I've been keeping a journal and timeline of my experiences so far in purchasing land and thought I'd share, since I couldn't find the same type of info when I was searching for it a few months ago. Hopefully someone finds it useful.
— Background —
I built a house in Okinawa back around 2008 and live here with my wife and kids. We love it, but Okinawa is very small and we were interested in joining the Akiya/Akichi hunt after seeing some of the prices of things. Why not?
I'm 40 and my budget for this whole thing is perhaps 6 million to start or up to 15-20M if I found something that was spectacular and I wanted to jump on it. At this time, I'm still considering this as a Besso type deal and don't plan to move away from Okinawa, but I'm open to that changing once I finally get a place and start to spend time there.
Our interests are camping, domestic traveling (international too, obviously, but for the sake of this post I figured I'd specify that I'm interested in learning more about actual Japan, not just this tiny island I've been isolated on for over two decades), motorcycle touring, classic and sports cars, photography and onsen. I own a few classic cars and would like to move the majority of my projects and things out of my garage in Okinawa to somewhere in mainland due to size constraints here and rust/humidity.
A few years back I went on a motorcycle tour and hit every prefecture. This really solidified my forming concept of buying a house or some land somewhere not Okinawa. After my tour was complete, I took the time to draft a map of areas of the country that felt special to me and started to focus on house hunting in those areas. That list was (some of this is funny, looking back on it): Northern Niigata, Nagano, Anything around the minami-Alps, Chigasaki to Kamakura, Yamanashi, Wakayama and southern Biwako, Anything in Shikoku, Anything in Oita and most of Kyushu but trying to avoid being land locked and limited, since that's the same problem I have in Okinawa. Getting a new place in Kagoshima would really do nothing for me except save me a ferry ride, so that's kind of silly.
I spent about 18 months looking at Akiya on various banks, trying to learn some of the lingo, gotchas, etc. I even went on a trip up to Nagano to check out some of the cheap cabins that they have for sale up there. They are nice, but don't really lend themselves to building a garage/workshop around them and I'm also really not wanting to get into any type of subscription where I'm paying 7man per year for snow removal and stuff. Also, After making the drive (yes, I drove from Okinawa) to Nagano, it's damn far.
I realized that I should simplify things and also try to stay within the "same day" of travel for arrival to Kagoshima ferry port in the morning (every day ferry between Okinawa and Kagoshima).
A bunch of discussion took place and my wife and I realized that we were just looking at too many things and need to focus. We chose Oita. We love Oita. We've been there many times. Love Beppu and Yufuin and Hita and the mountains, food, seasons, onsen…. We're Oita people, even though we don't live there yet. My wife also started to get really hesitant to buy an Akiya after checking the condition of most places and just not wanting another old thing that needs tons of work. One day we made the decision that we're going to build everything brand new and we're looking for the right piece of land. This made the search much easier and there was a big feeling of relief deciding on Oita.
We browsed the normal sites for a few months and narrowed down the list to 5 plots of land. Last spring, I made another trip up to Oita in my car and went to see the 5 plots of land. The pictures definitely don't tell you the story, you need to GO THERE to see anything you're considering. One place I thought I would really like, I was turned off by a bunch of yappy dogs and an asshole neighbor who had a farm growing well into the land that was for sale and he really thought it was his land. Not a good start to a long term relationship.
So we found "the one" and decided to move forward. It's a tad over 1000sqm and divided into 3 parts. About 30% total is hatake and tanbo. The rest is residential zoned with no coverage ratio limits, no city planning, etc. We're about 20 minutes outside of Beppu and 25 minutes from Yufuin, but just in that lower corner of Usa on route 500, close enough to the expressway. It's a flat corner lot with over 60 meters of road contact, over 180m elevation, no disaster area, etc.
I initially asked the fudosan if it would be possible to convert the two farmland plots, since I have no interest in farming, but this was rejected due to having over 225 tsubo of residential land. They didn't see the need for it to be over 300 tsubo of residential land. Okay, I wasn't planning to build on that part of the land anyway, so no big deal. But wait… "You need approval from the local JA committee and need to be a Japanese farmer to purchase farmland here." Okay, I guess I'm a farmer then. So here's how it all went:
— Timeline —
Day -27. Found the land on Suumo
Day -26. Emailed the fudosan asking for more info/details
Day -20. Confirmed that there is no water connection, but it's available on the street and waste is Septic.
Day -9. Visit the land for the first time
Day -6. Meet fudosan at the land
Day 0 Sign letter of intent to purchase at fudosan office after negotiating a price verbally
Day 4 Owner agrees to selling price
Day 11 Coordinate some details on water drainage
Day 14 Contract drafted and sent to owners (ownership split 4 ways between kids who live in Tokyo)
Day 17 Setup meeting with agricultural scrivener and introductions
Day 20 Meeting confirmed with agricultural scrivener and discussion on my "farming plan" to be submitted to Oita JA
Day 27 Meeting with agricultural scrivener. Discuss my farming experience (none) and draft my farming plan.
Day 39 Commit to being on the land for 150 days per year for 3 years and tending the land
Day 40 Agricultural scrivener requests my Zairyu Card and Jyumin
Day 41 Agricultural scrivener contacted by Oita JA and they want to meet on-site to discuss the farming plan with me
Day 44 Agricultural scrivener asks "where will I stay" for committing to the 150 days per year to be on-site. Response sent –> Plan to immediately build a small house or install a unit house to start.
Day 64 Meeting date confirmed with Oita JA and will also stop by fudosan office that day to sign the real contract
Day 75 On-site meeting with Oita JA. This was super easy and they didn't ask anything about my farming plan or experience. Their only concern was that I not mess up adjacent farmland with pesticides. That's all. Verbal approval from Oita JA. Real contract signed with fudosan.
Day 77 Initial deposit furikomi sent to land owner bank account. This was my first actual money I've had to pay in the process.
Day 82 Email approval from Oita JA committee with the official approval document to be stamped a few days later.
Day 92 Written approval from Oita JA sent to fudosan
Day 97 Oita JA approval document contents emailed to me as a PDF and I confirm the contents are correct. City office paperwork now in progress for actual land ownership transfer
Still awaiting the final documents and payment, but my contract says it all needs to be wrapped up by July 31.
Hope this was useful for someone about to buy, so you know roughly what to expect. Obviously this may be much easier or more difficult depending on the prefecture, type of land, location of the owners, etc.
One thing that is taking a long time is the back and forth of paper documents to the owners in Tokyo and then to the fudosan in Oita and then down to me in Okinawa. Also, no loans involved here. All cash.
Cheers!
Edits:
Day 105 Received a letterpack with a bunch of things from my scrivener to stamp and send back.
by dshbak