Construction starts on 230m office and hotel tower in Hibiya
On December 8, NTT Urban Development and TEPCO Power Grid announced the official start of construction for the NTT Hibiya Tower. The 48-story high-rise is part of a large block development that will see three buildings redeveloped, including the Imperial Hotel next-door, by 2037 or later. Each of the three buildings are expected to include a hotel component.Read more
Okura to open resort hotel in Hakone
Nishimatsu Construction and Hotel Okura are planning to open Okura Resort Hakone Gora in Hakone’s famed hot spring area in 2029. This will be Okura’s first Resort-branded hotel to open in Japan.
Nishimatsu will develop and own the building, with operations to be entrusted to Hotel Okura. The hotel’s overall design is being led by design studio CURIOSITY, headed by French designer Gwenael Nicholas, with a concept of creating a refined forest hideaway. The sloping location has views towards the mountains where guests can view the Daimonji-Yaki festival.Read more
160m tall high-rise for Kanazawa Station
A high-rise hotel and apartment project has been floated for a long-idle site in front of Kanazawa Station, with the landowner, Kintetsu Real Estate, proposing what could end up becoming the tallest building along Japan’s western coast.
The 4,500 square meter site has been vacant for seven years. It was once home to the 193-room Kanazawa Miyako Hotel - the first city hotel in Kanazawa when it opened in 1963.Read more
Government to create database of foreign owners of real estate
The national government is planning to create a database to keep track of the nationalities of foreign buyers of real estate in Japan in response to calls for tougher restrictions on foreign investors. Currently, buyers are obligated to notify local jurisdictions of their nationality only when acquiring large land parcels, farmland, and land near sensitive facilities (self-defense force bases, for example). However, there has been no requirement to report nationalities to local governments when purchasing other types of real estate such as apartments.
On December 3, the Liberal Democratic Party launched a Foreigner Countermeasures Task Force with an agenda of providing recommendations regarding regulating the acquisition of land by foreign interests, with the head of the task force noting that “Land is inseparable from national sovereignty, and knowing who owns it and how it is being used is an extremely important matter.”
Vintage apartment building in Omotesando sells at 19 billion Yen gain
Oji Holdings is selling the 50-unit Oji Homes Aoyama apartment building in Omotesando to an unnamed domestic corporation, with a 19.9 billion Yen gain to be recorded upon sale. The transaction price has not been disclosed at the request of the buyer.Read more
Apartment and office investors targeted by potential change to inheritance tax code
The days of using real estate to reduce inheritance taxes may be numbered. The government is now looking into revising how real estate is valued for inheritance tax purposes to curb a common strategy of using rental investment apartments and strata offices to lower total estate taxes. Currently, the inheritance tax system uses ‘rosenka’ or roadside values which can sometimes result in real estate valuations that are drastically lower than market prices. The proposed revision bring valuations more closely in line with actual purchase prices, increasing the tax burden on heirs.Read more
3.5% of new condos in Tokyo were sold to buyers with overseas addresses
The results are in, and 3.5% of the brand-new condominiums sold across Tokyo’s 23 wards in the first half of 2025 were purchased by buyers with offshore addresses, according to data compiled by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT). The ratio was 7.5% in Tokyo’s central six wards, 4.3% in Osaka City, and 2.5% in Kyoto City. The research did not look into the nationality of buyers, and may include both Japanese and foreigners in these figures. These figures indicate that foreign buyers are not to blame for rising home prices, despite sensationalist headlines. Read more