What happens when someone halfway across the world decides to buy a home in Japan?
Some are doing just that—creating new relationships with place, whether as part-time residents, guesthouse owners, or creative investors. We’ve had the chance to support a few of them, and this series shares their stories.
Key facts:
Type of house: Apartment
Location: Namba, Osaka
Follow Jin’s instagram: @jinchoe79 https://www.instagram.com/jinchoe79
Purchase price: ¥11,500,000 JPY (approx. $74,000 USD)
Additional costs: ~$4,000 USD for repairs, appliances, furniture, and cleaning
Nostal Homes supported: Purchase process, Utilities setup and building management fee payment, Property tax handling
Las Vegas native, part-time Osaka resident, and full-time remote MarTech developer.
Jin had been researching Japan’s akiya market for about a year before taking the leap. Working remotely from Las Vegas for a marketing tech company in New Jersey, he found himself drawn to the practical appeal of life in Japan: safety, convenience, food culture—and the favorable USD-to-JPY exchange rate.
While many foreign buyers are drawn to peaceful countryside homes, Jin took a different route: an apartment in the heart of Namba, Osaka. The reason? Access.
His place is just a 5-minute walk from Namba Station—one of the city’s most connected transit hubs—and the nearby OCAT terminal offers direct bus access to both Kansai and Itami airports.
Even though Namba is busy with tourists, it has everything I need. Department stores, great restaurants, and a diverse immigrant community with lots of ethnic food options.
Jin plans to use the apartment as a base for working remotely in Japan for extended stretches. While there, he’s also exploring potential investment properties and getting to know his surroundings—neighborhood by neighborhood.
Of course, even well-planned moves can come with surprises. In Jin’s case, his first weeks in the apartment weren’t exactly comfortable.
First, the water heater broke down and took three weeks to replace. But more alarmingly, his eyes and face began to sting constantly—“like I had been swimming in an over-chlorinated pool.” After two weeks of misery and sleepless nights, he discovered the cause: Osaka’s water is heavily chlorinated. A quick test confirmed it. Once he installed chlorine filters, the symptoms disappeared.
“And then there was the Bosozoku,” he adds, referencing the notorious Japanese biker gangs whose engines roared through the neighborhood each night. “But after that, everything was great.”
For the most part, Ryo made it very easy. He always kept me informed and made sure to remind me of any deadlines.
With anything that involves contracts, you should still do your due diligence depending on your purpose for buying. Unless you have a resident visa, you’ll depend heavily on your agent for things like annual taxes, utilities, etc.
Because Jin wasn’t in Japan for the whole process, he relied on Ryo for a range of tasks—reminding him of deadlines, coordinating with utility companies, ordering a cleaning service, recommending bidding strategies, and helping manage monthly fees like utilities and HOA dues.
“For the whole real estate and setup process, he was great.”