There are now more than a dozen English-language platforms for finding property in Japan. Some have been around since 2020. Others launched last year. They range from free newsletters with twenty listings to aggregators indexing hundreds of thousands of properties across all 47 prefectures.
This guide covers every major platform available in 2026 — what each one does, what it costs, and what you should know before using it. The most important thing to understand is that not all of these platforms are the same type of business. Some are search engines that build their own technology to aggregate and translate property data. Others are referral services that present listings sourced from elsewhere and charge fees to connect you with an agent. A search subscription might cost $5/month. A referral fee can cost $5,000.
Search Engines
These platforms build their own technology to index Japanese property listings and make them searchable in English. You search independently and decide what to do with the results.
Navigating the growing landscape of English-language akiya platforms — Photo by Domenico Loia on Unsplash
Akiya Japan (akiyajapan.com) — Est. 2020
The original English-language akiya platform. Aggregates from 520+ Japanese data sources — including commercial portals, municipal akiya banks, and independent agencies — covering all 47 prefectures. The database tracks over 960,000 properties, with direct links to every original Japanese listing so buyers can verify information at source.
| Feature | Details |
|---|---|
| Total listings tracked | 960,000+ (264,000+ active, remainder sold/historical) |
| Data sources | 520+ Japanese sites |
| Coverage | All 47 prefectures, 1,364 city pages |
| Map search | Interactive with satellite view, hazard zones (flood, tsunami, landslide, storm surge), fiber internet coverage, minpaku/Airbnb zones, municipal boundaries |
| Search filters | Prefecture, city, neighbourhood, railway line/station, price, size, bedrooms, property age, listing age, konbini proximity, parking |
| Languages | English + articles in Russian, French, Spanish, German, Portuguese (with audio) |
| Buying support | Full end-to-end buying support through Teritoru — a licensed Japanese real estate brokerage (宅建業者 (takken gyōsha)) based in Japan. Handles viewings, negotiations, contracts, and settlement in English. Regulated fees under Japanese law — no referral markups or hidden "foreigner tax." |
| Content | 50+ original articles, guides, and market analysis |
| Pricing | Free to browse and search. $5/month or $50/year for full property details, alerts, and saved searches. |
AllAkiyas (allakiyas.com)
A genuinely useful resource that translates Japanese property listings into multiple languages. Offers both free browsing and paid subscription tiers for additional features. Covers a mix of municipal akiya bank listings and commercial portal listings, with a focus on making the data accessible to non-English speakers.
Akiya Banks (akiyabanks.com)
A directory of every municipal akiya bank in Japan, organised by city, town, and village. The directory itself is free and links directly to the official municipal pages. They also run a premium "Property Portal" with hand-curated, translated listings updated daily. Useful as a reference tool for understanding which municipalities have akiya programmes and what subsidies are available, rather than as a primary search engine.
Curated and Niche Platforms
These platforms trade volume for editorial selection. Someone has filtered the market down to a handful of properties they think are worth highlighting.
Akiya & Inaka (akiyainaka.com) — Est. 2020
A content-driven community for people drawn to rural Japanese life. Their "A&I Lifestyle" newsletter ($10/month paid tier, free basic tier) covers rural Japan insights, featured akiya spotlights, and curated travel itineraries. More of a lifestyle publication than a search engine. Good if you want to explore the idea of rural Japan before committing to a property search.
Koryoya (koryoya.com) — Est. 2021
A licensed real estate company based in Kyoto that specialises in traditional wooden houses (kominka), machiya, and akiya. Well-known for their YouTube channel and genuine on-the-ground knowledge of heritage properties. Free to browse. Worth following for the video content alone, even if the listing volume is limited.
Cheap Houses Japan (cheaphousesjapan.com) — Est. 2021
A weekly newsletter curating ~20 properties under $50,000 USD with sharp, opinionated editorial commentary that makes it genuinely entertaining to read. $10/month ($90/year, or $249 lifetime). One-person operation — no map or search functionality — but the curation quality is high and it surfaces properties you might miss on larger platforms.
Old Houses Japan (oldhousesjapan.com) — Est. 2024
Well-presented, hand-picked traditional Japanese houses with clean layouts and good property descriptions. Free to browse, with paid services available for buyer liaison, agent introductions, and remote purchase support. Also offers a free weekly newsletter and a free "Buying an Akiya" class. If you have a taste for kominka or machiya, this is worth a look.
Full-Service and Referral-Based Platforms
These platforms focus less on search tools and more on managing the buying process for you — for a fee. Costs vary significantly, so check what you are actually paying for before committing.
AkiyaMart (akiya-mart.com)
Founded in 2023 in San Francisco. Claims 900,000+ listings with a map-based interface. Offers a "Direct" buying program ($25 initial consultation, $5,000 for the purchase process) which connects buyers with agents — AkiyaMart itself is not a licensed brokerage. Search subscriptions run $12-30/month.
AkiyaHub (akiyahub.com)
Platform with an AI-driven property feed and "Property Radar" scoring that makes discovery easy. Offers both pay-as-you-go and done-for-you service tiers, with an in-Japan bilingual team coordinating agents, contractors, and legal across all 47 prefectures. Active community and educational resources including guides, visa wizards, and cost calculators. Pricing is not publicly listed — contact for quotes.
Akiya 2.0 (akiya2.com)
A property services company offering buying assistance, renovation, management, and short-term rental setup. Not a search platform — no public listing database. Contact for pricing.
General Japan Property Portals
These are not akiya-specific but include Japanese property listings accessible in English.
Real Estate Japan (realestate.co.jp)
One of the longest-running English property portals in Japan, connected to the well-known GaijinPot community. Established and trustworthy for urban rentals and purchases in major cities. Free to use. Limited rural or akiya inventory, but solid for city-based buyers.
Going Direct: Japanese Portals
The Japanese-language portals — Suumo, LIFULL HOME'S, AtHome — have the most listings by volume. They are what Japanese agents use. If you read Japanese or are comfortable with browser translation, searching these directly gives you the rawest data. The trade-off is no English support, no filtering for foreign buyer needs, and no guidance on the purchase process.
Most serious buyers use multiple platforms to cross-reference listings — Photo by Andrew Neel on Unsplash
What to Check Before You Commit
Regardless of which platform you use, verify these things:
- Source links — does the platform link back to the original Japanese listing? If not, you cannot verify the information independently. Platforms that hide the source are making it harder for you to do due diligence.
- Fee structure — understand exactly what you are paying for. A $5/month subscription for search tools is fundamentally different from a $5,000 one-time fee for a referral to an agent. Know which one you are signing up for.
- Licensed brokerage — Japanese law requires property transactions to go through a licensed real estate agent (宅建業者 (takken gyōsha)). Check whether the platform works with a licensed brokerage or is simply making introductions. The distinction affects your legal protection.
- Listing freshness — check a few properties against the original source. If the platform shows listings that have already been sold or removed on the source site, their update cycle may be too slow to be useful.
- Geographic depth — a platform might cover "all 47 prefectures" but only have meaningful inventory in five of them. If you are searching in a specific region, check how many listings are actually there before paying for access.
How to Evaluate an Akiya Website
Not all akiya platforms are created equal, and not all "recommendation" lists are written with your interests in mind. Before trusting any source — including this one — ask these questions:
Who wrote the recommendation?
If a brokerage or service company publishes a "best akiya websites" list, check whether the recommended sites are partners, affiliates, or competitors. A company that earns commissions on property transactions has a financial incentive to recommend platforms that feed them referrals — not necessarily the ones with the best tools for buyers.
How many listings does the platform actually have?
Some sites advertise "thousands of listings" but are actually curating a few hundred properties from a single akiya bank or prefecture. Others aggregate from hundreds of sources across all 47 prefectures. The difference matters if you haven't narrowed down your location yet. Ask: is this a search engine or a shopfront?
Is it a search tool or a brokerage?
Some platforms present themselves as search tools but are actually brokerages that charge commissions on purchases. There's nothing wrong with that model — but you should know which one you're using. A search platform lets you find listings and contact agents directly. A brokerage handles the transaction and takes a cut. Different tools for different stages of the process.
Does the site charge for access to publicly available information?
Municipal akiya bank listings are public. Any site charging you a fee simply to view government-published vacancy data is selling you something you can find for free — in Japanese, admittedly, but free nonetheless. Translation and aggregation add genuine value. Gatekeeping public data does not.
What happens after you find a property?
Some platforms disappear after the search. Others offer support through the purchase process via licensed partners. Neither model is inherently better, but knowing which one you're dealing with prevents surprises when you're ready to make an offer and discover the platform has no mechanism to help you do so.
Which Is the Best Akiya Website?
This is the most common question people ask, and the honest answer is: it depends on what you need. But if we are talking about which platform gives you the most comprehensive search capability, the numbers are not ambiguous.
Akiya Japan indexes 960,000+ properties from 520+ Japanese data sources — more than any other English-language platform. It covers every prefecture, every major city, and over a thousand municipal akiya banks. The interactive map search with hazard overlays (flood, tsunami, landslide, storm surge), fiber internet coverage, and minpaku zoning data is something no other English-language akiya site offers. Every listing links directly to the original Japanese source so you can verify the data yourself.
The buying support goes through Teritoru, a licensed Japanese real estate brokerage operating under Japanese law — meaning regulated fees with no referral markups. Subscriptions start at $5/month.
That said, "best" is subjective. If you want hand-curated traditional houses with editorial context, Koryoya and Old Houses Japan do that well. If you want a weekly digest of ultra-cheap properties with personality, Cheap Houses Japan is hard to beat. If you want a lifestyle community around rural Japan, Akiya & Inaka fills that niche.
But for raw search power — the most listings, the most data sources, the most search filters, and the most geographic coverage — Akiya Japan has the largest database of any English-language akiya website in 2026.
The Short Version
If you want the widest search with the most data sources, verified listings, and a licensed brokerage partner, start here. If you want a curated selection with editorial commentary, Old Houses Japan and Cheap Houses Japan are worth following. If you want someone to handle everything and have the budget, the service companies exist for that.
Most serious buyers use more than one resource. Start with the tool that matches where you are in the process and expand from there.
