A Gen X couple bought an abandoned house in Japan for $23,000. They’re restoring it as part of their retirement plan.
Deborah and Jason Brawn bought an akiya in rural Japan.
Deborah and Jason Brawn’s shared dream was to buy a house in Japan.
The couple — from Brisbane, Australia — had long been interested in Japanese culture and its way of life, having visited the country multiple times over the years.
In 2023, they finally decided to take the plunge. With their four kids all grown up, they were soon-to-be empty nesters — it was now or never to follow their dreams.
The couple’s love affair with Japan started with Deborah, who studied Japanese at university in the ’90s
“We knew that Japan had an issue with akiya, and because we really love the Japanese lifestyle, the people, the culture, and the old traditional houses, we thought, why not?” Jason, 51, told B-17. “Everyone else seemed to be following their dreams. Why can’t we?”
A lifelong connection to Japan
The couple’s love affair with Japan started with Deborah, who studied Japanese at university in the ’90s. After graduation, she moved to Tokyo for five years, where she worked as an English teacher. For three decades, she also practiced karate.
Her love for Japan eventually rubbed off on Jason.
However, it was during the pandemic that the couple first learned about akiya, or abandoned houses, in Japan.
The couple says that the akiya was built in 1868.
Due to the shrinking population and internal migration toward cities, there are millions of unoccupied houses in rural Japanese towns.
In recent years, the Japanese government started offering incentives — such as renovation subsidies and even free properties — in an effort to lure residents to these “ghost towns.”
“I’d actually looked at foreclosed properties years and years ago, wanting to buy a property in Japan before the word ‘akiya’ had become popular. But I was in a position where I had young children,” Deborah, 52, told B-17.
Now that their youngest is 18, it made sense for the couple to start planning for the next stage of their lives, including retirement. That’s where buying an akiya comes in.
“We wanted a project. Like the word ‘ikigai,’ we wanted to be able to get up and say, that’s our passion now. We’ve raised kids, we want to go there as much as we can and just tinker,” Deborah, a business analyst, said.
They were looking for a project to work on as they were transitioning into retirement.
However, since Japan’s borders were still closed at the time, the couple did most of their initial research online. They joined Facebook groups and spoke to like-minded people to learn more about the process.
They knew they wanted to be outside the city and close to nature. While browsing online listings, they put together a list of potential houses they wanted to see in person once travel resumed.
“We were sort of matching them against what we are looking for — something old, very traditional,” Jason, a construction workplace health and safety inspector, said.
In November 2022, after the borders opened, they jumped on a plane to Japan for a quick visit.
In April 2023, they returned to the country for a six-week trip, where they drove around and looked at all the houses on their list.
The idea was to restore the akiya to its former glory but with some modern amenities.
It was in Mitocho, a small town near Masuda city, where they found the perfect akiya — a traditional Japanese house constructed in 1868, during the Meiji era. Masuda city is about a two-hour drive from Hiroshima, and a 90-minute flight from Tokyo.
“We drove over there, and when we saw it, we just knew that was the one, and we didn’t look anymore after that,” Deborah said.
The property had been vacant for 12 years before they came along. The couple was told it had served as a sake brewery until the early 1900s.
In order to inspect the property, they had to fill out a couple of forms for the local akiya bank. An akiya bank is a database maintained by the local municipalities for abandoned or vacant houses.
The akiya had been a sake brewery at some point in the past, and the couple found a sign — as well as other sake-brewing instruments — while cleaning up the property.
“They were very serious,” Deborah said. “It was all in Japanese. We had to fill out a form with all our details, our families, what we do for a job, all that stuff. And then another form about our intentions and what we want to do with the house.”
A retirement project
The couple paid 3.5 million Japanese yen, or $23,000, for the akiya in August 2023.
It was a 7LDK, which in Japanese housing terminology means that the house has seven bedrooms, a living room, a dining area, and a kitchen.
There are about 300 houses in their village, and their akiya is situated along a street leading to the community center. There’s also a 7-11 across the rice field from their akiya.
So far, the couple has fixed up the front of the house by tidying up the garden, as well as adding a new gravel driveway and car park. They’ve also restored the kitchen, and gotten rid of the old toilet in favor of a modern bathroom.
“The intent is to bring the house back to its former glory with one or two modern touches,” Jason said.
While they were prepared for the challenges of fixing up the old house, they were surprised by the amount of wildlife they encountered, including both spiders and snakes.
“And we’ve got monkeys, we’ve got centipedes, we’ve got bears, and killer hornets too. I was chased by one inside the house, so that was really scary — even though it makes a funny story now,” Deborah said.
The language barrier was also a bit of a challenge for Jason, even though he’s taking Japanese classes now.
“I can’t really speak Japanese, whereas Deb can. So it puts a lot of pressure on her too,” Jason said. “It’s not like being in Tokyo or Kyoto where a lot of Japanese speak English.”
The couple splits their time between Australia and Japan.
The couple expects to spend the next few years chipping away at this project. They have also started documenting their restoration progress on their YouTube channel.
“We’ve got no urgent timeframe, and we’re not trying to make money out of the property. We don’t want to Airbnb it or anything like that. This is for us,” Deborah said.
The couple still lives primarily in Brisbane, where their jobs are based. They plan to continue splitting their time between Japan and Australia until they fully retire in “hopefully five to eight years,” Deborah said.
Integrating into the local community
When they’re back in Australia, the akiya sits empty, but Jason said they’ve installed cameras around the property so they can monitor the yard.
The couple has also become friends with the real-estate agent who handled their akiya transaction — so much so that he even drives by their property once a week just to check on it on their behalf.
The couple say it is their responsibility as akiya owners to be heavily involved in the local community.
Building relationships with their neighbors and the wider community has been the key to the success of their akiya project.
“We’ve got a good support network there, but that doesn’t just come along. You’ve got to work at that,” Deborah said.
She added that they’ve been involved in the local community since day one, and even joined the neighborhood association.
In fact, the couple says that participating in the local community is one of the most important aspects of buying an akiya in Japan.
In September, they traveled from Australia to Japan to join their neighbors in cleaning up the local river.
It’s also why the local akiya bank was so invested in knowing why the couple wanted to buy the property, Jason said.
In recent years, foreigners have been snapping up these old, abandoned homes, in part due to the low price tags and the lack of restrictions on foreigners purchasing property in Japan. For many of them, it’s more affordable to own an akiya in Japan than to own real estate in their home countries.
“In most cases potential buyers are asked their intentions before attending a viewing or submitting an application,” Alex Shapiro, the cofounder of Blackship Realty, a Tokyo-based real-estate agency, told B-17.
The local municipal governments may prioritize potential buyers who intend to live there, contribute to the local community, and pay local government taxes, he said.
However, each local government sets its own rules, Sami Senoussi, the cofounder of Akiya Heaven, which offers consulting services for akiya purchases, told B-17.
“Some rural communities, especially those with aging populations, impose stricter guidelines in an effort to preserve the character and culture of their towns,” he said. In more urban areas, including Tokyo, it’s less common, he added.
Additionally, potential buyers may also be asked to demonstrate that they have the financial capacity to fund the renovations, especially if the akiya in question requires significant repairs, he said.
Indeed, while buying an akiya may be relatively affordable, the cost of fixing the house up can balloon quickly, Jason said.
“There’s a lot of time, effort, and money that needs to go into them. And commitment — you can’t just turn up in the community and play no part. You’ve got to put an equal amount of time into the house as much as you’ve got to put it into the community, and forge those relationships,” he added.
