Japan vacant houses every rate verified
Akiya Cost CalculatorWhat a cheap Japanese house actually costs, before you fall for a photograph
A house advertised at ¥3,000,000 costs
¥9,108,000
Three times the asking price, once tax, fees and the work are in.
Every figure updates as you type. Nothing is sent anywhere; the maths runs in your browser.
Typical all-in cost, including renovation
¥6,608,000
Range ¥6,608,000 to ¥11,608,000 about US$40,500 to US$71,200
The one-off costs of transferring a Japanese house into your name, at the figures you entered.
Judicial scrivener fees are shown at the midpoint of a range. Everything else is calculated exactly from the rates in force today.
The same fixed fees weigh far more on a cheap house. This is why a ¥500,000 akiya is never a ¥500,000 decision.
Three mistakes account for almost every bad estimate in English. None of them are obscure; they are just tedious to get right.
1.5% and 2.0%
charged on the assessed value, not on what you pay
Registration and acquisition tax use the assessed value in the municipal register. On a cheap akiya that figure often sits close to, or above, the sale price, because land holds its value while the building depreciates to a floor. Multiply an asking price by a tax rate and you are guessing.
¥106,200
what the same house costs extra if you will not live in it
The 0.3% registration rate and the deduction of up to ¥12,000,000 from acquisition tax are real, and they are quoted constantly. Both need a municipal certificate that you will occupy the house as your own home. Buy a holiday house from abroad and you get neither.
4 measures
expire in March 2027, including three used above
Japanese property tax relief arrives as temporary measures with statutory end dates. While building this I found the National Tax Agency's own web page still showing an expiry that had already passed; only the April 2026 notice was current. If a page will not tell you when it was checked, assume it is stale.
Japan does not tax foreigners differently. It taxes non-occupants differently, and almost every English guide blurs the two.
Land under a home is taxed on one sixth of its value, up to 200 m². That reduction is the reason Japanese property tax bills look small.
Since the 2023 amendment to the Vacant Houses Act, a municipality can designate a poorly maintained house as 管理不全空家等. Once it issues a formal recommendation, the reduction is withdrawn and the land reverts to its full value.
Calculated from your inputs. The often quoted six times applies to the land base alone, so the bill on a whole property rises by less than that. An empty house on the other side of the world is exactly the case this law was written for.
Ranges are wide because the work is driven by what the building has been through, not by its floor area. A sound roof and dry timber change the number more than square metres do.
Seismic reinforcement typically runs ¥1,500,000 to ¥2,000,000 and insulation about ¥3,000,000. Both sit inside the full restoration band.
Short answers. Where a number appears, it is the same number the calculator uses.
Yes. There is no nationality or residency restriction on owning land or buildings, and no minimum stay. Buying property does not grant you a visa, and no amount of property will. What changes with residency is the tax relief you can claim, not your right to buy.
No, but it costs more. Without a Japanese residence record you cannot produce the usual certificates, so a judicial scrivener prepares a sworn affidavit and translations instead. Budget ¥120,000 to ¥230,000 rather than ¥80,000 to ¥150,000, and expect the paperwork to take longer.
Since July 2024 a property at or under ¥8,000,000 carries a cap of ¥330,000 including consumption tax, and the agent may charge it to the buyer as well as the seller. On a ¥1,000,000 house the ordinary 3% formula would produce ¥99,000; in practice you will be asked for the cap. It is legal, and it is a large part of why cheap houses are not cheap.
Land under a home is taxed on one sixth of its value up to 200 m². Since the 2023 amendment to the Vacant Houses Act a municipality can designate a poorly maintained house as 管理不全空家等, and once it issues a formal recommendation that reduction is withdrawn. The land portion reverts to full value, six times the reduced base. An empty house owned from abroad is exactly the case the law was written for.
It changes what you can claim. Buildings dated before 1 January 1982 fall under the old seismic code. Without a conformity certificate, surveyed within two years of purchase, you lose the registration reduction and the used-home deduction entirely. Most akiya worth the name are pre-1982, so this is the normal case, not the exception.
Yes, on the property. You must also appoint a 納税管理人, someone resident in Japan who receives your tax notices and pays on your behalf. This is a legal requirement rather than a convenience. A friend can do it; a firm will charge.
They are good enough to decide whether to keep looking at a house, and not good enough to sign anything. The assessed value is the weak point: until you have the 固定資産税評価証明書 from the seller, the tax lines are an educated estimate. Ask for it early. It is one sheet of paper and it changes the answer.
Japanese property tax reliefs are temporary measures with statutory expiry dates. Anything published without a date goes stale quietly.
| Item | Rate used | In force until | Source |
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Checked against primary sources on 26 July 2026. This tool gives an estimate for planning. It is not tax advice, and a licensed 税理士 or 司法書士 should confirm the figures before you commit.
When a house comes up that fits, I will email you. I am not an agent and I take nothing from your purchase.
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I am one person in Japan, not a brokerage. I passed the national real estate licence exam (宅地建物取引士), and from 2027 I will be buying and restoring these houses myself rather than only writing about them.
I built this because every English guide I read either skipped the assessed value or quoted rates that had already expired. Every photograph on this page is one I took. Nothing here is generated.
I do not act as an agent and I take no cut of anyone's purchase. If a question comes up that I cannot answer, I will say so.
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