Onigiri
Bite-size Japan real estate
Big market, small bites — Japan's property market decoded from real transaction data, minus the spreadsheet.
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Inheritance tax follows the property, not the passport
Your heirs inherit a Japanese tax bill with the condo — and Tokyo just moved to make homes easier to build.
Why banks won't touch that ¥5M house
Japan's cheap old homes have a financing wall — and closing day still runs on a stamp.
The insurance gap under every Japanese roof
Your fire policy ignores earthquakes — and the tax office is watching your calendar.
Japan's courts are quietly selling property
Court auctions are the market's hidden aisle — cheap, real, and strictly as-is.
Japan's empty home tax squeeze begins
New rules make it pricier to let grandma's house sit empty.
Japan's zoning: where bakeries meet bedrooms
Japanese zoning laws keep neighborhoods lively.
Japan's property tax secret sauce
How Japan keeps property taxes surprisingly low.
The 1981 Building Line: Japan's Seismic Shift
A pivotal date that changes real estate fortunes.
Foreigners: Japan Welcomes Your Property Dreams
No residency or citizenship needed to own in Japan.
Tokyo is in a league of its own
Japan's big cities, head to head — and the capital costs 4.3× the cheapest.
Tokyo is 23 different cities
Inside the capital, the priciest ward costs 3.3× the cheapest — and they're all "Tokyo."
It's the dirt that matters
In Japanese property the building is a melting ice cube — the land is the whole story.
Tokyo lost the condo race
Japan's property map redrew itself in six years — and the capital wasn't the winner you'd expect.
Tokyo nearly doubled, the countryside's on sale
Three things Japan's property market did that don't fit on a postcard.