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When Dr. Koichi Seki encountered a tree peony called “Hoki” at the opening of Tsukuba Peony Garden in 1989, he was captivated. “It was love at first sight,” he recalls. Then the plant began to weaken. Eventually, it died. Dr. Seki’s frustration prompted him to reconsider how he grew peonies. It also set him on a path that would gradually change the garden itself-from carefully arranged flower displays into a landscape where peonies, trees and the surrounding countryside could

The Japan Housing Finance Agency published its October Flat 35 rates on October 1st, with the most common rate for 21- to 35-year loans at a loan-to-value ratio of 90% or below rising to 3.83%. That is the highest level under the current Flat 35 framework and extends a three-month rise in long-term fixed borrowing costs. Image generated by Patience Realty using AI services. All rights reserved. Flat 35 is a government-supported, fully fixed mortgage offered by private lender

A mammoth 182-page report released by LIFULL HOME’S Research Institute on September 29 paints a mixed picture of how foreign residents experience Japan’s housing market and how Japanese residents perceive the country’s growing foreign population. Photo by Jakub Żerdzicki on Unsplash On the foreign-resident side, many respondents reported difficulty finding housing, yet more than 80% were satisfied with the home they eventually secured. On the Japanese side, direct negative ex

Tokyo remains one of only two housing markets classified as facing high bubble risk in the UBS Global Real Estate Bubble Index 2026, released September 22nd, as home prices continue to outpace longer-term income growth despite higher interest rates in Japan. Tokyo recorded a bubble-risk score of 1.54, second only to Zurich at 1.69 among the 23 cities covered by the report. Its score was almost unchanged from a year earlier. UBS defines scores above 1.5 as indicating high bubb

In this episode of Benny and the Squirrel recorded on September 3rd, Rupert and Ben are joined by Japan strategist Jesper Koll, author of The Japan Optimist and a former strategist at JP Morgan and Merrill Lynch. Koll has spent decades following Japan’s economy, markets and corporate sector, giving his views particular weight when he argues that the country may be entering a very different economic phase. Speaking the morning after another bout of yen intervention, he discuss