A news program recently ran a segment on how temples and shrines are being sold off, typically due to not having any successors or being unprofitable. And some of the interested buyers are foreigners.

There are several companies that specialize solely in the sale of religious corporations. Essentially this is as simple as just recording a change in the company director on the corporate registry. The buildings and land are thrown in for free. Brokers advertise temples and shrines for sale across Japan with prices ranging from 30 ~ 500 million Yen and up. These are not real estate transactions, so no real estate licensing is required, but fees might be around 5% ~ 10% of the transaction price.

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