Haha thanks for asking! A couple reasons - first and foremost, Japan is just awesome lol. I have a personal connection that's prominent in the fact that my wife is Japanese, but beyond that, there's a confluence of universally applicable reasons why buying a house in Japan is kind of an insane proposition:

Homes are insanely cheap and get massively devalued over timeframes that would be mindboggling to Americans. In SF, I live in a literally 110 year old home that's clearly breaking down in multiple dimensions and yet just keeps inexorably appreciating year over year and is now worth something like $2.5 million for a 2200 sqft place.

In Kyoto, the top contender we're looking at is an 832 sqft unit that was built in the 80s and newly renovated in the past few years and is...9.8 million JPY, aka $62,000. Literally less than a year of rent in my SF place can buy the Kyoto home outright lol.

Incredibly conveniently located, 6 minutes walking from Ogura station, and a ~20-25 minute ride from there to the heart of Kyoto - one of the most beautiful and iconic cities in the world, and you can get an amazing home outright for $62k there?

The exchange rate from USD to JPY makes this especially compelling right now, being at a mind-boggling high for the USD that, adjusted for inflation, makes the exchange rate almost the best it's been in half a century.

My wife and I also happen to get free flights so it's super easy for us to take a direct flight every month from SFO-KIX, which is what we're planning to do - basically spending a ~week here every month.

Japan as it stands right now is hands down the clear pareto frontier in terms of cost and quality of life - no other developed country comes close in terms of just how insanely affordable it is (a nice sit down meal literally costs ~$5-10 a person, especially with insane lunch deals at izakayas and the like - I've eaten sit down soba/udon meals that are 500 yen each, or literally ~$3, tax and tip included), and I'd argue no other developed country also comes close in terms of how nice life is, period, not even adjusting for price. The crime rate is literally nonexistent, everything is wildly clean, the public transit is unrivaled, the food is some of the best in the world if not the actual best, the culture is also world class, the heritage the same, the fashion the same, etc etc - basically everything is just better about Japan lmao.

Highly recommend everyone look into it if you haven't!

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slowin 3 hours ago | parent | next [-]

> Highly recommend everyone look into it if you haven't!

I would absolutely do this, but if you're not married to a Japanese person it's basically impossible right?

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intenex 3 hours ago | parent [-]

Shockingly it's not! It's actually incredibly easy for foreigners to own property in Japan, and it's actually so established that we're buying the property in my name as a US citizen rather than in my wife's name as a Japanese citizen, for a few reasons that I won't get into here, but suffice it to say that there are very few downsides to being a foreigner that I've seen thus far.

Two things I will call out as actual disadvantages is that 1. you won't be able to get a mortgage like a normal Japanese person, which is in fact a real shame because on top of every other ludicrously wild fact about how Japan is a mythical utopia where everything makes no sense, Japanese mortgage rates are literally as low as 1% lol. So being able to get a mortgage would be a real benefit, but hey - at $60k for an awesome house, I'm not complaining :)

2. Some insurers seem to not support foreign citizens - Sony in particular told Dot that they wouldn't provide earthquake/fire/flood insurance to me as a foreigner. I'm still looking for the right insurance provider, and I'm not concerned that this is an impossible thing to resolve, since a ton of foreigners do own homes here with no issues, but it is at least some more friction than a Japanese citizen would have.

	▲	spike021 an hour ago \| parent \| next [-]
		One other disadvantage you didn't mention is it's difficult to get a visa that makes buying a home there worth it, for the average Joe. Most regular people can only visit Japan for 3 months out of the year. Even if you buy a home you can't get a visa just for that. Maybe in your case the visa thing isn't an issue because of your wife but that won't be the case for most people.
	▲	garbawarb 2 hours ago \| parent \| prev [-]
		Why buy in your name?

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sadboi_fandango 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

I've had this same thought too, that Japan is ideal for a digital nomad except for two not insignificant speed bumps - the language barrier, and the medieval bureaucracy. It appears Claude has solved one of the two!

This also applies to village life in Portugal and Italy, and those also can come with EU passports.......

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annzabelle 2 hours ago | parent | prev | next [-]

Japan is very interesting on that front, but I have heard a lot of negative things about what it's like to live there as a foreigner, especially if you have to work in the local economy.

Personally I'm excited about Taiwan.

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azolation an hour ago | parent | prev [-]

Free flights??? Do you guys work for an airline?

	▲	intenex 30 minutes ago \| parent [-]
		Nope :) but you're on the right track haha...we're just absurdly lucky people is one way to put it - once you start realizing there are ways outside the default path in life to live it's pretty incredible what random doors start opening up to you