About Japan Homes

What Japan Homes is

Across Japan, towns, cities and prefectures run akiya banks (空き家バンク): public listings of empty homes whose owners want to sell or rent them, often to people moving to the area. Each bank has its own website, usually in Japanese only.

Japan Homes brings those listings together in English, on one map, so you can search them by price, size, type and location and then go straight to the bank that published each home.

Japan Homes is not an estate agent. It doesn't sell homes, take commissions or handle enquiries, and it is not affiliated with or endorsed by any town, prefecture or government agency.

How listings work

Indexed from public akiya banks

Our crawler reads the listings that municipal and prefectural akiya banks publish on their own public websites. We re-check each listing's original page and remove listings that are sold or withdrawn.

Translated into English

Listing titles, and descriptions where a listing has one, are machine-translated into English. Addresses are shown in Japanese, as published. Translations are automatic and can contain mistakes; the Japanese original is always the authoritative version. Prices are listed in yen, and conversions to other currencies are approximate.

Every listing links to its original page

Each listing names the akiya bank that published it and links to the original page. Enquiries, viewings and purchases happen there, with the town or prefecture, not with Japan Homes. Each bank sets its own conditions for buyers. Listings and photos belong to their publishers.

Locations are approximate

Many homes are placed on the map at their district or town rather than at the exact address. Area information such as hazard zones, sold prices and population describes the surroundings, not the house itself.

What's free now, and what's coming soon

Japan Homes is in preview: everything that works is free, with no sign-up and no view limits.

Data & credits

Listings

Every listing comes from a municipal or prefectural akiya bank, is credited to that bank by name and links to its original page. Listing text and photos belong to their publishers.

Photos

Preview photos are copied from the original listing for display; contact details are never republished.

Base map and konbini & supermarket layer

© OpenStreetMap contributors (ODbL) · © OpenMapTiles · Map tiles by OpenFreeMap

Ski areas, surf breaks, national parks, onsen, train stations, transport hubs, golf courses, beaches, marinas & fishing ports, hiking trails and cycling routes

Contains information from OpenStreetMap, which is made available here under the Open Database License (ODbL). © OpenStreetMap contributors. Names and websites also from Wikidata (CC0). Surf breaks are a hand-checked selection of well-known breaks, each supported by independent public sources, with positions taken from OpenStreetMap. National park outlines and the list of 35 national and 58 quasi-national parks (designation years, areas) are from the Ministry of the Environment, Japan, Biodiversity Center (自然環境情報GIS提供システム), used under the Public Data License v1.0. We merged and simplified the outlines, so they are approximate and not an official product; quasi-national parks show a marker only. Marker positions are from Wikidata (CC0). Onsen are shown per hot-spring town rather than per bath: a town is listed when Wikidata has a hot-spring item for it, OpenStreetMap maps it as a named onsen place, or two or more OpenStreetMap public baths share its name; names, positions and websites also come from Wikidata, and the bath count is only what OpenStreetMap volunteers have mapped, so it is a minimum. We do not use the Ministry of the Environment onsen statistics (prefecture totals only) or any MLIT National-Land Numerical Information data for this layer. Transport hubs (airports with scheduled passenger flights, shinkansen stops, expressway interchanges and service/parking areas) are built from the OpenStreetMap data above, with English names and codes also from Wikidata (CC0); coverage follows OpenStreetMap. Golf courses are every named course mapped in OpenStreetMap (driving ranges and practice greens removed), so a few closed courses may remain and some new ones may be missing. Beaches are the named beaches and swimming areas mapped in OpenStreetMap, a partial list; a bathing-beach label is a mapping signal only and says nothing about water quality, opening dates or safety. Marinas and fishing ports are those named and mapped in OpenStreetMap (about 400 of Japan's roughly 2,800 fishing ports); a point does not mean public fishing, mooring or boat access is allowed. Hiking trails and cycling routes are named routes mapped in OpenStreetMap (national, regional and local walking networks; national and regional cycle networks) with lines simplified to about 50 m: coverage is uneven, and they are for orientation only, not navigation. The ski-area, surf-break, national-park, onsen, station, transport-hub, golf-course, beach, harbour and route files are open databases under the ODbL: see /data/README-places.txt.

Volcanoes

Names, positions, elevations, monitoring status and latest eruption years of the 111 active volcanoes are from the Japan Meteorological Agency (気象庁), used under the Public Data License v1.0. Edited by Japan Homes (fields selected and translated; one position per volcano, to about 1 km). This is not an official JMA product. Wikidata item ids are CC0. This layer is not an eruption forecast, a hazard map or a warning, and it does not show eruption alert levels: always check the JMA site for the current level and follow local authorities. See /data/README-places.txt.

Flood depth overlay and geocoding

出典：国土地理院 / Source: GSI (Geospatial Information Authority of Japan)

Sold prices, hazard zones, population and MLIT map overlays

このサービスは、国土交通省の不動産情報ライブラリのAPI機能を使用していますが、提供情報の最新性、正確性、完全性等が保証されたものではありません

This service uses the API of MLIT's Real Estate Information Library (不動産情報ライブラリ); the currency, accuracy and completeness of the information are not guaranteed. Sold-price medians and hazard checks are computed by Japan Homes from MLIT data.

不動産情報ライブラリ (MLIT Real Estate Information Library)

Currency

Currency conversions are approximate and for display only.

Operator & contact

Questions, corrections or feedback: admin@star.computer

For akiya banks and site owners

Our crawler identifies itself with this User-Agent:

When it reads listing pages, it follows robots.txt and fetches no more than one page every 2 seconds per site. Each listing's preview photos are downloaded with the same User-Agent.

If you run an akiya bank and would like a listing or photo corrected or removed, or would rather your site were not indexed, email admin@star.computer with the page address and we will act on it promptly.

空き家バンクを運営する自治体のご担当者様へ：掲載情報や写真の修正・削除、またはサイトの巡回停止をご希望の場合は、対象ページのURLを添えて admin@star.computer までご連絡ください。速やかに対応いたします。当サービスのクローラー（AkiyaOpenBot）は、物件ページの取得時に robots.txt に従い、同一サイトへのアクセスは2秒以上の間隔を空けて行います。物件のプレビュー写真も同じ User-Agent で取得します。

Privacy

Japan Homes doesn't ask for your name or email address and uses no advertising or analytics trackers. Your browser is given an anonymous session so listing details can load.

Map tiles and some code libraries load from third-party servers, which receive your IP address as part of any web request. Questions about your data: admin@star.computer.