If you’re considering buying property in Japan — whether an akiya, a condo, or an apartment — there’s a quietly significant shift underway in how the country manages its oldest housing stock. A new law took effect on April 1, 2026, and it has direct implications for anyone buying a unit in a Japanese condominium building, especially if you plan to live abroad.
Here’s what’s happening, why it matters, and what foreign property owners should understand before they buy.
Japan Has an Aging Building Problem
Japan built a staggering number of condominium units during its post-war economic boom. What began as a few hundred thousand units in the 1970s has expanded into a national stock of nearly 7.8 million units today.
The problem is age. According to data from Tokyo Kantei (as of December 2025), over 40% of all condominium units in Japan are now more than 30 years old. Nearly a quarter — 22.7%, or around 1.78 million units — are over 40 years old. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) estimates this figure will nearly double to 2.6 million units by 2036.
Older buildings face real structural and financial challenges: deteriorating pipes and common areas, aging elevators, outdated seismic standards (Japan’s building codes changed significantly after the 1981 earthquake), and underfunded repair reserves. Many of these buildings need major renovation or outright rebuilding — but as we’ll see, the old law made that nearly impossible.
Why Rebuilding Was So Difficult Before
Under Japan’s Act on Building Unit Ownership (区分所有法), a resolution to rebuild a condominium required approval from at least 80% of all unit owners and 80% of voting rights. On paper, four-fifths. In practice, nearly impossible.
Here’s why the threshold was so hard to meet:
Absent and unreachable owners. As buildings age, so do their owners. Many original residents have died, moved overseas, or simply stopped engaging with building management. Owners who don’t attend meetings or vote are treated as de facto objectors under the old law — meaning a single untraceable owner in a 10-unit building could prevent redevelopment.
Overseas investors. Japan’s growing foreign investor market has created a class of unit owners who don’t live in the country, may not receive Japanese-language correspondence, and often don’t participate in the annual strata meeting (総会, sōkai) at all. Under the old framework, those silent votes counted against rebuilding.
The result: As of 2021, fewer than 300 condominium buildings had been successfully rebuilt nationwide — out of millions of aging units. The strictness of the approval threshold was widely identified as the primary reason.
What the 2025 Amendment Changes
In May 2025, Japan’s parliament enacted the “Act to Amend Certain Provisions of the Law on the Ownership of Distinct Portions of Buildings, to Facilitate the Management and Revitalization of Aging Apartment Buildings.” It took effect on April 1, 2026.
The changes are substantial. Here’s what’s new:
1. Lower rebuilding thresholds
The 80% supermajority requirement has been reduced in key circumstances:
- 75% for buildings certified as seismically deficient (a large category given pre-1981 construction standards)
- Two-thirds for buildings that have been damaged by a disaster
For a building where rebuilding was previously blocked by a handful of absent owners, these new thresholds can make the difference between a stalled project and one that actually proceeds.
2. Untraceable owners can be excluded from the vote
This is one of the most practically significant changes. Under the amended law, management associations can apply to a court to exclude owners who are genuinely untraceable — those who cannot be reached after reasonable attempts — from the base calculation for a resolution.
In a concrete example: in a 50-unit building where 5 owners are unreachable, the rebuild resolution can now be calculated from 45 units rather than all 50. This meaningfully lowers the effective threshold and removes one of the biggest obstacles to getting anything done in an aging building.
3. Remote voting now counts as “present”
Under the old law, owners who voted by proxy or in writing were often not counted as “present” for quorum purposes, creating additional procedural hurdles for absentee owners. The amended law now explicitly counts votes cast by proxy, in writing, or electronically as equivalent to in-person attendance.
For foreign owners who can’t physically attend the annual meeting in Japan, this is a meaningful improvement. Your proxy vote or electronic vote now counts, rather than being treated as an absence.
4. Overseas owners can be required to appoint a domestic contact
Management associations can now formally require all overseas-resident unit owners to register a domestic point of contact — someone in Japan who can receive correspondence, relay meeting notices, and respond when the association needs a decision.
This is primarily good news for building governance, but it does create an obligation for foreign owners who haven’t already sorted out their local representation.
5. Broader redevelopment options
Previously, the law essentially only contemplated full demolition and rebuild as the resolution pathway for a deteriorated building. The amendments introduce additional options, including demolition and land sale, whole-building renovation, and expanded participation rights for adjacent landowners — giving struggling buildings more paths to resolution beyond the all-or-nothing rebuild.
6. Stronger local government powers
Municipal governments now have expanded authority to investigate poorly managed buildings, issue recommendations, and in some circumstances push stalled management associations to take action. Buildings with certified management plans may also qualify for preferential financing from the Japan Housing Finance Agency and fixed asset tax reductions.
What This Means for Foreign Buyers
If you’re considering buying a unit in a Japanese apartment building, the 2025 amendments are mostly good news — but they come with some implications worth understanding.
Older buildings now have a more viable path to redevelopment. If you buy a unit in a building that’s 35 or 40 years old, the old law made it very likely the building would simply continue to deteriorate without any collective action. The new law gives management associations more tools to actually move things forward.
Your participation in building governance now matters more. The flip side of making voting easier is that votes count more — and non-responsive owners can now be formally excluded from calculations, potentially having decisions made without your input. Staying engaged with your building’s management association is more important than before, not less.
Appointing a local contact is increasingly essential. Even before the amendment made it legally possible for associations to require this, it was practical necessity for overseas owners. Now it may be an explicit condition of ownership in well-managed buildings.
Underfunded repair reserves are a significant red flag. The amended law also encourages a shift from graduated reserve fund contributions (common, and widely criticised for leaving reserves chronically underfunded) to flat-rate contributions. When evaluating a building purchase, check the building’s long-term repair plan and current reserve balance carefully — a shortfall here is one of the clearest warning signs that a building’s management association isn’t on top of things.
A Note on Kyoto Specifically
Kyoto’s condominium stock skews older than Japan’s national average in several neighbourhoods, reflecting the city’s history and relatively constrained redevelopment appetite. Buyers attracted to Kyoto’s character — its older machiya districts, its proximity to heritage areas, its quieter residential streets — often find themselves looking at buildings where the unit ownership framework described above is directly relevant.
If you’re buying an older unit in Kyoto and planning to manage it from abroad, understanding both the building’s physical condition and its management association’s governance health is just as important as understanding the unit itself.
Managing a Japanese property from overseas is more manageable than most people expect — but it does require having the right people in place locally. If you’re an overseas owner with a property in Kyoto, Shiga, Osaka or Nara and want to make sure your building correspondence, management obligations, and maintenance are handled properly while you’re away, that’s exactly what we do. Get in touch to find out how we can help.