Australian expats find housing solution - in Japan

A man with a short beard wearing a baseball cap and a black t-shirt standing against the background of a Japanese-style house

Australian Jaya Thursfield bought and renovated an abandoned home an hour’s drive north-east of Tokyo. Credit: SBS Dateline

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In Japan, millions of abandoned houses, known as ‘akiya’ are being sold cheaply or even given away for free - and some Australian expats have decided to buy up.

A man wearing a grey t-shirt, short and a baseball cap sitting on a wooden bench on a timber-clad veranda

Since buying the house, Thursfield has spent $250,000 on renovations and has documented the process on his now viral YouTube page. Source: Supplied

Akiya are unwanted homes, mostly in the Japanese countryside, that have been abandoned as a side effect of Japan’s severe population decline - and a trend toward urban living, with 90 percent of Japan’s 125 million residents choosing to live in cities.

When Australian expat Jaya Thursfield faced the question of where to put down roots for his young family, he was torn between Australia, and his wife’s home country of Japan.

The 47-year-old found his akiya in Ibaraki prefecture, about an hour’s drive north-east of Tokyo.

He bought it for $30,000, a fraction of the median Australian house price.

You can also see that story in full on Dateline's page at SBS On Demand https://www.sbs.com.au/ondemand/news-series/dateline