Lifestyle May 17, 2020
Life in your Japanese apartment doesn’t have to be a life sentence
by Rebecca Saunders
Having trouble with working from home? Try delegating spaces and a few other tricks to maintain a work-life balance.
Lifestyle Apr 20, 2019
Downsized dwellings: Inside Tokyo's tiny living spaces
by Alex Martin
Twenty-five-year-old Sotaro Ito lives in a 9.46-square-meter apartment with a loft in the capital's retro-hip Koenji district. His apartment looks more like an office cubicle, with a desk and computer chair dominating a third of the room. A reading pillow is propped up against one ...
National / Media | MEDIA MIX Feb 23, 2019
Leopalace21 scandal highlights the risk tenants face in Japan compared to building owners
by Philip Brasor
The theme of the Nippon Television series "Shiawase! Bonbi Girl" (“Happy Poor Girls”) is one of the most resilient on Japanese television: People of limited means getting by. As the title indicates, the subject is young women and one of the regular segments, "Jokyo ...
How-tos | HOME TRUTHS Apr 1, 2018
New minpaku law will alter Japan's rental and hospitality landscape
by Philip Brasor and Masako Tsubuku
A new law will go into effect in June to regulate minpaku, private residences rented out by their owners as short-term lodgings. To most, the new law will address changes that have occurred in recent years due to the rise of Airbnb, the ...
How-tos | HOME TRUTHS Mar 4, 2018
Doling out some truths about Japan's 'share houses'
by Philip Brasor and Masako Tsubuku
Many Japanese people are wary of investment as a means of growing their savings. There are a variety of reasons for this caution, so most keep their money in a bank, gaining almost no interest in the process, in the hope that they won't ...
How-tos | HOME TRUTHS Feb 11, 2018
Condo management is in need of repairs
by Philip Brasor and Masako Tsubuku
On Dec. 18, the Supreme Court's petit bench ruled against a man from Fukuoka Prefecture who was suing the management association (kanri kumiai) of his condominium for firing him as its president of the board (rijicho) because the regulations of the association contained no ...
How-tos | LIFELINES Jan 14, 2018
Beware the patter about purchasing property to rent out around Tokyo
by Daniel Brooks
At seminars targeting expat investors, don't expect to hear the whole story about Japan's rental market.
How-tos | HOME TRUTHS Dec 31, 2017
Lessons about Japan's school catchment areas
by Philip Brasor and Masako Tsubuku
A neighbor recently asked us to sign a petition requesting that the local education committee keep a certain elementary school open. Due to falling enrollment, students who attended the school would be transferred to a different one in the near future. Since the ...
How-tos | HOME TRUTHS Dec 3, 2017
Can a death kill property value?
by Philip Brasor and Masako Tsubuku
The apartment in Zama, Kanagawa Prefecture, where police found the remains of nine bodies in late October is one of 12 units in a two-story wooden apartment building located 10 minutes from Sobudai Station on the Odakyu Odawara line. Each unit consists of one ...
How-tos | HOME TRUTHS Nov 5, 2017
A gut feeling that you need an extra toilet
by Philip Brasor and Masako Tsubuku
Everybody knows that Japan produces the most technologically advanced toilets in the world. They pretty much do everything except pull up your pants when you're finished. And one of the more pleasant surprises greeting foreign visitors to Japan is the ubiquity and accessibility of ...
How-tos | HOME TRUTHS Oct 1, 2017
Re-registering property: The lie of the land
by Philip Brasor and Masako Tsubuku
According to an article that appeared in the Asahi Shimbun last June, authorities are unsure of the title holders to 4.1 million hectares of land in Japan — in total, an area equivalent in size to the island of Kyushu. Though this problem has ...
Voices | FOREIGN AGENDA Sep 25, 2017
Buying a house in Japan can be an investment in joy
by Damian Flanagan
The "return" on your investment in a home in Japan is best measured in terms of the pleasure it will yield and the doorway to the intimacies of community and the Japanese mind it will lure you into.