Tucked away in Japan’s countryside, millions of abandoned homes – known as akiya – sit empty, waiting for a second life. With ...

and predicts that akiya could exceed 30% of all houses in Japan by 2033. The Thursfields’ house, which sits among the paddies in southern Ibaraki Prefecture, about 45 minutes from central Tokyo ...

An akiya bank is a database maintained by ... the cofounder of Blackship Realty, a Tokyo-based real-estate agency, told BI. The local municipal governments may prioritize potential buyers who ...

Others are launching akiya banks — websites that list abandoned homes for as little as 50,000 ... couldn't find work in the prefecture and had to move to Tokyo to get a job.

Swedish national Anton Wormann learned about an “akiya” abandoned vacant home in Tokyo and immediately requested a viewing. The wooden house showed clear signs it had been empty and ...

These wildly cheap homes can come with a serious ... Mr Thursfield, 48, and his wife snapped up an akiya farmhouse in Ibaraki prefecture, roughly an hour north of Tokyo. “We wanted to live ...

which was started this fiscal year to encourage sales of “akiya” abandoned homes by setting their price at 100 yen. The municipality has been asking residents to register information on vacant ...