Here's an interesting article that Brad or other FWers might like to consider. Any comments, Karen?
[About the writer of this article: David Markle is a long-term (17 year) resident of Japan. He first came to Japan as a student and has resided there pretty much ever since. He resides in rural Yamanashi Pref. Along with his wife, Yuko, and their three boys (12, 10, and 3). He is presently engaged in full-time agricultural activities. He welcomes reader feedback, questions, or comments. Please email him at <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>] <<<< DOWN ON THE FARM -- HOMSESTEADING IN JAPAN David Markle I don't know if anyone has ever considered homesteading in one of the most densely populated expensive countries in the world. Japan probably does not come to mind when considering buying a farm or developing a piece of land, but because of some interesting demographics and economics, Japan should be on anyone's list of possibilities if homesteading is your desire, especially if you have or plan to have children. I will tell you why. To anyone who has visited or even thinks of visiting Japan, the images of Tokyo skyscrapers and oozing masses of people crammed into dinky dwellings that rent per month for more than a years wages in many countries, comes to mind. But there is another Japan. I am talking about rural Japan, outside of the cities. Here the air is clean, water is pure, homes are bigger, land is available, living expenses are a fraction of what they are in the cities, the people (almost) friendly, and some local governments will actually pay you to live in their village. I am not kidding. Granted it is not enough to get rich on, but, believe it or not many localities are falling all over themselves to recruit families especially with younger children, to move to their town. They are offering all sorts of incentives and assistance to try to 'revitalize' the countryside. The reason for this is demographics. To start with, Japan has one of the lowest birthrates and highest life expectancies in the world. Something like 1.54 children per couple (I know the joke about the half kids running around). There are not enough children being born to support the increasingly aging population. Many folks are quite active in their 80s and many live well into their 90s and beyond. Not enough taxpayers to support the elderly in their retirement. The other reason for this is for reasons that are too complex to go into here, but basically young people prefer to not live or remain in the rural areas. The economies of these areas are usually agriculturally based and the cities and bright lights with better paying more glamorous jobs tend to attract the younger people. So combine these two factors and what you have left are many, many small rural towns and villages (10,000 people or less) losing more and more of the younger, tax-paying, productive citizens, (with fewer being born all the time). This leaves an increasingly aging population of retired or semi-retired folks taking advantage of more and more social services in their 'golden years'. In 10 years or so, many of these localities will essentially be nursing homes or will cease to exist altogether. How about Having Your Baby in Japan The national government recognizes the problem these communities and really the whole nation faces and have come up with a bunch of 'action plans' to try to turn things around. The national government will give a grant of 300,000 yen (about US$3000.00) to any woman who has a baby in the country. Local governments sometimes kick in additional amounts. The village we live in matches the 300,000 yen so a total of about US$6000.00. This usually more than covers the cost of having a baby in a hospital. In fact I have heard of people actually making money on this by going to a mid-wife who charges less, shopping around for hospitals, reducing their stays in the hospital so reducing costs, having their husbands bring them boxed meals during their hospital stay, and many more ingenious cost reducing ways to have a baby and make some money. This might even be a good business for any experienced midwives out there. Some localities give more, some give less. Then the local and national government gives free medical and dental care for the child for the first three years of his/her life. Even if the child is born with a serious birth defect and needs constant hospitalization. They are discussing raising this to the first five years or until the child enters elementary school, but this may be a few years away. Then on top of this the government will give you 5000 yen per month for 5 years for having the child. If you have two, you get an additional 5000 yen per month. For your third child they will give you 10,000 yen per month and this amount for each additional child. I know of one religious family in another part of the country who farmed and actually lived off this allowance. They had 7 children! The condition is that the family must belong to the National Health Insurance program though. This may be a turn off for some people, but I can add that is it quite reasonable and the cost is based on income. They take anyone foreign or otherwise, and ask no questions about pre-existing conditions. I will go into more of this later. Various localities in our area of the country try to entice families with children by offering various incentives and enticements. It would be impossible here to detail all the various programs around and I should add that most localities offer nothing 'official' or do not publicize what they do offer, and certainly all places are not teeming with possibilities, but I can give a few examples with which I am personally familiar. One aging mountain village in our area offers a one time cash incentive of Yen 30,000 per child inserted into the public school system, along with subsidized housing and a 'travel expense' allowance of Yen 40,000 per month for the time resided in the village. There are conditions however. You must agree to stay in the village for at least 5 years and if you leave, all money received must be returned. This sounds good, but they only offer it to families where the main breadwinner is under age 40. School children receive a small 'allowance' for school expenses and free bus pass. We lived here for a year until we found something better. Another former mining town, mountain village in this area offers free or subsidized housing (again cost based on income) to families with elementary school age children who will reside in the village. They also offer a 'dormitory' facility for Elementary school or Junior High school age children complete with all meals and a couple of 'mothers' to supervise. This might be OK for some people, however the housing is quite run down and would be very cramped for most westerners. It also seems to appeal to families with 'troubled' children who don't fit in other places. There is no such thing as 'farmland' here as the whole village is situated on very steep, carved out, rock face. Another village we looked into will rent out old unoccupied homes that the local government has purchased for very minimal rent, something like 5000 to 10,000 yen per month, again based on income. We really liked this place. The drawback here is that a person already living in the village must 'sponsor' or be the guarantor for the family moving into the village. Unless you are a blood relative of someone already residing there, the chances of finding someone willing to be a guarantor are remote. In some places the village office itself will be the guarantor if the person/family desiring to relocate there can offer something the village wants and needs. A factory or job producing enterprise is best, a language school or educational business is also good. An investment and commitment of some kind is what they are looking for. Several municipalities will give you a house to live in, yes, really give you a house, but look carefully at these, they often need major repairs or renovations, a new roof, complete re-wiring, etc., major bucks. The other side of this is that many people (myself included) may have romanticized about living in an old Japanese farmhouse complete with sunken charcoal hearth (the house we now occupy was built 200 years ago). The reality of living in this sort of home is another matter. They never heard of insulation or indoor plumbing in the Meiji period. I do know of one foreign person who purchased an old farmhouse and painstakingly restored it to its original condition himself complete with thatched roof. Wow! Another place I know of will 'give' you the land to build on, yes give it, but you must build on it and must agree to live there for at least 20 years. There are myriads of programs as many as there are villages trying to revive themselves, or breathe their last breath. Look them all over carefully before you decide. Ask yourself "Do I really want to spend a major part of my life (and/or net worth) in this country and place?" These are hard questions. Another option is the 'unofficial' route. Pick a rural location you think you might want to reside in, go there and check into the local 'ryokan' or inn. Ask for weekly or monthly rates. They all have them but you may have to stay in a room in the back or attic to get something reasonable. Spend some time in the village and try to get to know some people. Set up a daily routine. Shop at the same shop for a few days in a row, the proprietor will most likely ask you where you are from and what you are doing in their village. Be friendly and tell as many people as you can what you are looking for. Possibly they may mention 'so and so' who may want to sell or rent out the perfect place you are looking for. The language barrier is the biggest obstacle to overcome this way though. Those blasted local dialects! Someone may be willing to be a translator though, a local English enthusiast, and make friends with him or her. One advantage of this method could be that you could keep a degree of privacy this way, but have no doubt the local officials will sooner or later find out about what you are doing. How they react to this will depend on many things, mainly whether you are perceived to be a plus or minus to the local community, what you are actually doing, and whether there are any complaints. Most likely they will just leave you alone if you are law abiding. Give a little gift (not money) to the local policeman and introduce yourself. For God's sakes, don't throw out glass bottles on aluminum cans trash day! This will get you in hot water quicker than impregnating the mayor's daughter. Maybe these things are common sense to the experienced traveler. In our case, we looked long and hard for the right place. In the rural areas of this country, because of the dying off of property owners without heirs who are willing to tend the land there is an abundance of small parcels of land which the owner will gladly rent or lend for free just for keeping the weeds down. Keep in mind that you can build almost any kind of structure without much interference (zoning laws really don't exist as long as you don't lay a foundation), but you will be expected to restore the place to its original condition if you leave. There are also a lot of empty, unoccupied old farmhouses that could be purchased or rented. Renting is difficult because of the screwed up Japanese rental laws that grant most rights to the occupants. Finding someone willing to rent is difficult, but not impossible, we did finally. I personally recommend renting over buying as this keeps the local officials uninvolved, keeps your tax exposure down, and so limits your risks and profile. We are currently in the process of establishing a blueberry and raspberry farm on reclaimed land. We also rent a persimmon orchard and manage that. I am currently investigating a kind of Peruvian Potato that is popular among health food enthusiasts and getting top dollar at the moment, which supposedly grows well in our local area. Almost everyone around us in this part of the country raises the big Kyodo table grapes. Other grapes are a possibility, a wine grape vineyard is another if this is your dream. There are some local wineries in the vicinity, why not start one. Foreigners can attract a lot of attention in Japan if they want to. >>>> ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------ Keith Hudson, General Editor, Handlo Music, http://www.handlo.com 6 Upper Camden Place, Bath BA1 5HX, England Tel: +44 1225 312622; Fax: +44 1225 447727; mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] ________________________________________________________________________ _______________________________________________ Futurework mailing list [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://scribe.uwaterloo.ca/mailman/listinfo/futurework
