Buying Land in Ibaraki with "１０年特例用地" Rule

[Gulliver]

The point is they don’t want Chinese owning the property and in the process they have made it nigh impossible for any other foreigners to purchase it.

You keep making these assertions of racism that are not based in reality. This town has decided they only want locals to buy this very cheap land. This excludes people who are not locals, regardless of what their nationality is. It also excludes Japanese people from other areas.

There are many examples of racism in Japan, but throwing the word around when it is not warranted makes it harder to call out actual instances of it.

I’m not sure where you’re getting the assertions of racism from. I have not made any. I have only explained to the OP where the the barriers they experienced probably came from.

Are you contending that the Japanese are not making a concerted effort to keep Chinese from buying up land? This IS a reality. Racist or not, I do not know.

[Teflon]

From the research I’ve done this stems from a fear of a mainly Chinese fifth column infiltrating Japan. China could pull a Putin and claim it it it was trying to protect Chinese citizens.

Unfortunately, this type of law is broad sweeping, banning all foreigners. For diplomatic reasons they don’t want to put up a big “No Chinese” sign. I’m guessing the interest of foreigners from more desirable countries is very small so it’s not an issue for them.

Properties that have this designation represent only a tiny fraction of the overall real estate market so it's difficult to believe the intent was to prevent a "Chinese fifth column" infiltration. From what I can gather, the regulation is meant to encourage the expansion of family farms and discourage urbanization in certain areas. It seems to me that it's not a very well thought out regulation since it just ends up decreasing the value of the land since most potential buyers find the terms unattractive.

[Gulliver]

From the research I’ve done this stems from a fear of a mainly Chinese fifth column infiltrating Japan. China could pull a Putin and claim it it it was trying to protect Chinese citizens.

Unfortunately, this type of law is broad sweeping, banning all foreigners. For diplomatic reasons they don’t want to put up a big “No Chinese” sign. I’m guessing the interest of foreigners from more desirable countries is very small so it’s not an issue for them.

..,It seems to me that it's not a very well thought out regulation since it just ends up decreasing the value of the land since most potential buyers find the terms unattractive.

I totally agree with you on this point. One wonders why the central government allows this at all. Politicians are constantly bemoaning problem of rural the depopulation but seem to be encouraging it at every turn.

If you try to find the logic of everything while living “through the looking glass”, however, you’ll find yourself quickly frustrated. Then if you dive deeper to find out what’s going on below the surface, you may wish you hadn’t.