Is home ownership always in a single name, or can spouses purchase jointly?

[kuma]

Thanks to all who have answered. It is interesting to read of the many different circumstances and possibilities.

I think this is a two-part question.
1. Can the ownership be registered under more than one person?
--> A clear "YES". I too have personal experience with this, I have an apartment (bought in cash) with an 80/20 split ownership.

2. Can a mortgage be obtained jointly under more than one name?
--> Unsure on this point.

Perhaps it was in fact a three-parter...

3. If a mortgage is only in one name, can all household income be taken into consideration by the lender?
The answer to that was a clear yes when I went to an open house yesterday.

Basic questions so far; very early stages of thinking about home ownership.

[SARS]

1. Property can be registered under two names > each party gets a registry certificate
2. Mortgages can be registered under two names - "pair loan"
3. Mortgages can be under a single name and whole household income taken into account. The member of household who is not the main mortgagee is registered as a guarantor 保証人

I have done all the above in Japan.

Key issue of joint mortgages, as mentioned earlier, is tax. If divorce, for example, very difficult to remortgage to a single name plus tax is required to be paid on the portion being assumed. I know, because I had this situation and couldn't remortgage easily so ended up selling ~¥1億 property that was very dear to me .

I wouldn't do joint ownership again for this reason and recommend serious thought before going down this route.

[SARS]

Must the purchaser/mortgage borrower be the head of the household? I

Doesn't matter at all.

Wrt to joint ownership, there is not so much sense in it if you are thinking about property division in case of a divorce, because in Japan courts (almost) always split it 50/50 anyway, disregarding of spouses income differences and other circumstances. In worst/best case they might split it 30/70, but I was told that it's extremely rare.

This is incorrect.

Pre-marital assets are not split in Japan. Assets are split based upon post-marital gains (new money from income and realized / unrealized gains during marriage on existing assets). Furthermore, this split may not be 50:50 in favour of the higher earner in some cases.

Therefore, buying a property in your own name before marriage has significant advantages to waiting and buying jointly after marriage.

[kuma]

Thanks for the replies, which provided good info on things I need to be considering down the road including suitable health/cancer insurance with mortgage, implications of split of funds between spouses, etc etc. What a range of experiences people have had, and what a wealth of info the forum collectively holds.