Akiya: Vacant Houses in the Japanese Countryside for a Steal tokyocheapo.com

Do you yearn for a home in the Japanese countryside, far from the hustle and bustle of big city life? An akiya (abandoned house) may be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for. What is an akiya? Quite simply, akiya (空き家) means “empty house”. What it really means is an empty house in a small town (possibly in the middle of nowhere) that no one wants to move into and which real estate agents have basically given up on trying to sell. Akiya are both a symptom of Japan’s rapidly falling population and of the overwhelming preference of Japanese home buyers for newly built houses over older buildings. When seniors move to smaller houses or care facilities, or pass away, there are no younger generation