Episode
Is Shikoku Japan's Most Underrated Place to Live? A Local Take | Ep. 143
- Podcast
- Buying a House in Japan
- Published
- Jul 31, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2171
- Processing state
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Summary
This week we welcome Narumi, our newest team member and consultant, for her first appearance on the show. Narumi is Swiss Japanese, grew up in the German-speaking part of Switzerland, and moved to Tokyo two years ago to reconnect with her Japanese heritage and chase what she calls her big city girl dream. She walks us through her path from language school in Kobe to a role at the Swiss Embassy in Japan to a cross border M&A company, and shares what she has learned helping clients navigate buying property in Japan. Key Takeaways Narumi grew up speaking German, English, and French, and started learning Japanese from scratch when she moved to Kobe for language school Full immersion, working at a Japanese company where no one spoke English, made the biggest difference in her fluency Japan's vacant home crisis has a lesser known parallel: small business owners without successors, sometimes giving away entire companies for free Shikoku (Takamatsu, Kochi, Tokushima) came up as an underrated region worth a look, though it is harder to reach and better suited to buyers with some Japan experience already Japanese bureaucracy can be a serious hurdle for foreign residents, including family register requirements that require support from relatives back in Japan Younger generations in both Switzerland and Japan increasingly doubt they will ever be able to afford a home, which is part of why more people are exploring options like Akiya In This Episode Narumi's background, her apprenticeship in Switzerland, and her decision to move to Japan Her JLPT journey, including a near miss on the N2 exam and her upcoming retake Working at the Swiss Embassy and later in cross border M&A, sourcing succession deals between Japanese business owners and international investors The connection…