Can Foreigners Still Buy Property in Japan? What the 2026 Rule Changes Mean for STR Investors

Foreign buyers can still purchase Japanese real estate in 2026. What has changed is how the government tracks who is buying, and a proposed permit system that targets land near defense facilities and remote border islands, not ordinary rental properties.

The short answer: as of October 2026, foreign individuals and foreign companies are not prohibited from buying property in Japan. Under Japanese law, foreign nationals enjoy the same private rights as Japanese nationals unless a law or treaty provides otherwise. A law that would allow general restrictions on land acquisition by foreigners (the Alien Land Act) does exist, but the cabinet order needed to put it into effect has never been issued, as a February 2026 research report by the House of Representatives explains. Buying a property in Hakone, the Fuji Five Lakes area or Tokyo to run as a minpaku (private short-term rental) or ryokan remains entirely possible.

What has changed is the system the government uses to know who is buying. Since April 2026, any acquisition of Japanese real estate by an overseas resident (a "non-resident") must be reported after the fact, regardless of purpose. And from October 5, 2026, individuals registering ownership of a property are required to declare their nationality. Meanwhile, the kind of rule that would actually stop someone from buying, a permit system for acquisitions, is so far limited to land of national-security importance, such as areas around defense facilities, and exists only as a proposal published by a government expert panel on October 2, 2026.

In other words, for ordinary short-term-rental (STR) investors this is not much to worry about: the proposed permits target land near defense facilities and remote border islands, and the practical change is simply that documents you already submit when buying now get recorded in the registry.

There are three things investors should do now: (1) prepare documents proving your nationality and place of residence early in the purchase process; (2) if you are buying from overseas, decide who will file the foreign exchange report due within 20 days of acquisition; and (3) check whether the property you are considering lies within a designated zone around a defense facility or similar site. The sections below walk through each system in turn. This article is general information only; for decisions on a specific transaction, please check with a Japanese judicial scrivener (shiho shoshi), lawyer or tax accountant.

1. A Timeline of the 2026 Changes

Here are the main developments of the past year or so. Note which measures are already in force and which are still at the study or proposal stage.

The government had planned to finalize the "framework" of the land acquisition rules in summer 2026; in practice the work ran past the summer and was published as the October 2 proposal, listed on the expert panel's page on the Cabinet Secretariat website.

2. What the Proposed Rules Actually Say: A Permit System for Key Land, Not a Ban on Foreigners

International media often frame this as "Japan to restrict land purchases by foreigners," but the October 2 proposal itself is quite narrow.

2-1. Targeted by ties to foreign governments, not by nationality

The proposal argues that security risk cannot be judged uniformly by nationality, and states that the rules should cover Japanese individuals and companies as well, not only foreign ones. According to the panel's proposal, the parties who would in principle not be permitted to acquire such land are:

• Foreign governments and similar bodies, and persons with an extremely significant influence over their activities
• Persons engaged in the activities of foreign armed forces and similar bodies
• Persons who owe a duty of cooperation to a foreign government under a contract with it or under foreign law
• Companies effectively controlled by any of the above (for example, where such a person is the beneficial owner, holds a majority of voting rights, or makes up a majority of the officers)

Because the rules do not discriminate on the basis of any particular nationality, the proposal concludes that they do not breach the national treatment and most-favored-nation obligations under GATS (the WTO's General Agreement on Trade in Services). The background is that Japan did not reserve an exception to national treatment for real estate acquisition under GATS, which makes it difficult to introduce rules aimed only at foreigners.

2-2. Target areas: around key facilities and uninhabited border islands

The proposal names two kinds of land for the permit system: land around facilities vulnerable to drone attacks and similar threats (roughly within 1,000 m), and land on uninhabited remote border islands. Under the current Important Land Survey Act, prior notification in Special Monitoring Zones applies only to land of 200 m² or more; for the new rules, the proposal considers it appropriate to set no minimum area at all.

What is the Important Land Survey Act? Fully in force since September 2022, this law allows the government to designate land around defense facilities and on border islands as "Monitoring Zones" and "Special Monitoring Zones," survey how that land is used, and issue recommendations or orders against uses that would impair the facilities' functions. In Special Monitoring Zones, certain sale contracts require prior notification. The Cabinet Office's page on the Act has further details.

The proposal states that the new rules should be implemented by amending this Important Land Survey Act.

2-3. Only ownership would require a permit (proposal stage)

We could not find any statement in the proposal that the purchase of ordinary houses, condominiums or income properties would itself become subject to a permit. The proposal does refer to data on matters such as short-term resale of newly built condominiums and the share of purchases by overseas residents, but the core of the regulation is land of national-security importance. That said, this is a proposal, not a law. The specific wording of an amendment bill, its effective date and the range of facilities covered have not been decided, and could change during deliberations in the Diet.

3. Three Nationality and Residence Tracking Systems Already in Place

For STR investors, the bigger practical impact comes not from the proposed permits but from the notifications, reports and declarations already in force.

3-1. Nationality declarations in the real estate registry (from October 5, 2026)

What is registration? In Japan, the owners of land and buildings are recorded in a public register kept by the Legal Affairs Bureau. When you buy, the registration application is normally handled on your behalf by a judicial scrivener (shiho shoshi), a licensed specialist in registration procedures.

According to the Ministry of Justice circular, from October 5, 2026, anyone applying to register the preservation or transfer of ownership must declare the nationality of each individual who will become a registered owner. The key points are:

• Japanese nationals are covered too. This is not a procedure only for foreigners
• Foreign nationals show their nationality with a copy of their residence certificate (juminhyo), a copy of their passport, their residence card, or similar documents
• If the declaration is incomplete, the registrar will request a correction; if it is not corrected in time, the nationality evident from the attached documents is recorded
• The recorded nationality is internal information held by the Legal Affairs Bureau and is not made public in documents such as certificates of registered matters

The registry declaration covers individuals, not companies. For companies, the system is designed to capture the nationality of representatives, officers and voting rights through the National Land Use Planning Act and Important Land Survey Act notifications described below. Separately from the registry, the government has also set out plans to identify beneficial owners and to build a "real estate base registry" (from fiscal 2027 onward) that would manage property information across systems.

3-2. FEFTA reports for non-resident buyers (expanded from April 1, 2026)

What is FEFTA? The Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act is the law Japan uses to monitor cross-border capital flows. It requires a report to the Minister of Finance when a non-resident acquires real estate in Japan.

According to the Ministry of Finance leaflet, a non-resident is an individual with no domicile or residence in Japan, or a company with no principal office in Japan. Japanese branches and similar offices of foreign companies are treated as residents. Until March 31, 2026, reports were required only for acquisitions for investment and similar purposes, but from April 1 any acquisition of real estate must be reported, whatever the purpose. The report goes to the Minister of Finance via the Bank of Japan within 20 days of acquisition. It is required regardless of the price or size of the property, and an agent such as the brokerage may file it on your behalf.

Exceptions such as acquisition for your own residence still exist after April, but they now apply only to "rights relating to real estate," such as leasehold rights; acquiring the real estate itself requires a report. The new form also asks whether the counterparty is a resident or non-resident, the purpose of acquisition, and the property's real estate number. STR properties, bought for business or investment, were already likely to be reportable; there is now even less room to wonder whether an exception applies.

3-3. Large land transaction notifications under the National Land Use Planning Act (nationality added)

What is the National Land Use Planning Act? For land transactions above a certain size, this law requires the buyer to file a notification after signing the contract, so that local governments can review the intended use of the land.

It applies to land transactions of 2,000 m² or more in urbanization promotion areas, 5,000 m² or more in other city planning areas, and 10,000 m² or more outside city planning areas, as set out in the MLIT leaflet (MLIT is the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism). The buyer must file within two weeks of signing the contract, via the municipality, with the prefectural governor or equivalent. The buyer's nationality was added to the notification from July 2025, and from April 2026 the nationality of a company's representative, and the nationality concerned where people of a single nationality make up a majority of officers or voting rights, were also added, according to MLIT's announcement of the rule change.

In the first statistics MLIT published on September 15, covering July–December 2025, foreign individuals and companies accounted for 68 of the 9,573 notifications filed (0.7%), and 124 ha of the 23,845 ha total (0.5%). We estimate that urban condominium units and detached houses used as minpaku will often fall below the area thresholds, but resort properties with large grounds in suburban or rural areas, or land for glamping sites, may be covered, so check the land area in advance.

4. Comparison Tables: What Applies to You

4-1. Resident or non-resident (determined by where you live, not your nationality)

Under FEFTA, residence, not nationality, is what counts: a foreign national living in Japan is a resident, while a Japanese national living overseas can be a non-resident.

4-2. Buying as an individual or through a company

For the visa and financing reasons investors sometimes hold property through a Japanese company, see our articles on the business manager visa and on whether foreigners can get financing in Japan. The 2026 changes move in the direction of capturing nationality even when a company sits between the investor and the property.

4-3. Current rules vs. the proposed rules

Under the current rules, the 200 m² threshold in Special Monitoring Zones is measured, for buildings, by the total floor area of all floors.

5. Frequently Asked Questions from Overseas Investors

Q1. Can foreigners still buy property in Japan?

Yes. As of October 2026, there is no law prohibiting ordinary property purchases on the grounds of foreign nationality. The permit system now under consideration is, at the proposal stage, limited to land around key facilities and uninhabited border islands, and is designed around ties to foreign governments and similar bodies.

Q2. What is newly required?

If you buy as an individual, you must declare your nationality at registration and provide supporting documents (such as a copy of your passport). If you live overseas, you must file the FEFTA report within 20 days of acquisition, whatever the purpose. If a company buys a large plot of land, the notification now includes nationality information on its representative, officers and voting rights.

Q3. Will my nationality appear in the public registry?

According to the Ministry of Justice circular, nationality declared at registration is held as internal information and is not subject to disclosure under the Real Property Registration Act. On the other hand, the government proposal says that nationality information collected should be "disclosed to the public in an appropriate form," so statistical publication is expected to continue. Indeed, MLIT has already begun publishing nationality-based statistics for large transactions.

Q4. Does this affect property I already own?

The registry declaration applies to new registration applications, and the proposal itself acknowledges that the nationality of current owners ("stock" information) cannot be captured. However, because the new permit system would also involve post-acquisition notifications and transfer orders when a company's control changes, companies owning property near key facilities may need to take care when their shareholder structure changes.

Q5. Are properties in Hakone or the Fuji Five Lakes area covered?

There is no blanket answer: what matters is not the area's name but whether the property falls within a designated zone. The facilities and zones covered by the new permit system will be set only after the law is amended, so it is not possible at this point to say definitively that any particular area will be covered. You can check whether a property lies in a current Monitoring Zone or Special Monitoring Zone using information published by the Cabinet Office and local governments, and the Cabinet Office also runs a call center for the Important Land Survey Act.

Q6. Have nationality requirements been added to minpaku or ryokan operating licenses?

The changes covered here concern the acquisition stage. They are separate from the systems needed to operate an STR: the license under the Hotel Business Act (for hotels, ryokan and similar businesses) and the notification under the Housing Accommodation Business Act (the system for minpaku using residential housing). For rules on the operating side, see our articles comparing the Hotel Business Act and the Housing Accommodation Business Act and on the tightening of STR regulation in Tokyo's 23 wards.

6. Practical Checklist for STR Investors

We cover the general purchase flow in our guide to the practical process for foreign investors buying real estate in Japan, so here we list only the points that the 2026 changes newly bring into focus.

• Prepare proof of nationality before signing the contract. For individual ownership, a copy of your passport; if you live in Japan, your residence certificate and residence card. Confirm early with the judicial scrivener handling the registration which documents they need.
• Decide who files the FEFTA report and by when. For overseas residents and foreign companies headquartered overseas (Japanese branches are treated as residents), the deadline is 20 days after acquisition. Check whether your brokerage or another agent can file it for you.
• Check the land area. Resort properties with large grounds may require a National Land Use Planning Act notification (within two weeks of signing the contract).
• Check zone designations. Confirm through the important matters explanation (juyo jiko setsumei) and Cabinet Office publications that the property is not near a key facility or on a border island.
• For corporate structures, organize your shareholder and officer details. Since the nationality of representatives, officers and voting rights is now a notification item, prepare materials explaining your investor structure.
• Follow the extraordinary Diet session. The Important Land Survey Act amendment bill is, according to press reports, under consideration for the extraordinary session, and its wording and effective date are not yet confirmed.

On why these checks should be handled by someone on the buyer's side rather than left to the seller's agent, see what really makes buying property in Japan difficult.

7. Summary

For ordinary STR investors, this is not much to worry about. The permit system for acquisitions is still only a proposal, and it is limited to land tied to national defense, such as areas around Self-Defense Forces and other defense facilities, and remote border islands. For ordinary investors, the change is basically that information from documents you would submit when buying anyway is now recorded in the registry and related filings.

Just check before you buy that the property is not near a key facility. Because these systems are still evolving, check the latest information before purchasing, and for final decisions, please check with a Japanese judicial scrivener (shiho shoshi), lawyer or tax accountant.