Purchase cost gets all the attention because it is a single dramatic number. Holding cost is what determines whether owning the house is pleasant or quietly annoying for a decade. It is also where overseas owners are most exposed, because almost every item on the list assumes somebody is nearby.
We will be straight about one thing first: we have a solid picture of the taxes and a weak picture of the maintenance. Across the 94 houses we had surveyed as of 7 October 2026, we had recorded an annual fixed cost figure for only 3. Those three were ¥30,000, ¥42,000 and ¥144,540. Three data points is not a distribution, and we are not going to dress it up as one. Where we give you a number below, we say where it comes from.
The two property taxes
Fixed asset tax — 固定資産税
Levied annually by the municipality on whoever owns the property on 1 January — the cut-off is the ownership position on that date, and it does not depend on whether the transfer has been registered. The standard rate is 1.4%, applied to the assessed value on the fixed asset register.
The assessed value is the part people get wrong. It is determined by the municipality on its own methodology, and for the sort of houses in this market it is typically far below what you paid — sometimes a small fraction of it. So the tax on a ¥9,800,000 rural house is usually a modest annual figure — not the ¥137,200 you would get by applying 1.4% to the purchase price. You can obtain the assessed value from the municipality or from the tax certificate, and you should, because it is the only way to know this number rather than guess it.
Urban planning tax — 都市計画税
Levied in addition, but only in designated urban planning areas. The statutory ceiling is 0.3%, and each municipality sets its own rate by ordinance within that limit.
Here our own data is directly relevant. Of the 90 houses where we recorded zoning, 49 sat in non-urban zoning and 41 in residential zoning. For a property outside a designated urbanisation area, urban planning tax generally does not arise at all. That is a genuine saving on rural property — and a reason the same house costs less to hold than an equivalent one inside a city boundary.
It is also municipality-specific and the boundary is not obvious from a map at a glance, so confirm it for the actual property rather than inferring it from how rural the address feels.
The septic tank, which is the item people forget
73 of the 90 houses where we recorded drainage drain to a septic tank (浄化槽), not a municipal sewer. Only 17 were connected to public sewer.
A septic tank is not a connection, it is an appliance you own. It has statutory inspection obligations, needs periodic emptying, and has a service life. Costs vary by unit size and region, and we are not going to invent a national figure for you — ask the municipality or a local service provider for the actual numbers on the actual unit.
What we will say with confidence is the structural point: if the house drains to a septic tank, you have a recurring maintenance obligation that does not go away when the house is empty, and a replacement cost waiting somewhere in the future. Budget it as a system from day one.
The same logic applies to water. 28 of 90 of our houses are not on public water — 23 on a private association supply, 5 on a private source such as a well. A private association means fees and shared governance. A private source means pumps, tanks and water quality testing. Neither is a problem; both are line items.
The cost of nobody being there
This is the item with no invoice, which is why it gets skipped.
An empty house in Japan deteriorates faster than an occupied one, and the mechanisms are mundane. Water left standing in traps evaporates, seals dry and crack, and drains start to smell or admit insects. With no one opening a window, humidity sits in the building and finds the timber. A gutter blocks, water runs down a wall instead of away from it, and a season later you have a stain, then rot. A roof tile slips in a typhoon and nobody notices for a year.
None of these are expensive to prevent. All of them are expensive to repair. The gap between those two numbers is the entire argument for having someone visit.
There is a regulatory dimension as well, and the detail of it matters.
Under the Act on Special Measures concerning Vacant Houses, a municipality can designate a neglected house as 特定空家 (specified vacant house) or, under the more recent category, 管理不全空家 (inadequately managed vacant house). Designation on its own does not change your tax. What changes it is the next step: if the municipality issues a formal recommendation (勧告) and the condition is not put right, the site is excluded from the residential-land concession that keeps fixed asset tax low, and the increase applies from the following tax year — assessed as at the 1 January cut-off. For land that had been receiving the concession, that is a substantial jump.
The probability is low for a house someone is looking after. It is not low for a house nobody has entered in five years.
What we charge, stated as our price
We publish a caretaking plan for vacant houses at ¥120,000 per year per property, excluding tax. That covers a monthly visit with water flushing, ventilation and an exterior check, two Matterport 3D records a year so you can walk the building from wherever you are, and a photo report after each visit. It works out at ¥10,000 a month. From two properties, a multi-property discount applies, quoted on request.
Our scanning and caretaking work is centred on Tokyo, Saitama, Kanagawa and Chiba. For properties outside that area we quote case by case — which is worth asking about before you buy, not after, since a sizeable share of the interesting rural inventory sits outside it.
That is our price for our service. It is not a market average, and you should compare it against local alternatives, including asking a neighbour. The reason we mention it at all is that it is a real number you can put in a spreadsheet, which is more useful than a range we would have to make up.
Paying any of this from overseas
Fixed asset tax is billed to the owner of record, at an address. If you have no address or office in Japan, there is nowhere to send it.
The mechanism is a tax agent — 納税管理人 — an individual or company in Japan appointed to file and pay Japanese tax on your behalf. You notify the municipality or tax office, and notices go to the agent. Accounting firms offer this as a standard service; so do some property managers.
Set it up before completion. The failure mode is not that this is hard; it is that nobody does it, the notice goes nowhere, and the liability accrues quietly against a letter that was never delivered.
A holding-cost checklist
Before you commit, get actual numbers for:
- Assessed value on the fixed asset register — this, not your purchase price, sets the tax.
- Whether urban planning tax applies — which turns on the zoning of this specific site.
- Drainage type. Septic tank or sewer, and if septic, the unit’s age, size and inspection schedule.
- Water supply. Public, association or private source — and the fees or maintenance each implies.
- Insurance. Quote it for the actual building, including its build year. Pre-1981 construction can change terms, and 27 of our 93 houses with a recorded year are pre-1981.
- Who will physically visit, how often, and what that costs. If the answer is nobody, add a repair budget instead.
- Your tax agent, appointed and notified.
Items 1 to 4 come from the municipality and the property records — they are knowable before you buy, and a licensed agent’s statement of important matters would cover most of them. Items 5 to 7 are yours to arrange.
If you want the house looked at before you take any of this on
For a property you are considering — ours, another agent’s, or one from a municipal akiya bank — we will go to it, make a Matterport 3D record of the building inside and out, and write down what we could verify on site, including the drainage and water arrangement and the state of the exterior. We write only what we could see; anything we could not check is recorded as not verified rather than guessed at. It is quoted per property on travel and floor area, billed under its own contract as a scanning and recording job, and handled in English by email.
Nothing here is tax, legal or investment advice. Tax rates and reliefs change, and municipal rules differ. Figures attributed to our own listings describe those properties as at 7 October 2026 and are not averages for Japan. Confirm anything that affects your decision with the municipality, a tax professional, or a licensed agent for the specific property.