- Erik Buhrow bought a house in Japan for $26,000 while still living in the US.
- Buhrow, who grew up in Japan, plans to return at some point when his career is over.
- In the meantime, he plans to rent out his home to Americans looking to move to Japan.
This essay is based on a conversation with Erik Buhrow, who bought a house in Japan’s Niigata Prefecture through AkiyaMart, a site that helps foreigners buy abandoned Japanese houses known as akiyas. Buhrow, 39, runs a construction business outside of Minneapolis.
Many people born and raised in Minnesota stay here forever. I’ve only been here about 10 years.
It can feel like anyone with any money bought a cabin in northern Minnesota back in the days—when you could. Now, if you want to buy a cabin up north, you’re spending $300,000 for a starter cabin on the tundra.
Would I rather spend $300,000 on a cabin in northern Minnesota or $30,000 on a cabin in Japan—a place I’m from, used to, and actually enjoy going to?
I bought an akiya in Japan this year. I closed in July and did everything remotely for three months.
I didn’t visit Japan to see the house or do anything. I worked with a real estate agent who went there and FaceTimed me. Because I’m in construction and I’m used to Japan, I said, “Yeah, I’m willing to pull the trigger without going there.”
An outdoor walkway on Buhrow’s property. Courtesy of Erik Buhrow.
It is approximately 3000 square meters and about 150 years old. The Japanese would classify it as eight bedrooms, but I would classify it as six. There are two additional rooms that they would consider bedrooms, but due to the lack of closets, I will call them bonus rooms. It has a two-car garage, a bathroom and lots of really open living room spaces in an old school style.
All with real estate taxes and fees and everything, it was $26,000.
Many people say, “The rates are really good, but the insurance and taxes will set you back.” They don’t. My $200,000 replacement insurance costs me just under $500 a year. In fact, I bought home insurance for five years.
My taxes are $183 a year. In Japan, houses over 22 years old are depreciated, so $183 is just in land. There is no tax on the house because it is ancient.
I own my home in Burnsville, Minnesota. It is very similar – 3000 square meters, one garage. I bought it in 2017 for $300,000 and my taxes have gone – from 2017 to now – from $3,000 a year to about $5,000 a year.
I can be a bit cavalier about the situation. I knew that as bad as the house is, it’s nothing I haven’t seen. I just felt like, if I don’t get to visit it, but it’s in a location that I want, that’s what real estate is all about. That’s what these houses really are. You can fix things, you can make the house better or worse, but you can’t move it.
I grew up in Japan and I want to retire
I grew up in Japan, so that helped me become the easiest decision. I grew up on an American military base in Misawa, Japan, in Aomori Prefecture. My mother was a government teacher, so I lived there for a long time.
I officially moved to the United States when I went to college. But when I grew up in Japan, I had a great desire to own property there, but it was always seen as impossible. My mother, my sister, and my brother-in-law, who is half Japanese, just always accepted it as something you can’t do—that it’s too complicated, or you have to get residency.
I contacted AkiyaMart for a consultation. They hired me to be the pilot person for their buyer program. I think it worked perfectly.
Buhrow’s yard in Japan. Courtesy of Erik Buhrow.
My biggest goal was to surround myself with the culture of Japan. I grew up on a military base, so I know what it’s like to be around foreigners in Japan. Tokyo and Osaka are very tourist driven and it can be really hard to learn the language and really learn the customs.
The Sea of Japan, or the western side of the country is known for not being very touristy or western. The house I bought is in the southern part of the Tohoku region of Japan. You still get snow, but the architecture, as you go further south in Japan, becomes, in my opinion, more beautiful. You have tile roofs and things of that nature. If you go north, you will get more flat metal roofs.
Because I’m in construction, I’m interested in home design. So this was a nice place where I could enjoy a southern style home, but in a snowy northern climate, and also still be close to Tokyo.
The nearest train station in town for the bullet train is 20 minutes away. I can hop on the bullet train and be in Tokyo 90 minutes later.
Prices in that area are lower because it is more remote. This allows you to explore this adventure of buying a foreign property without having to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars.
I plan to rent out my akiya to other Americans considering moving to Japan
I am also in the process of buying another akiya property two minutes down the road. The original premise to buy the second home is based on my sister and brother-in-law, who both grew up in Japan.
In the meantime, I hope I can turn the second home into a long-term residence. I might let people who are thinking about doing the same thing I’m doing hang in there for one to three months while they try to figure out that it’s something that might be right for them.
The front of Buhrow’s house in Japan. Courtesy of Erik Buhrow.
Because people are curious and interested in living in Japan, but don’t know if it would work. Someone might say, “Hey, Erik, I want to stay at your house for a month, use your car, use the Wi-Fi, and see if this area suits my purposes.”
Or maybe my tenants will want to work remotely in Japan for a long time.
My life goal would be to retire to Japan. However, due to visas and complications, it is not that easy.
I look at buying akiya as a new adventure in life, a new chapter. If you are not continuing to write new chapters in your book, then it becomes somewhat boring to read.