We possess a long-standing track record in cross-border real estate transactions in Japan—a market where such expertise remains rare and demands highly specialized skills.

Backed by our proven experience, we offer comprehensive support for safe, secure, and seamless transactions based on our deep knowledge of transaction security.

Securing Transactions for Buyers

1. Risks and Concerns

For a real estate buyer, the most critical risk lies in verifying whether the counterparty (the seller) is indeed the true legal owner and possesses the valid authority to transfer ownership.

In the worst-case scenario, buyers can encounter fraudsters masquerading as the property owner.

In Japan, these impostors are notoriously referred to as "Jimenshi" (land-scammers). Their sophisticated and highly calculated criminal schemes have drawn significant public attention, even inspiring a popular drama series on Netflix.

Buyers are also exposed to various other complex risks. For instance, if the seller is a corporate entity, what happens if the sale was decided arbitrarily by only a few directors, triggering an internal corporate dispute?

Even if the owner is an individual, if they suffer from advanced dementia or other cognitive conditions that impair their legal capacity, the sales contract itself may ultimately be declared null and void.

Furthermore, a seller undergoing bankruptcy proceedings might unlawfully attempt to execute a sale without the mandatory approval of the court-appointed bankruptcy trustee.

There are also cases where a property is subject to tax liens and seizure by government agencies due to the delinquency of fixed asset taxes or other Japanese national and local taxes.

As demonstrated, buyers face diverse, compounding, and highly sophisticated risks.

Regrettably, it cannot be assumed that all licensed real estate brokers (Takken-gyosha) thoroughly investigate these critical risk factors.

As Judicial Scriveners (Shiho-shoshi), we go far beyond the merely mechanical legal procedures of ownership registration. We meticulously investigate the existence of these underlying risks, formulate robust mitigation strategies, and actively advise clients against entering into unsafe transactions when necessary.

Moreover, cross-border real estate transactions demand highly specialized global insights.

For example, when the seller is a foreign corporation, determining whether its corporate decision-making process is legally binding requires expert interpretation of the laws of that specific country. Do ordinary judicial scriveners in Japan possess this cross-border legal knowledge? The answer is an definitive no.

Our extensive accumulation of experience in international legal transactions is precisely what sets us apart and adds invaluable security to these complex scenarios.

Below, we introduce an overview of our standard, rigorous methodology for verifying the identity and intent of sellers to safeguard our buyers.

2. General Overview

As a baseline principle, direct face-to-face verification is the most secure and definitive method to confirm a seller's identity and true intentions.

For instance, modern identification documents frequently embed secure IC chips. Meeting in person allows us to read the IC chip data on the spot and physically inspect the card's security features to verify its authenticity.

Furthermore, an in-person meeting provides an invaluable opportunity to evaluate the seller's legal capacity. Through natural conversation and behavioral observation, our professionals can identify potential red flags indicating cognitive decline or lack of mental capacity (such as a severely narrowed focus, repetitive or inconsistent statements, and other characteristics typical of dementia).

The key objective of our practice is twofold: to maximize the opportunities for direct, face-to-face verification, and to implement rigorous alternative safeguards to offset the disadvantages whenever a face-to-face meeting is impossible.

3. Standard Procedures: Residents of Japan

Depending on the transaction value of the real estate, we exhaust all reasonable avenues to secure a direct, face-to-face meeting with the seller as part of our standard verification protocol.

If the seller resides near our offices—such as in Kutchan-Niseko, Sapporo, Furano, or Tokyo/Chiba—this in-person verification is seamlessly integrated.

But what if the seller resides in distant regions, such as Osaka, Nagoya, or Kyushu?

While traveling directly to the location is an option, we also offer a highly cost-effective alternative: leveraging our extensive professional network of local Judicial Scriveners across Japan.

Our firm maintains trusted, long-standing collaborative relationships with highly reputable, diligent peers nationwide. By dispatching a trusted local professional to the seller's location, we can thoroughly execute our verification protocols and successfully mitigate transaction risks without incurring prohibitive travel costs for the buyer.

4. Standard Procedures: Overseas Residents

How do we handle cases where the seller resides abroad and has no plans to travel to Japan before the transaction is finalized?

As a rule, our standard real estate registration fee estimates do not include the costs for international travel to verify the seller (though we can certainly perform overseas in-person verification upon a client's specific request).

When a direct face-to-face meeting is unfeasible, the core challenge lies in how we investigate and minimize risks through robust alternative protocols.

Below are some examples of our standard risk-mitigation techniques. (Please note that these represent only a fraction of our standard procedures; specific risk-mitigation measures are custom-tailored based on the property value, the seller's profile, and the nature of the transaction.)

• Verifying Multiple IDs: We request high-resolution scans of multiple official identification documents to rigorously cross-check and verify the consistency of all personal data.
• Address Verification via Certified Mail: We dispatch physical mail to the specific address listed on the seller's official identification and public documents to confirm successful delivery and physical residency.

Notably, the methods above align directly with the statutory identity verification requirements stipulated under Japan's Anti-Money Laundering framework (the Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds).

• Indirect Verification via Notarial Authentication: Documents required for Japanese property registration must be executed under oath before a Notary Public in the seller's country of residence. Through this affidavit process, we require the local notary to indirectly verify the seller's identity and legal capacity.
• Comprehensive Documentary Evidence: We request historical documents that only the genuine owner would possess—such as the original purchase contract from when they acquired the property or historical fixed asset tax assessment notices. Additionally, we may verify details with companies that have historically provided localized services to the property, requesting multi-layered evidence tailored to the transaction size and risk level.

Finally, we would like to highlight a unique, proprietary strength of our firm. Because we have specialized in cross-border real estate transactions centered around Niseko and other key areas in Hokkaido for many years, a significant percentage of international sellers originally registered their ownership through our firm when they initially purchased the property. For these sellers, we often retain historical records, including their original signatures and handwriting from the time of purchase. This allows us to perform precise handwriting comparisons against historical documents to conclusively verify authenticity.

5. Looking to the Future

In our continuous pursuit of unparalleled transaction safety, we are actively introducing cutting-edge identity verification methods based on global standards. This includes digital authentication systems capable of securely reading identity document IC chips during non-face-to-face transactions.

By constantly evolving our assessment methodologies rather than settling for the status quo, our ongoing objective is to deliver an even higher level of safety, certainty, and efficiency in real estate transactions.

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* Please note that the identity and intent verification protocols we implement are risk assessment methodologies based on our own internal standards and do not guarantee absolute protection against all forms of fraud or transaction risks.

* While we guarantee the rigorous execution of these professional investigations for our buyers, our determination that a seller is the authentic owner with valid authority does not constitute an absolute guarantee of factual reality. The final decision to proceed with a transaction based on the investigation findings rests solely with the buyer under the principle of self-responsibility.