1. What gets checked, field by field
A Japanese listing buries the decisive facts in a specification table and a free-text remarks box. Each of these is extracted, normalised and graded:
Road classification 道路種別
Whether the access route is a designated Article 42 road, a 42-2 legacy narrow road, a private lane, or nothing legally recognised at all.
Road width and frontage 道路幅員・間口
The width of the road and how many metres of your plot actually touch it. Under 2m of frontage generally means no rebuild.
Setback requirement セットバック
Whether the listing already admits a setback, and how deep it would be from the road centreline.
Private-road burden 私道負担
Land inside your title that is actually roadway, plus wording that says a burden exists or explicitly does not.
Zoning and use district 用途地域・市街化区域
Urbanisation promotion vs control area, and the use district that caps what you may build.
Utilities 上下水道・ガス・電気
Mains water, sewer, gas and electricity — connected, available but needing a paid connection, septic, well, LPG, or simply not disclosed.
Structure, floors and year 構造・階数・築年
Timber, light or heavy steel, reinforced concrete — plus build year against the 1981 earthquake code line.
Registration problems 未登記・増築未登記
Unregistered buildings or extensions and missing completion certificates, which block financing and complicate resale.
Price and ownership costs 売買価格・維持費
The asking price, purchase costs, renovation allowance, utility work and likely annual holding costs.
Location and access 最寄駅・周辺施設
Stations, travel times, shops, schools, medical care and civic services, with names presented in English.
Official municipality records 自治体の空き家バンク
The local city or town hall's own akiya-bank page and its documents, checked against your listing — facts are only added when the property number and figures match exactly.
Anything the listing does not state is recorded as not disclosed. A missing fact is never treated as a pass.
2. How the setback maths works
Under Article 42-2 of the Building Standards Act, a plot facing a road narrower than 4 metres must pull its building line back to where the road would be if it were 4 metres wide — measured from the centreline.
The formula
setback depth (m) = (4.0 − road width) ÷ 2 land surrendered (m²) = setback depth × frontage
Worked example
A plot of 120 m² faces a 2.7 m road with 6 m of frontage.
- Setback depth = (4.0 − 2.7) ÷ 2 = 0.65 m
- Land surrendered = 0.65 × 6 = 3.9 m²
- Buildable land left = 120 − 3.9 = 116.1 m²
That strip stays in your title and you keep paying tax on it, but it cannot be built on or fenced. Where only one side must set back — because the opposite side is a river or a cliff — the full 4 m is taken from your side instead, which roughly doubles the loss.
3. How the risk grade is decided
Deal-breaker
The listing says rebuilding is prohibited, frontage is under 2 m, there is no designated road, or the plot sits in an urbanisation control area with no building right.
Conditional
Rebuilding looks possible but something costs you: a setback, a private-road burden, missing utilities, an unregistered extension, or road details the listing never disclosed.
Clear
A designated road of 4 m or more, adequate frontage, no setback wording, no private-road burden, and lifelines connected.
The grade is rule-based: AI reads and translates the page, quoting the Japanese text behind each fact, but the verdict itself comes from fixed rules.
Above the verdict sits a 0–100 buyer-readiness score. It shows what pulls the score down, which details are still missing, and — when you re-run a report — how the score changed since your last check.
4. Where the data comes from
The primary source is always the listing page you paste. Every check then runs automatically, and the report only appears once they have all finished — so the score and cards do not change after you first see them.
- The same property is searched for on other Japanese portals and agent sites, and matched by locality plus price or land area, so a neighbouring plot is not mistaken for yours. Video, social and blog pages never count as sources.
- Where the local city or town hall publishes the property in its own akiya bank, the official page and that property's own documents are read. Matching is strict: the figures must line up, and an ambiguous match is shown as unconfirmed, never merged in.
- Municipality values always win over agent values, and each card says where its figure came from.
- Differences between sources are compared by meaning, not exact wording — "with parking" and "Available" count as the same. Real disagreements stay visible under "Where sources disagree", hidden until you open them.
- The government's official flood, tsunami, storm-surge and landslide maps are checked for every report; a zone found there is added even if the listing is silent.
Location context is added from Japan's national mapping service, with a map of the property. Where available, official zoning, recorded transactions and published land values are added from Japan's government property-data service.
5. What's in the report
The report is arranged in five chapters, in the order a buyer needs them, with a chapter menu to jump between them. The PDF uses the same chapters. Where the municipality publishes the property, its official values are used inside each card rather than in a separate list.
1. Overview & verdict
Buyer-readiness score
A 0–100 score with the findings behind it and what is still missing.
Verdict banner
One sentence answering can this be rebuilt, plus the key deal-breakers.
Property overview
Photos and core facts, using the municipality's value where one exists.
2. Legal & property risks
Road and setback
Classification, width, frontage, setback depth and land surrendered.
Hazards and zoning
Official hazard-map zones, planning area and use district.
Infrastructure audit
Water, sewer, septic, gas and electricity status with connection costs.
Renovation and demolition
Structure, age, earthquake code, condition tier and demolition costs.
Foreign-buyer guidance
Ownership, finance and remote-closing points for overseas buyers.
3. True costs
What this house really costs
Price, fees, taxes, utilities, renovation and yearly holding costs.
Closing-cost breakdown
Taxes, registration, legal and agency fees.
Is the asking price fair?
Price per m² against nearby recorded prices and official land values.
Possible subsidies
National and local schemes for renovation, seismic work or relocation.
Minpaku feasibility
Whether short-term rental is allowed and could pay its way.
4. Location & neighbourhood
Location and commute
Map, stations, travel times and nearby shops, schools and services.
Location health
Signs that the area may be stable or shrinking.
Community obligations
Local association duties and expectations to ask about.
5. Next steps
Negotiation leverage
Evidence-backed talking points and an opening-offer range.
Source trail
Every matching page, with disagreements in a drawer you can open.
Action tools
Publisher and City Hall enquiry scripts, field checklist, sharing and PDF.
6. Unlock, save and share
Every check is free to run: you always see the headline verdict and the header of every card, so you can tell exactly what the full report contains. Unlocking a report reveals the detailed calculations, cost ranges, source evidence, enquiry scripts and printable inspection checklist.
- Without an account you can run 3 free checks per day. A free account removes the daily limit.
- 1 credit = 1 full report. Re-running an unlocked report for fresh data, or updating a saved report with new links, files or notes, also uses 1 credit. Single Report ($5, 1 credit) credits never expire. The Home Buyer Pass ($49), made for one buyer searching for their own home, is a 30-day pass that covers 30 reports, re-runs and updates without spending credits. Pro ($99/month) includes 150 reports each month, bulk scans of up to 10 links with a side-by-side comparison, and your agency's branding on PDFs.
- Signed-in users can save reports and re-run them when a listing changes. If the score moves, the report shows what changed since your last check.
- Unlocked reports can be shared through a revocable read-only link.
- The PDF contains the due-diligence findings for an agent or adviser; interactive scripts and the field checklist stay in the web report.
7. Free tools, no account needed
Six standalone calculators are free for everyone — no sign-in, no credits, no daily limit. They are a good first stop before you even have a listing in hand.
2026 Akiya Closing Cost Calculator
The true cash needed to buy: taxes, registration, legal and agency fees on top of the asking price.
Road Setback Calculator
Enter a road width and frontage to see the setback depth and land you would surrender.
Road Contact Checker
Works out whether a plot has enough legal road frontage to be rebuilt at all.
Urbanisation-Control Decoder
Explains what a shigaika-chōsei listing really means for your right to build.
Room Size Converter
Convert tatami (帖/畳), tsubo and square metres in either direction.
Minpaku Feasibility Calculator
Estimate whether a house could earn its keep as a short-term rental.
8. Limits, stated plainly
This is a screening tool
- The report can only be as complete as the listing. Japanese listings routinely omit road width and utility status.
- The final authority is the municipality's Building Guidance Division. Confirm before you sign anything.
- Government zoning, transaction and land-price records depend on address accuracy and local coverage. When unavailable, the report says so instead of treating the listing wording as an official confirmation.
- Costs are estimates based on standard Japanese rates, not quotations.
- AkiyaCheck is not a licensed broker, land surveyor or administrative attorney.
9. Frequently asked questions
Do I need to read Japanese to use it?
No. Reports are shown in English only — place names in romaji, findings and labels in plain English, with "See source" links to the original Japanese. Only the enquiry scripts for the agent and City Hall are written in Japanese, so you can send them as they are.
Is this legal advice?
No. AkiyaCheck is a screening tool. The authority on whether a plot can be rebuilt is the municipality's Building Guidance Division (建築指導課). The report gives you a Japanese enquiry script so you can confirm quickly.
What if the listing does not state the road width?
Undisclosed is reported as undisclosed — never as a pass. The report flags it as unverified and adds the missing item to your enquiry questions.
Why does the report take a little while to appear?
Other sites, the municipality's own record and the government's hazard and zoning maps are all checked before the report is shown. Waiting for them means the score and cards don't change after you first see them.
Does AkiyaCheck check the local municipality's own records?
Yes. Where the local city or town hall publishes the property in its own akiya bank, the official page and its documents are read and matched against your listing. Facts are only added when the property number and figures match exactly; an ambiguous match is shown as unconfirmed, never merged in.
What is included in an unlocked report?
An unlocked report includes the detailed calculations, price and renovation ranges, source evidence, the municipality record where one exists, Japanese enquiry scripts, printable inspection checklist, sharing and PDF export. The public sample is a shorter preview and does not include every action tool.
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