Japan's housing market is grappling with an oversupply crisis, marked by nearly 9 million vacant properties and an 80% surge in vacancy rates over two decades. This trend, driven by demographic shifts like declining birth rates, poses economic and safety challenges. Potential solutions, such as foreign investment or immigration, are complicated by Japan's insular culture and economic considerations.

Other travellers have also transitioned from being mere tourists to becoming proud holiday home owners. In this article, we’ll focus on the most popular ski resort locations - namely Niseko, Hakuba and Myoko, where many foreigners have been purchasing holiday homes in recent years.

The Japan Real Estate Experts Panel (JREP) members have gathered at a beautiful venue in Tokyo, bringing together over 80 Japan real estate property enthusiasts to talk shop, gather info and network, at a phenomenal event which will surely be the first of many!

Japan’s housing market is out of line with the country’s demographic reality. Annual births have fallen from 1.19 million in 2000 to an all-time low of 810,000 in 2021, with the COVID-19 pandemic pushing the figure below even government predictions. At the same time, high-rise condominiums are going up one after another in cities, and land, including agricultural plots, in suburbs and regional municipalities is steadily being converted to residential lots. What is behind this state of affairs?

Japan said on Tuesday it will ask households and companies across the country to conserve electricity within "a reasonable range" during the peak winter demand season to alleviate a possible power crunch in the world's third largest economy. Japan's power supply has been tight in recent years as nuclear power plants have been slow to restart after the 2011 Fukushima nuclear disaster.

Japan's sluggish economy, already weakened before the pandemic, faces the possible collapse of its national currency. The Japanese government is walking back years of harsh travel restrictions as the yen collapses in value due to a stagnant economy and weak trade. Japan until recently has all but completely rejected foreigners seeking entry or re-entry into the country. What can it do to get back on its feet? "Amid the weakening yen, [incoming tourism] will have the greatest effect," Kihara said, according to the Japan Times. "And there are the autumn leaves and powder snow. There are many foreign visitors who want to come visit Japan."

These homes are packed with charm, full of history and quickly disappearing. Over the last 30 years, Alex Kerr has given 574 presentations on the cultural importance of Japan’s minka (traditional village homes). For the first 573, his audiences were filled with nothing but local bureaucrats skeptical about lifting a finger to preserve these striking properties. “They all had to be convinced that minka are not worthless but wonderful,” Kerr told the audience at the Minka Summit, the site of the noted Japanologist’s 574th such presentation. “The people who are coming to this conference are really doing (things with) minka. You don’t need to be convinced that minka are wonderful.”

Japan is set to more than double the number of people it will allow into the country and may scrap the need for a negative Covid-19 test to enter, as the last rich economy with stringent entry requirements still in place looks to join the rest of the world in easing pandemic curbs.