City in Kyushu buys former Yakuza office
Karatsu City in Saga Prefecture has purchased a former Yakuza office at a public auction. The city acquired the property at the request of both prefectural police and the prefectural bar association to prevent it from falling back into criminal hands.
City abandons foreclosure of five-storied pagoda and temple grounds
Katsuyama City in Fukui Prefecture has given up on their attempt to auction off a foreclosed pagoda and temple property due to a lack of buyers.
[Foreclosed] House in Chiba’s ‘Beverly Hills’
A 4-bedroom house in One Hundred Hills (Chiba Prefecture’s version of Beverly Hills) has been foreclosed on and will go up for public auction in May. The minimum bid is set at 51,656,000 Yen.
*Update: The winning bid was 65,126,000 Yen. Three bids were submitted and the winner was a corporate buyer.
One Hundred Hills is a high-end residential estate that was developed by Tokyu Land in the late 1980s. The first homes in the neighbourhood were between 400 ~ 500 sqm (4300 ~ 5380 sqft) in size and were priced from 500 million ~ 1.5 billion Yen when new. Tokyu had subdivided the 17 hectare estate into 60 lots and had sold 24 of the 49 homes they had built by the time the bubble burst. Read more
[Foreclosed] 1898 Ijinkan in Kitanocho, Kobe
*Update: The property was withdrawn from the auction. This can occur when the creditor/s are either paid the outstanding debt or reach an agreement with the borrower.
The former Moore residence in Kobe's historic Kitanocho district will go up for public auction this month with bidding starting from 45.6 million Yen (442,000 USD).
The 2-storey western-style residence was built in 1898, with an extension to the rear added in 1980. It fronts onto Kitano Street, which is a popular spot for tourists.
Both the exterior and fence that face the street have been identified by Kobe City's Board of Education as traditional structures and any exterior alterations require permission (internal modifications, however, are allowed). Read more
Nara Dreamland foreclosed
Before Tokyo Disneyland there was Nara Dreamland - a Disney-themed park in Nara Prefecture that closed in 2006 and has since become a popular spot for urban explorers. Due to unpaid property taxes, Nara City is planning to put the property up for public auction soon.
Nara Dreamland was opened in 1961 by Nihon Dream Kanko. After meeting with Walt Disney at California's Disneyland Park, Nihon Dream's president Kunizo Matsuo expressed a desire to build a similar theme park in West Japan to cater to Japanese. Disney was apparently okay with this idea and sent some experts to Japan to advise on park design. While Nihon Dream claimed to have a franchise agreement in place, Disney later denied any official affiliation as they could not come to an agreement on franchise fees.
Final chapter for Tokyo's Chongryon HQ
Rather than hold a third auction, the Tokyo District Court announced plans to sell the foreclosed Chongryon headquarters in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo to a real estate company from Takamatsu City in Kagawa Prefecture. If there are no problems with Marunaka Holdings' paperwork, the final decision regarding the sale will be made on March 24.Read more