MUFJ Bank donates villa to Kamakura City

Kamakura Villa UFJLocated in Kamakurayama, Mitsubishi UFJ Bank's holiday villa was donated to Kamakura City. The city opened the villa up to the public for one day on October 25th. In 2009, MUFJ had initially planned to sell the villa to the city, but financial difficulties caused the sale to fall through and it was later donated.

The main building is built from reinforced concrete with 2 floors and 1 basement. There are also two wooden tea houses.Read more

by Zoe Ward

Kan continues quest to control foreign land ownership in Japan - are legal reforms likely?

There are no restrictions against foreigners purchasing and holding land in Japan.

However, with recent disputes over the Senkaku/Diaoyu islands igniting land ownership debates, many seemingly ordinary purchases by foreign capital are now under media scrutiny. This includes the purchase of forests in Hokkaido and the purchase of resort properties by a Korean group near a military base in Nagasaki.

Prime Minster Kan has recently started to raise the point of restricting land ownership in order to protect national interests.

The following is a translation of an article from the Asahi Shimbun, October 26th 2010.Read more

by Zoe Ward