This is a followup to my January 2, 2024 post: “What does it mean to BORROW land in Japan?”,
which can be found at:
[https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/18wpl5l/what\_does\_it\_mean\_to\_borrow\_land\_in\_japan/](https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/18wpl5l/what_does_it_mean_to_borrow_land_in_japan/)
Thanks to all the kind Redditers who commented on my January 2 post. I’ve found your responses both interesting and informative.
There is more to this post, though. And I think I may get more clarification from the r/japanlife community if I provide more detail.
My wife recently passed away (September 2023) leaving me and my son. My son grew up in this house (since age 2), and I am retired (US Social Security). With my current cost of shelter — 36,000 Yen / year, which includes tax on the house and rent for the land — we are able to make ends meet fairly comfortably on just the retirement pension. The valuation for the house on our receipts from City Hall is: 228,000 Yen.
I have been here the whole time (16 years) on a Spousal visa. But now that my wife is gone, I need to apply for a new visa. Part of the problem is that my wife took care of everything, and I don’t know everything about our relationship (financial/legal) with the land owner, or with the house owner. My wife never said anything about a contract, and I have not found any paperwork about it.
We pay the house tax directly to the local City Hall and the land rent into a bank account owned by the land owner. The land owner is not inclined to talk to us, and the house owner (of apparently more advance years than myself) seemed not to remember anything about the house, but did sign a form to give us the house. He later changed his mind (at least until his son had time to learn more about the circumstances surrounding the house — the son did not give the impression of knowing much, if anything, about the house, either).
We’re not interested in this house as a financial investment. We regard it simply as our home. We don’t want to leave and don’t know where we could go if we had to (hard to find shelter for 36,000 Yen / year). An Administrative Scrivener has advised me that it would be better for my residence status if I OWNED THE HOUSE, and even better if I OWNED THE LAND. The reasoning he gives for this is that, if the house changes hands (which I can see happening, given the owner’s advanced age), the new owner (probably his son) might not allow us to stay. Therefore, we would be considered by Immigration as that much less financially stable, since we would probably have to move someplace a lot more expensive.
But my idea about our tenure in the house is that, since the valuation of the house is so low (and house values tend to decline with time — especially in rural / semi-rural areas like ours), it is unlikely that anyone would want this house and be willing to pay anything for it. So I don’t see the owner (more likely his son) thinking of it as an investment. And, if it is required (by law?) for the owner to have the house torn down when he leaves — a pretty costly operation — there is little reason for him to want to keep it.
So isn’t that some kind of security for us?
But just in case the owner (or his son) does decide to tell us to leave, do we have to?
And likewise, can the land owner force the owner of the house to leave?
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