(Nebuta, Aomori)
Japan is subject to many wind and water related disasters due to the fact that much of the land is steeply inclined and experiences a lot of rain. In addition, typhoons also hit Japan from summer to fall.
Located in an area where many continental plates meet, Japan also experience earthquakes and volcanic eruptions.
Although Japan is a disaster-prone country, there is no need to be overly concerned.
We have some preparation measures. For example, here In Japan, every resident with a mobile phone receives a text message warning of imminent quakes.
Many disasters are small in scale, and Japan has accumulated knowledge on how to deal with disasters through past experience.
Secondary disasters that occur after the quake also characterize major earthquakes. If you and your property are near the coast, there may be a risk of tsunami.
According to an article in Economist in February 2018, in US,
“there is a 10% chance that in the next 30 years an earthquake between 8.0 and 9.0 in magnitude will rupture the Cascadia subduction zone that runs along the coast of Washington, Oregon and Northern California.
US has no early-warning system.
Mexico, Turkey, Romania, China, Italy, and Taiwan all have systems to warn residents of imminent earthquakes.”
My point is that natural disasters could happen anywhere in the world and thus preparation is very critical.
Many foreign investors ask us about the liquefaction risk in Tokyo area.
Today I am going to discuss the risk of liquefaction caused by the earthquake in Tokyo citing the information released by the local governments.
Tag Archive for property investing
Risks in real estate investment in Japan-natural disaster- : How to avoid the earthquake risk
Japan has the risk of earthquake.
You remember the earthquake in Kobe in 1995 and Tsunami disaster in Fukushima in 2011.
Although Japan’s earthquake-resistant technology of buildings is considerably advanced than that of other countries,
we have to be realistic.
In the interest of personal safety and protecting the value of what is likely your biggest financial asset,
prospective buyers and investors should be aware of any natural disaster risk impacting a potential property purchase.
If the building is broken or collapsed due to an earthquake, you cannot get rent.
In most cases, learning about natural disaster risk will not stop investment, but it will help investors make a better-informed decision about where to buy and preparing in terms of appropriate insurance coverage depending on the type of natural disaster risks most affecting the property.
Unfortunately we don’t have a comprehensive ‘natural disaster risk score’ covering whole Japan announced by the government or a certain institute but on the prefecture and city level, many prefectures and cities
release ‘hazard maps’ to show the risks of natural disasters
in the area.
Read more
Is it the good time to buy a property in Tokyo ? – Quick recapitulation on condominium market in Tokyo in 2017-
Tokyo kankei (Japan’s institute for real estate study) recently announced
the market report on the condominiums in greater Tokyo area.
We have made the recapitulation of the report for the clients.
I will share a part of our report today.
Both prices of newly built second-hand condominiums and
unit price per square meter has gone up.
New construction projects were supplied mainly in central area of Tokyo
which sharply makes price rise.
The average price in the Tokyo metropolitan area (Tokyo and neighbouring cities) of newly built condominiums was 55.44 million yen, up + 9.0% from the previous year’s 50.87 million yen.
Because it was falling the previous year, it rose for the first time in two years, and the
whole metropolitan area shows a trend of rising again from a high stop.
The reason for price rise was due to the strong tendency of supply to concentrate in central Tokyo.
The average area for each condominium was 63.24 square meters, which was up 3.1% from 61.33 square meters in the previous year.
Notorious inheritance tax: Is it high ? -Brief on Inheritance tax in Japan as of 2017-
It comes to my attention that many foreign nationals who live in Japan
permanently or (semi-permamently) are
concerned about Japan’s inheritance tax.
I will give you some good guidance about it as follows.
1) Do we all have to pay
the inheritance tax ?
There is growing concern about the inheritance tax in Japan. In 2013,
the Japanese government passed the bill and lowered the deductible amount
for charging the inheritance tax (hence effectively raised the tax rate).
The new law became effective from 2015.
However one statistics say the currently only
about 8 out 100 taxpayers in Japan are actually imposed the inheritance
tax so majority of usdo not really have to worry about it
unless you are very high net worth investors or entrepreneurs with
the net taxable asset which is well over 100 million yen or so.Read more