This article may contain affiliate or sponsored links. Listing order is not a ranking or endorsement. See footer for details.

Last updated: 2026-07-12  ·  TokyoEstate Guides

Japan Mortgage for Foreigners: What Banks Usually Want to See

Buying property in Japan may be legally possible for a foreign national. Getting the mortgage is a different file.

Two questions that get merged and shouldn't be

Whether a foreign national can own property in Japan is a legal question, and the short answer — covered in more depth in our guide on foreign ownership — is that Japan places no blanket restriction on foreign buyers. Whether a bank will lend you money to buy that property is a completely different question, decided by a private institution applying its own risk policy. Agents sometimes blur the two, because from a sales perspective they look like the same transaction. From a lender's desk, they are not. A bank is not evaluating whether you are allowed to own the apartment; it is evaluating whether you are likely to still be in the country, still earning, and still reachable in twenty or thirty years.

That distinction is worth sitting with before you start touring properties, because the mortgage conversation can end a plan that the ownership conversation never would have. Better to find that out early than after you've made an offer.

What the major banks are actually looking for

For a standard home mortgage from one of Japan's large domestic banks, the practical starting point is residency status. Most major banks generally want to see Permanent Residency (永住権), or marriage to a Japanese national, or some other form of long-term settled status, before they will extend an ordinary home loan on ordinary terms. This is a general posture across the mainstream lending market, not a rule written into law — individual banks set their own policy, and policy changes. MUFG, Mizuho, Sumitomo Mitsui, and Resona are useful examples of banks that broadly follow this pattern, and they're named here as illustrations of how the mainstream market tends to behave, not as an endorsement or a suggestion that any of them will approve a given applicant.

If you don't yet hold PR and aren't married to a Japanese national, this doesn't necessarily close the door — but it does mean you're stepping outside what the mainstream banks treat as their standard applicant, and the rest of this article is largely about what that looks like.

The other boxes lenders check

Residency status is the headline filter, but it isn't the only thing a loan officer is weighing. In practice, expect banks to also look at:

• Visa type and how much time is left on it. A visa nearing expiry, or one tied closely to a specific employer, reads as more uncertain than a longer, more portable status.
• Where your income is earned. Stable income earned in Japan is generally treated as more reliable collateral for a Japan-based loan than income earned abroad, even if the amount is comparable.
• How long you've been employed and resident in Japan. A longer track record in the same job, or in the country generally, tends to read better than a recent arrival, even with a strong salary.
• Whether you can handle the paperwork in Japanese. Loan documentation is often Japanese-only, and lenders vary in how much English-language support, if any, they provide during underwriting.

None of these are codified minimums in the way a legal residency requirement would be. They're the typical criteria a loan officer weighs case by case, and different institutions weight them differently. A strong showing on income and tenure sometimes offsets a weaker visa position; sometimes it doesn't. This is exactly the kind of thing worth asking a specific lender rather than assuming from a general list.

If you're living outside Japan, the picture changes completely

Here's the part worth being blunt about: if you're a non-resident — living overseas and looking at a Tokyo property from a distance, whether as a future home or as an investment — mainstream Japanese banks generally will not extend a mortgage to you. Standard home loans are typically restricted to residents of Japan. This isn't a matter of a stricter version of the criteria above; it's usually outside the product altogether.

Most buyers in that position end up paying in cash, or arranging financing through a bank or lender in their home country against other assets or income there. Neither path is a workaround for financing through a Japanese bank while living abroad — that route generally isn't available through the mainstream market. If someone tells you otherwise, get it in writing from the actual lender before you plan around it.

A narrower category worth knowing about

There is a distinct category of Japan-based lenders that market home loan products specifically to non-permanent-resident foreign nationals who are living in Japan — a different situation from the non-resident case above, since these borrowers are Japan residents, just without PR or a Japanese spouse. Some Japan-based banks — for instance Tokyo Star Bank, SMBC Trust Bank PRESTIA, Shinsei-affiliated lenders, or Suruga Bank on a case-by-case basis — offer loan products aimed at this group, subject to conditions each institution sets.

Naming these isn't an endorsement, and it isn't a promise that any of them will approve you or that current terms will look a particular way — loan products, eligibility rules, and pricing in this segment change, sometimes more often than in the mainstream market. Treat this as a starting list of where to make inquiries, not a shortlist of pre-qualified offers.

What to expect on the money you bring yourself

If you're financing through this non-PR-resident lender category rather than through a mainstream bank, plan on funding a larger share of the purchase price and closing costs from your own savings than a Japanese resident borrower typically would. Lenders serving foreign, non-PR borrowers tend to apply more conservative lending limits on the property's value than they do for their standard resident applicants, which shifts more of the total onto cash you already hold. There's no single figure to give here — it varies by lender, by property, and by applicant — but the direction is consistent enough to plan around: expect to put more down and keep more cash on hand, and check current terms with the lender before you count on a particular number.

A candid closing note

None of this is meant to discourage a foreign buyer from pursuing a property in Japan — plenty of people in each of the three situations above go on to buy. It's meant to get the financing conversation started before the property search does, because the mortgage almost never resolves itself on the same timeline as finding a place you like. Talk to a specific lender, ask about your specific situation, and get an answer in writing before you let yourself get attached to a listing. This article is general information, not financial advice, and it can't tell you what a particular bank will decide about your particular application — only a loan officer at that bank can.

If you're still working out whether you can own property in Japan at all before you get to the financing question, that's the logical place to start:

• Can Foreigners Buy Property in Japan? — ownership rights, visa status, and land restriction points
• How to Buy Property in Japan — step-by-step from offer to title registration
• Pre-Contact Due-Diligence Checklist — what to confirm, including financing, before you approach a seller

References

• Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO), Investing in Japan. jetro.go.jp/en/invest. Accessed 2026-06-27.