RetireJapan

Hi all, newbie here looking for advice. This will help me tremendously in my move to Japan in 5-10 yrs time.
Where would you consider a good area to live if I wanna be near Tokyo and Shizuoka, where:
- looking for landed house more than 100 sq meter
- below jpy 100 million
- within 2 hrs by car / 1 hr by Shinkansen to Tokyo and Shizuoka?
Thanks in advance!

Maybe Odawara (shinkansen or 'romance car'/Odakyu into shinjuku), or Hiratsuka (some express trains to tokyo).

The latter is more expensive, and shizuoka not as direct (train to odawara and shinkansen from there). Odawara is one stop to Shizuoka.

Had one of our kids living inland a little from odawara, minami-ashigara, and even a little outside of that (Green Hills). Houses were cheap, something like the 15M range for used--with parking and a great view. There's a local line that runs every 20min to odawara station.

Thank you captainspoke. I’ll look into these areas.
What are the schooling options? My kids are still young so staying near good international or local schools helps.

I’m now sure about international schools, but there are some bilingual IB schools in the Odawara and Mishima area I believe. I can’t speak for the local schools, but as someone originally from the US, most general areas have good public schools. For elementary and junior high it matters more what neighborhood (and thus which specific school) you’re in. Still, the differences between schools are nothing like in the US where I’m from. For high school, it’s not uncommon for students to commute a ways into school. When I used to teach at a private (not international) high school in Tokyo, I had some students taking the train from Shizuoka prefecture.

Thank you bike Tokyo. Didn’t know there are IB schools in these areas!

Is Gotemba a good area to live? Have Only been to the premium outlet but I love the weather and the openness. I read somewhere there are plans to develop resorts there not sure how is it going now.

Generally speaking do houses outside Tokyo (say Shizuoka/ Mishima/ Gotemba) hold their value?

Maybe you could have a look at Yokohama, there are 4 major International schools with English curriculum from Kindergarten through to year 12:

YIS, St. Maur, (both cost around 3 Mio. a year) Horizon Int. School and Indian Int. school, Yokohama campus. (There are 4 more schools with non English curriculum)
Also, I found a new Int. School „CGK“ up to Elementary for now, then there is the Yokohama Christian school up to grade 5. There are also many Preschools (probably of varying quality).

Regarding Japanese schools, the public El. and Jr. High schools don’t differ much by area (unless you live in a „very bad area“ probably - of which there are not many). The public Sr. High schools range from very bad to very good (entrance exams required as compulsory education ends after grade 9). Whereas private schools - which are mostly concentrated in the larger cities, vary from good to bad, especially the Sr. High Schools. Private schools all require entrance exams - some are extremely competitive - or in some cases recommendations. They can also be quite costly, although less so than Int. Schools and especially among the Elementary schools, many expect the mothers to be not working (unspoken rule).

Closest and only Shinkansen Stop is Shin-Yokohama - 16 minutes to Tokyo, about 50 minutes to Shizuoka - a business district, very few people live there, but on the back side is a nice, expensive residential area (Shinohara).

Houses are much more affordable than in Tokyo, of course depending on location, 40 to 70 Mio approx. for a new house, used ones from ca. 25 Mio. No gardens though and very close to neighbors, and to answer your latest question: Houses don’t hold their value, the land does usually, but maybe s. o. who actually bought a house here will be more knowledgeable about that.

The city has a lot to offer, is relatively open/used to foreigners, there are some nice parks, also, it is very clean. Access by trains to the Kamakura/Shonan area to the south as well as Kawasaki/Tokyo to the north is good. Also, summers are a little less oppressive than in Tokyo and the air is cleaner (my biased perception ).

I really leant a lot! Thank you guys