anything we are making, we want to support Japan. We couldn't make this product without Japan in the first place. So which brings us to our
Speaker: timely topic of today. We're talking about natural disasters in Japan and kind of what to consider when it comes to purchasing your property there. I know there's a lot on the news. It's scary hearing about everything happening in Japan. So we wanted to kind of just break down our opinion. We are, I would say pretty well -versed in natural disasters, Joey, in a weird way with earthquakes and things happening in our lives. So
Speaker: Just to start it off, I want to talk about the unfortunate nota earthquake that happened on January 1st, 2024, 7 .6 earthquake in Ishikawa prefecture. Joey, where the heck is Ishikawa? That was my first question. I'm not too familiar with Japan geography all the time.
Speaker: Yeah, Ishikawa is how to describe this. If you go North West of Tokyo, straight across the Honshu Island, you'll hit Ishikawa. It's kind of got like a arm that reaches out North of the Island. That's Ishikawa Prefecture. I think they're building a new Shinkansen there, or someone had mentioned there's a new Shinkansen going up there.
Speaker: Yeah, I know there's a lot of interest in, in Tochigi or something. We'd seen on Akiyama, like a large number of Toyama. Oh, that's right. That's right. But yeah, right next to Ishikawa. Yeah. Dang. Japan just can't catch a break. Unfortunately, I think 128 people died, 513 injuries and more than 1 ,500 homes were damaged or collapsed. I wonder how many of those were Akiya, Joey? How many of those were built when? I don't really know.
Speaker: terrible news. I saw pictures of it online. Some of these neighborhoods were flattened. It was quite shocking. Enough lighter notes, funny. You had mentioned like, is this Gaza or is this? It looked really bad. I was watching the news at the gym and I was confused about what the images I was seeing for a second.
Speaker: Yeah. So if you're listening to this and you want to donate Japanese Red Cross Society, I think it's the best place to go from our research. Again, we're going to be donating all fun. So if you want to donate, you can also just be subscribed on acchiamart .com for the pro account and we can donate for you. So yeah. All right, Joey, now onto the quiz show section of the podcast. Are you ready? What do you think?
Speaker: are the top natural disasters ranked by frequency and impact in Japan. There's six of them. Okay. Six earthquake top one. Ding, ding. Correct. Second one. Let me just think in my head. I would say some contenders. This isn't my final answer, but some contenders would be typhoon, tsunami, landslide,
Speaker: Hmm. Has a, has a volcano erupted? I don't think so. I wouldn't consider a volcano. Okay. Let's, I'm going to pick. Oh, you, you actually just nailed a couple of them. Yeah. I mean, just say tsunami next for, for wrecked. Yeah. Just the amount of damage it causes. Okay. Uh, next time we'll go landslide. Wrong. Typhoon. Yes, sir. Typhoons is number three. Yeah. Probably maybe because of the frequency and then, yeah, his landslide on the list.
Speaker: The landslide is not on, it is on the list, sorry, but surprisingly number four is volcano eruptions. Really? I wonder what's erupted recently. I'll go over it in a sec. So we got earthquakes, tsunamis, typhoons, volcano eruptions, landslides, and there's one more number six. It's related to a rainfall. Oh, flooding. Yes, sir. Those are the top six natural disasters in Japan, unfortunately.
Speaker: It's funny, I was looking at my transcript the other day. The only class I got an A plus in in college was the natural disasters class. I remember it was like the easiest class I took at UCSD. I was just ace of the quiz right now. Almost did, but just add a little information to that. Yeah. Number one is going to be earthquakes. Japan is plagued with earthquakes seemingly like every decade at least they have a big one.
Speaker: big reason they're located on the Pacific Ring of Fire. So geographically, they're already in a pretty bad spot for this. And with earthquakes come tsunamis. Also, Japan just being exposed to typhoons and where it's at. I think every May or October, there's always like one. I can't even keep track of how many typhoons there are, but seemingly like they're increasing.
Speaker: Yeah, I saw a map recently of like the tectonic plate or like the rifts or whatever in the plates and I don't know what that's called like in and around Japan and it was crisscrossing all over the islands these like the fault lines it was a map of the fault lines and around Japan and I thought maybe it was just like
Speaker: in the water around the islands, but like some of them go through the islands. Dang. Japan actually on the volcano eruption one, which is number four, our place in Betbu is close to a volcano. Remember who was, who's saying that maybe it's Fumi there.
Speaker: The reason why we have such hot, so much hot spring water is because there's active volcano. I think it's Mount Austin or something like that. Right. I remember, but hopefully a volcano does not erupt. We've already had a fire in the neighborhood. We've had an earthquake in the nation. Fingers crossed. We do not get any more of these, but the reality is we probably will at some point. Right.
Speaker: There's a guy on Instagram, I'm gonna knock Matt in Japan or some, some, some guy like that. He has a lot of skiing. Uh, I follow him, but he's in Niigata, I believe. And he was posting some of the earthquake videos, like as it was happening. And he said he went outside and the first thing, all the neighbors, like in his neighborhood there, they're all looking up at the mountain. Cause I guess they got a live volcano there too. They're all kind of.
Speaker: wondering if the volcano was causing it. Is the volcano going to blow? I guess I'd never really thought about volcanoes erupting in Japan. I feel like I've never heard of it, but apparently it happens. Dang. Well, for anyone listening that's never experienced one of these natural disasters, they are definitely a real thing in Japan. Flashback, Joey. Joey and I were studying abroad the year of the giant Tohoku earthquake in 2011. Joey, where were you during that earthquake?
Speaker: Yeah, I was so—yeah, this is the Fukushima -related earthquake. Yeah, I was in the—me and Taki lived in the same dorm, Second Men's dormitory, 2MD, and I was in the second floor bathroom. I remember the time it happened in the morning, 9 a .m., something around that time. And yeah, I was sitting on the toilet and I remember this was the strongest earthquake I had ever been in.
Speaker: And I remember like it was strong enough where I was like, okay, don't they tell you to stand in a doorway or like under a desk or something like that. It was strong enough that I was like, okay, I got to get into a doorway or outside or under desks or something like that. So I just said, you know, I just had to pull up my pants right there and I went into the bathroom. And I remember other people, I like, it was, yeah, I could see out in the hallway and other people were doing the same thing too.
Speaker: It was funny. I think I asked you or asked someone to take a photo of my room. I was actually flying that day back to California for like spring break. There was like some, it was, it was some break, I think at ICU. So I had been headed back. So luckily did not experience the earthquake, but someone sent a photo of my room and it was like, everything was falling over. Then I posted it on Facebook. I got a flashback, whatever Friday photo one time. People were like, yo, that's what your room normally looks like. Like,
Speaker: No change. No change. Like the chair was falling over and that's about it. But I don't know too many things falling over, but yeah, it was, it was, it was very big. Yeah. So we've been in natural disasters. I particularly, I don't know if I'm cursed, but I've been part of maybe five natural disasters. 20, 2004. I think there's a big Thailand earthquake. I was there for an abacus competition. Just missed it. Flew out. 2011.
Speaker: flew out also of Japan, the day of the earthquake 2014. I was on Everest during that earthquake in 2016 or 15. There was an Icelandic volcano that blew up when I was there. I'm cursed dude. Stay away from me cursed. Anyways, it gives us a, we're natural disaster experts now, right?
Speaker: I don't know for experts, but we've been in some ourselves. Yeah. So, I mean, that brings us to kind of our topic of, you know, if you've never been to Japan and you've heard on the news, all these natural disasters, they are a real thing, right? So when purchasing a property in Japan, especially in some of these areas prone to natural disasters, it's important to consider. It's definitely non -negligible, right Joey?
Speaker: Yeah, especially I remember we were pretty concerned about land being in a landslide zone That was one of the things Beppu is very hilly. I don't know when we first Started looking into that. Maybe we were looking at some map or something like that and then mentioned landslide and we're like, oh
Speaker: And then they did a quick Google search and it was like, Kyushu has the most landslides in Japan each year. I was like, okay, maybe we got to pay attention to this. And then we started noticing all the cheaper houses were built, you know, on the slopes of hills in the landslide zones. But the view was so good from that one property that it was a landslide prone to remember. Asami Lux is what we called it. Yeah. And I mean, and also coastal areas, you need to worry about tsunamis. Those coastal properties aren't probably going to be cheaper, but yeah,
Speaker: If a house is cheap, there's likely a reason for it. Could be a natural disaster.
Speaker: particularly banks will not give out loans if you're in a certain disaster zone. So if you are planning to get a loan, that's definitely a deal breaker, I think, right? If a bank's not going to give you a mortgage for it, but most of us are probably buying in cash. So do your due diligence. I think there's a couple of ways to pull up like flooding maps. They had a landslide map, I think, right? They had just like elevation maps and stuff. So know your,
Speaker: know the area you're looking at before you buy, just to kind of consider what natural disasters there are. And there are some resources to look at too. Yeah. Those maps are pretty, I'd say they're dense. They're all in Japanese. They're hard to find on the internet. You know, you're looking at Japanese government websites that
Speaker: I would say they're like, it's hard to get this information, but it is out there. Yep, totally. Yeah, I think we covered a little bit when identifying your property too. We were about to buy, we did buy kind of site unseen. Luckily we had Ziv, our intermediary, go to some of these properties and he was less like, this is really close to the mountain. He showed us the video over Zoom, like how close our house was.
Speaker: Definitely. He was from the call. We could tell he was a little sketched out. So we're like, okay, probably not a good sign. Yep. So do not buy a house sight unseen. Best case. You go check it out yourself, or if not have someone check it out before you, you do purchase it. Right.
Speaker: Yeah, these type of things, you know, you're not going to, especially that one property where as if it was a little sketched out, I feel like that wasn't in the pictures. Like maybe we kind of on Google maps, we knew it was on a hill. I had a good view, but like you, I don't think we would have been able to figure that out in pictures. Totally.
Speaker: Well, I think in our last episode, we talked a little bit about why houses are so cheap. And it's just pretty common for people in Japan to be used to these natural disasters, maybe not desensitized, but it's almost like
Speaker: It's almost expected once a decade, I feel like, for houses to fall down and needed to be rebuilt. So with that, I know one of the big problems with Akiyas right now is that because there's so many abandoned houses, a lot of them are not earthquake proof. And we encountered a little bit of this. Our house was built in 1977, Joey. So I think it had some earthquake proofing, but we
Speaker: We definitely wanted we're renovating right now and we were definitely considering it like I know the city was gonna support us or something, right Yeah, yeah a couple things just on what you mentioned there When we opened up the wall like me and talking knocked on a few of the walls when we got there and there's like these strange cross braces and I cut one off but apparently that was part of the earthquake proofing from the 1977
Speaker: building codes, so our contractor is putting the necessary things back in place. But yeah, so I think there were some standards when our house was built. If I remember correctly, Fumi mentioned that the city of Beppu also has some pot of money that they award grants per year, right?
Speaker: Yeah, I don't know what it was. It was around like 6 ,000 to 8 ,000 US about that. Maybe there's like hard, maybe not hard to get the money, but maybe slow for you to actually get the money in your pocket. But I think they do, if you're renovating a home there, you need to check with your local city hall or whatever. But it does sound like there are programs probably all across Japan to retrofit your home up to the current earthquake standards and you get some
Speaker: money back about 6 ,000 to 8 ,000 American. Yeah. We didn't go through this formal process, but if I remember correctly, it was like the city would send someone out to kind of Taishin, check your place, and then they would then I think offer you, there's like certain contractors that are earthquake certified maybe by the city, where they will then use that granted money to do the work and
Speaker: I remember Fumi our fixer mentioned like there might be a little bit of an inside job too. I don't know, right? Where there, they could be upcharging or if you're a city certified earthquake kind of proof contractor, there's
Speaker: I don't know. It seems like a little bit, we didn't want to go through it one because it's bureaucratic, but also seems like it was going to be more expensive to when we, our current contractor could do the same thing. Right. Yeah. And I think it would have also slowed down the timeline as well. We wanted to move quickly with our contractor and get them in there. And so we were trying to move quickly, I think.
Speaker: The other interesting thing to note about getting the city and these like earthquake license contractors is that it seems like it's a requirement for Airbnb property as well to have at least someone sign someone from the city licensed or whatever to sign off that this building has been earthquake proofed up to the current standards.
Speaker: Yeah, I think we're going to, we'll update you on that soon as we're, we are going to try to go for our meme Paco or Airbnb license. Joey, we definitely should chat after this about double checking that. Right. Yeah. So for anyone else currently thinking about Airbnb, we'll get back to you with more information on that, but very likely you'll probably want to find a contractor that has this license. Yep. Cool.
Speaker: Now going back, I know if you're on AccuMart and you're considering buying a house, you're looking at different aged houses. I want to just give a quick breakdown of what we learned on basic eras on where houses were earthquake proofed. High level, there's three or four eras I'd say that really stand out when considering
Speaker: age for house. So anything post -World War II or early post -World War buildings in Japan were not designed for earthquake resistance in mind. So let's say everything before the 1960s or there's basically no earthquake resistance thought in mind. So if you're looking for a really old wooden kominka and it was an earthquake, I wouldn't be super optimistic, even though they're cool.
Speaker: Yeah, but they're built, I mean, they're kind of tanks too. So that's the thing in their favor. Yeah, hard to say, but I mean, they weren't designed with a seismic thought, but they were the craftsmanship I think was pretty high back then. Yeah. Next up, we got the 1960s, 70s, close to the eighties. The building codes were incorporated and more stringent, but
Speaker: Looking at our house, it wasn't like there was no crazy seismic. Anything underneath our house is just like concrete pillars, right? And a couple of like diagonal wood posts. Yeah. If I would, my general impression is flimsier than I expected.
Speaker: Yeah. And then lastly, I think the big trigger for Japan was in 1995, they had a big Kobe earthquake. This earthquake was, I think so bad that they really overhauled structures and building standards. So post any, if you're looking at anything post 1995, I think you're good, or at least it should be able to withstand an earthquake better than, I mean, just with age. But if you're looking at 1995 post that, I think that's where you're kind of golden.
Speaker: at least for general earthquakes. I don't know how it'll handle like a huge earthquake, but that's kind of the three chunks that we see and we're considering when we looked at our house.
Speaker: Kobe earthquake. I watched something on YouTube recently. There's a bridge. We actually took this bridge talking when we drove from, yeah. So from, from Kobe to the Island, it actually stretched 80 centimeters. And so the bridge was supposed to be something like, I don't know. It was like a whole number. Let's say it was like.
Speaker: I don't know, a thousand meters long or something like that. They had to, in the end, build the bridge a thousand meters and 80 centimeters because the construction was started before the earthquake and completed after. And like the islands separated from the Kobe coastline by 80 centimeters during that earthquake.
Speaker: Okay. Earthquakes are scary. If you're looking at houses, old houses, you got to do earthquake stuff. 70s, 60s, 80s houses, probably got to do some earthquake stuff. Anything newer, you're probably good. I think maybe that's why there's so much concrete in Japan. I wish, I wish our house was like a concrete house. Yeah. I heard the concrete structures are more earthquake proof and they also have a longer lifespan according to the accounting rules there.
Speaker: When was our dormitory in Japan? We went to this dormitory. We lived in this dormitory called two MD. It was like a 1950s 1950. It was like a concrete block though, right? Concrete block. Yep. They tore it down. They said, because it was, you know, at the end of its lifespan, but I think it had many more years left in it. Yeah. Totally survived. I feel like it survived the best after that earthquake. Right. Yep. Yep. Jeez. Anyways. Yeah. Those are the.
Speaker: If you're looking at properties, those are the kind of errors to look at. Again, retrofitting is probably going to be a good idea, especially if you're going to Airbnb, we'll fill you in more on that. But just expect that if you see a house for 10K or 5K, that you're going to need to put some money in it if you want it to have longevity.
Speaker: There is, of course, I think basic home insurance, earthquake insurance, fire insurance in Japan, which were quite inexpensive. But you need to double check before buying. It's nowhere near what I'm paying here in California for earthquake and fire insurance, but it is something to consider when when purchasing a place in Japan.
Speaker: All right, Joey, a lot about earthquakes. Unfortunately, that's the real truth about Japan. The reality. Yep. I do feel like our house would not have survived, maybe would not have survived even after this earthquake, proofing that we're getting the contract we're doing. If the no -do earthquake had happened in Beppu, our house is flimsy, to be honest.
Speaker: Yeah, I mean some of the things they were doing that were actually interesting is we talked to our contractor He's putting in like an earthquake secco board. What is secco board like plaster board or something? No, it's drywall. It was just drywall gypsum. Yeah, okay, maybe yeah, it's like a specific drywall that has you know
Speaker: According to the earthquake code, this is what should be used type of thing. I don't know if it has some flex to it or, or what it's used for, but that is part of the retrofitting he's doing to bring it up to the current earthquake standards. Yeah.
Speaker: Joey, what would you say to the buyer who's interested in Japan who's just seen this earthquake happen and is, you know, kind of on the fence of buying a Japan because they're afraid of these natural disasters? Tough question. Yeah. I mean, I'm still bullish. I think they should still go for it. It is something to be cognizant of though. I trust in their, the, the earthquake stand there. I trust in their building codes. I believe that they've done.
Speaker: that current building codes are probably the best earthquake proof building codes on the planet at the moment. So I think if you were to buy a property and then just make sure your contract sticks to those rules in the updated earthquake building code, I think you have the best shot out of anybody.
Speaker: of having your home survive that earthquake. So it is a reality on the ground. It is a very natural disaster prone country. I still think that the benefits outweigh the risk here. Totally. And reminiscing, I remember seeing like the aftershocks, I was there at least in Japan for some of the aftershocks, seeing some of the buildings just sway, seemed very, I was like, whoa, that's amazing. Human architecture can start capturing, I don't know, being seismic resistant.
Speaker: They've got a test lab, an earthquake test lab in Kobe where they built, they built it after the 95 Kobe earthquake. It's this giant floor that moves and they build like two scale buildings in it. It's massive building. And they build like two scale buildings inside of that on top of this floor. And they take a historical earthquake data from seismographs. So this, this floor can move in like.
Speaker: in all three, on all three axes, you know, X axis, Y axis, Z axis. And so they, they basically map the exact same earthquake so that they can take the Fukushima earthquake, the Kobe earthquake, and then see how a building will perform under that, those exact conditions. I feel like Japan's gone this far in terms of updating their building code that they built this huge earthquake laboratory. Like I trust in their building code standards. If you can get your building up to those standards, I trust in that.
Speaker: Yeah, I guess the silver lining is that Japan's so used to these earthquakes that they're probably more ready than any country. If California or when California or San Francisco goes through another earthquake, I can't say confidently that we're going to be in good shape after it. So I do believe that the constant rebuild culture of Japan long -term has some value, right? And to your point that the testing and the thought behind the buildings now are
Speaker: It's going to be on top of everyone, every builder's mind in Japan of, Hey, is my place earthquake proof? Hopefully our contractors thinking that as well. We should actually message them about that. Yeah. So cool. Well, that's it for today. We got.
Speaker: So far in Japan, there's been an earthquake since we bought our house. There's been a fire. We haven't had tsunamis, typhoons, volcano eruptions, landslides, or floods. But hey, we're in it for the long run. Let's see if we can... Hopefully we don't check off these boxes, but we're ready for them. Yeah. 2024. Big things. 2024. Let's go. All right. See you later.
