1. The Japanese legal system has been overhauled to allow regular citizens access to it and has simplified procedures and rules to admit anyone, even foreigners, with basic knowledge (ability to read and write) the right (yes, legal right) to access the courts. This means anyone not an illegal alien can walk into a court house anywhere in the country and state their grievances in writing and the court is obligated to take it up for them. It might as well be written in the cement walls. When you deal with the courts there is no hanky panky, wishy washy, well maybe this, maybe that, greasing of palms, sort of thing AT ALL. If there is, it won't be there for long. Maybe you don't believe me...OK.

So the logical question is:  Why would anybody want to buy something this way?

A: Three reasons 1. Price 2. Price, and 3. Price, because it is the only way you can legally get real estate at desperate discount value quickly, and efficiently, unless someone happens to walk up to you on the street and give it to you.  Which is more likely to happen?

JAPAN  HAS AND WILL CONTINUE TO ATTRACT PEOPLE FOR ECONOMIC REASONS (teaching English is an easy job to get, not so easy to do)

There are a lot of people who have come to Japan  from many countries as students, laborers, teachers in the JET program,  executives, and just the curious who stay for a few years and move on. This is fine.  There are also many who would sincerely like to put down roots here if they could for many reasons, mainly economic such as  business, but also family, and personal. Many of these give up (or wish they had given up earlier), and find the traditional Japanese methods of obtaining a home daunting at least,  and usually another dead end. There are also those out there who without the financial means to cut it in Japanese society, without a full time job, getting by on a combination of this and that or even having a full time position somewhere respectable, who find the doors closed to gaijin by Japanese real estate establishments and respective financial loan institutions. At this point these people usually give up and move on. 

I decided to take action based on some common knowledge.

Since the collapse of the economic bubble in 1991-92, real estate prices have fallen 50% for residential and 80% for commercial property in Japan. Combine this with pressure on banks to unload bad debt, stubborn deflation, rising personal and commercial insolvency, an aging population, among other things, and what you have is a growing opportunity to take advantage of judicial court foreclosures to pick up distressed real estate property in the country at bargain basement prices. Foreign investment groups like Ripplewood Inc.among others, have at this time already bought about 200 golf courses from Japanese companies forced into bankruptcy along with condominiums, office buildings, department stores, resorts, railroad lines, and the list keeps getting bigger all the time.  The same thing is happening and will continue to happen individually on a smaller scale. 

So knowing this, this was the conversation I had with myself, and the answers I found.

Q: Don't I need a lot of money to start with? 
A: NO!  They (the Pros) do it with a lot more money to start with, but they make a lot more too.
Q: Do they know something I don't know?
A: Of course they do, they are highly trained professionals well funded and organized with tremendous resources at their disposal.
Q: Well,...  is it possible to do something like what they do, only on a smaller scale?
A: Yes, anybody can buy distressed properties in Japan.
Q: I see...Then why doesn't everybody do it?
A: They do, they are called professional real estate agents, they do it for the money.
Q: How can I compete with them?
A: By knowing more than they do.
 

Aahh...so!  I wondered if a gaijin individual could do the same thing without so much cash to invest on a smaller scale. I decided to give it a try because the financial risk is small in comparison to the potential gain (a place to live).

In our local, the newspaper lists all properties and their location that have been processed by the court for the month. This usually comes out the last Friday of the month in our prefecture. We noticed one property listed in our small village and decided to investigate it. We went to the court house and asked to see the file on the property we were interested in. The clerk informed us that we could see it and that we were allowed to make photo copies if we so desired. The court had records of the type of debt, a diagram of the property, the full names and address of the current owners, photos of the outside of the property, along with copies of registration documents and other particulars. In our case the property was 800 tsubo of land (about 2500 square meters - a little over a half acre) a large old farm house, several out buildings, a garage and a recently built small home separate from the main house. Also listed  will be how much the minimum amount for a bid to be accepted will be. In our case we put down just a little over the minimum amount and it was the second time it had been auctioned. It was not desirable for the pros because people were living in it at the time, so would have to be evicted. Then if you want to put a bid in on it, you have to fill out some forms, but they aren't difficult, then put 290,000 yen as a deposit into the court's bank account. If your bid is successful this amount is applied to the purchase of the property and if not successful, it is returned to you. Then you put your bid into a box and wait to see what happens. I just told the court officials that this was my first time and they walked us through it. They were helpful enough.  I had to submit a 'gaijin toryoku kisai jiko shomeishou' from the city office which proves I have permanent residency. We put our bid of 1.5 million yen in the box.  We went to the opening of the box 'ceremony' at the court house, it was very interesting because of the reaction of the 100 or so people present when my GAIJIN name was put up on the board as the winner,  but you don't have to be there. The property we bid on was valued at 8 million yen by the court (very conservative) and we got it for what we bid on