Japanese Real Estate Glossary
112 terms every foreign buyer meets in listings, contracts, and registry records — with kanji, readings, and plain-English definitions.
住所と土地の特定
Addresses & Finding Land
Japan runs two parallel systems for identifying property: postal addresses and registry lot numbers. Understanding the difference is step one of any property research.
不動産登記
The Property Registry (Touki)
Japan's property registry is public: anyone can pull the official record for any parcel and see its owners, mortgages, and liens. These are the terms you will meet on the record itself.
売買の流れと関係者
People & the Buying Process
Who does what in a Japanese property transaction, and the documents you will sign along the way.
本人確認と地面師詐欺
Seller Verification & Fraud
A Japanese sale is only good if the person signing is the owner, or someone the owner actually authorised. These are the documents the registry asks for to establish that, the checks it runs when they are missing, and the fraud those checks exist to stop.
価格・税金・費用
Prices, Taxes & Fees
Japan publishes several official land prices, and a purchase triggers a series of one-time and annual taxes. These terms tell you what a property really costs.
都市計画と建築規制
Zoning & Building Rules
Whether you can build, or rebuild, on a piece of land is governed by planning law. Many of Japan's cheapest properties are cheap precisely because of these rules.
物件の種類と権利形態
Property Types & Tenure
From akiya to manshon: what the common property categories mean, and the ownership structures behind them.
土地の状態と災害リスク
Land Condition & Hazards
Boundaries, slopes, floods, and landslides. The physical realities that separate a bargain from a liability.
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