General information only — not legal, tax, or investment advice This article describes, in general terms, what a buyer can and cannot check from public sources before contacting an agent about a property in Japan. It is not legal, tax, or investment advice, and it is not a substitute for the checks a licensed specialist performs on your own transaction. Laws, disclosure rules, and procedures change, and any single listing can differ from the general case. For a specific property, rely on the written explanation from a licensed real estate agent (宅建士), and consult a judicial scrivener (司法書士), lawyer, or tax accountant (税理士) where relevant. Information is provided as of 2026-07-10; verify current rules with official sources before acting.

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Last updated: 2026-07-10  ·  TokyoEstate

Before You Email the Agent: A Pre-Contact Due Diligence Checklist

The inquiry form is the cheapest step in a Japanese property purchase, and it is where most foreign buyers spend the least thought. You paste a listing URL, you write "is this still available," and you wait. What comes back is a sales conversation you are not yet equipped to steer. A better order exists. Before you send anything, an hour with public records does two things: it tells you whether a listing deserves your attention, and it hands you the questions worth asking when you make contact.

Line-art illustration of a due-diligence flat-lay: a clipboard checklist with one red check mark, a magnifying glass over a floor-plan sketch, a folded map and a pen

Why the homework changes the conversation

Two things happen when you check a listing before you write to the agent. You ask sharper questions, and you filter faster. An agent fielding "tell me about this apartment" hears a browser. An agent fielding "the building is from 1978, so was it retrofitted after the 1981 standard, and can I see the repair-reserve statement" hears a buyer who will not waste the office's time.

Filtering is the quieter benefit. Most listings that reach your screen will not survive a careful public-records pass. Learning to drop them yourself, before an email thread starts, is the difference between viewing three properties and viewing thirty. None of this replaces the professionals. It changes what you bring to them.

What public sources can tell you

A surprising amount of a listing is checkable without contacting anyone. The building's age sits in the listing itself, and it carries more weight than it looks. Japan tightened its earthquake-resistance rules in a revision that took effect in 1981, usually called the new seismic standard (shin-taishin). A building whose construction permit predates that change was designed to an older rule. Age alone does not condemn a structure, and many older buildings were later reinforced. A pre-1981 date is still worth a direct question about seismic retrofitting. Confirm the specifics against the Building Standards Act framework the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism administers, and treat any retrofit claim as something to verify in writing later.

Hazard exposure is public too. The national Hazard Map Portal lets you place almost any address inside the flood, landslide, and storm-surge layers your local government has drawn. A listing photographed in good weather tells you nothing about where the water goes. The map does. Look before the balcony view decides for you.

Zoning is the third public layer. Japan sorts land into use districts (yōto chiiki) that govern what may be built and rebuilt. The district shapes light, noise, and whether the quiet lot next door can one day become something taller. Municipal zoning maps are public, and the categories take an afternoon to learn.

For a condominium, two numbers deserve attention before any viewing: the monthly management fee (kanri-hi) and the repair reserve fund (shūzen tsumitatekin). A listing that shows both, with a reserve that looks plausible for the building's age, is being straight with you. A thin reserve on an old building is its own warning, because the shortfall tends to arrive later as a lump-sum assessment on every owner. A listing that omits the figures is not automatically hiding something, but the omission is a question you write down rather than a detail you assume away.

What you can check from public sources before you make contact
What to check Where it lives What a gap means
Building age vs. the 1981 seismic standard Listing spec sheet (construction year); Building Standards Act framework via MLIT A pre-1981 permit is worth a direct retrofit question; an unstated year is itself a question
Flood, landslide, and storm-surge exposure National Hazard Map Portal, searched by address A high-risk layer does not rule a place out, but it reframes every "great view" line in the listing
Zoning and use district Municipal zoning maps A district that allows taller neighbors can change light and quiet years after you move in
Condominium management fee and repair reserve Listing detail lines (kanri-hi, shūzen tsumitatekin) A thin reserve for the building's age signals a future lump-sum assessment; missing figures are a question, not an assumption
Land and building tenure (freehold vs. leasehold) Listing wording (shoyūken vs. shakuchiken) Ambiguity here changes what you own and what you owe; settle it before anything else

What you cannot verify from the outside

Some things do not yield to a browser, and pretending otherwise is where buyers get hurt.

The registry is the clearest example. Ownership, mortgages, and liens are recorded in the property register (tōki). Extracts can be obtained, but reading them correctly, meaning who truly holds title, what is encumbered, and whether the seller can actually convey, is specialist work. In a purchase, a judicial scrivener (shihō-shoshi) examines the registry and handles the ownership transfer and its registration at the transaction itself. Treat title as a question for that professional, not a box you tick from home.

True vacancy and rent history is the second blind spot, and it matters most for investors. A listing may advertise a rent figure or an occupancy rate, and neither is auditable from outside. Rent rolls, lease terms, and the reason a unit sits empty are things you request and cross-check. Mark them as questions for the professional and the seller, not as facts.

Red flags worth an extra question

A listing signal is not proof of a problem. It is a prompt to ask more before you invest time. The table below is a place to start, not a verdict.

Signals that warrant an extra question before you proceed
Listing signal Why it warrants an extra question
Price well below the area norm Often a reason sits underneath (a leasehold, a rebuild restriction, a defect) rather than a simple bargain
"No management records" or missing reserve data on a condo You cannot judge the building's financial health or the repair burden coming toward you
Old or undocumented extensions and reconfigured floor area Work that no longer meets current rules can complicate resale, financing, and insurance
Leasehold or unclear tenure presented as ownership You may be buying the right to use rather than to own; ground rent and renewal terms change the math
A vacant unit advertised with a rent or yield figure Occupancy and rent history are not auditable from outside; treat the number as a claim to verify

A low price relative to the area is the signal buyers most want to misread. Sometimes it is a motivated seller. More often there is a reason underneath: a leasehold the listing soft-pedaled, a rebuild restriction, a defect. The price gap itself is not the problem. The unasked question behind it is.

Who does what, and whom to ask

Three professionals do the work you cannot, and knowing their roles keeps you from asking the wrong person the wrong thing. A licensed real estate agent (takken-shi, 宅建士) is the party you verify listing facts with, and the only one permitted to give the legally required explanation of a property's important matters before you sign. A judicial scrivener (shihō-shoshi, 司法書士) examines the registry and handles the ownership transfer and its registration at the transaction. A tax advisor (zeirishi, 税理士) is who you ask about acquisition tax, holding costs, and how a purchase interacts with your own tax position. This article answers none of those questions. It tells you which specialist to bring each of them to.

Buying from abroad tightens the timeline and raises the cost of a surprise, so the public-records pass earns even more of its keep. You often cannot walk the street, feel the train ride, or read a room in person, and the listing photographs are doing more of the persuading. Do the hazard-map, zoning, and building-age checks before you write, ask the reserve-fund and tenure questions in your first message, and confirm current procedures with the brokerage early, because they keep changing.

When you reach the contract stage

The public-records pass ends where the formal disclosures begin. What you gather from home shapes the questions; the licensed explanation before signing puts the answers on the record, with a named person responsible for them. For what that meeting covers, read Juyo Jiko Setsumei for when you reach the contract stage. For how the offer, financing, and registration fit around it, these guides cover the stages on either side:

Official sources

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