TOKYO, Aug. 11, 2020―It looks like the Tortoise and the Hare of the Aesop’s Fables: ‘Gaijin (westerners looking for powder snow and properties) came several years ago, and many of them are not coming back because of the coronavirus pandemic,’ an official of a small municipality told me recently. Meanwhile, though their visits have decreased, Chinese are continuing to ask for information about snow, accommodations, and properties for potential acquisitions of resort properties, another official of a separate municipality said.
A property agent by the name of one Mr. Ishii, quoted by the media based in Hokkaido, said Chinese investors continued to register acquisition interest in resort housing in Furano, located in the middle of the big island, though his business unsurprisingly plunged as a whole for the pandemic in response to the cancellation of property referral tours for affluent Chinese. Ishii had readied the inventory of a total of 20 houses in Furano or 10 billion yen ($100 million) worth of properties for the tours.
Rich Chinese are set to return to Furano and other resort areas of Japan once the pandemic is wrestled under control. Proof of it, the influential Japan Overseas Chinese Federation held on July 17 a local Hokkaido chapter meeting where the main topic was the promotion of Furano, Niseko and other resorts of Hokkaido to mainland Chinese, especially Furano where posh resort houses can be purchased for 1/3rd of what would cost in Niseko, the area first made internationally famous by Australian skiers in the early 2000s and property prices went through the roof.
While a prime location house, a modest compact one, in Niseko goes for no less than a few million dollars, a much more spacious one can be had for the same price, local property agents said. In June, a Hong Kong developer completed an upscale condominium building in Furano, adjacent to a ski slope, for prices ranging between $300,000 to $2.3 million. All units sold out right away, most of them to Chinese entrepreneurs, according to local media reports.
An official of Furano City Office said that of some 22,000 residents, a few hundreds are foreigners, of which Chinese represent a dominant share, while westerner residents are few, an important reason why Chinese would want to go to Furano Furano attracts more than half a million visitors from Japan and overseas annually. The official said Chinese visitors to Furano had grown sharply in recent years and they continued to indicate wishes to revisit.
The Niseko town, the population of 4,900, drew as many 218,000 foreign visitors in fiscal 2018, of which 59,500 were Chinese, 29,500 Hong Kongers, 25,500 Australians, and 23,000 Taiwanese, according to the town’s data. In fiscal 2019, which ended in March 2020, foreign visitors plummeted to 160,084, but the number of Chinese increased to 67,700, while Australian visitors dropped to 11,600.
An official of Nozawa Onsen village office in Nagano, famous for powder snow for Australians and New Zealanders, said Australian tourists ‘disappeared’ from the village after the pandemic, ‘Nozawa is a popular skiing resort for Australians and New Zealanders. They typically make next season’s reservations while they are visiting the village in the winter but ‘this season, we are hearing almost no reservations for next season.’
By no means, data can be a reliable indicator, yet, if it can offer what to come over coming months and years, Ministry of Justice monthly immigration statistics show a progressive recovery of Chinese residents returning to Japan. In May, according to the data, Chinese entry to Japan numbered barely more than 800. The same data rocketed to more than 2,100 in June. The returnees are Chinese residents with permanent residential permits. Almost in sharp contrast, the number of Australian, U.S. and other western country residents returning to Japan remained in the two or three digit levels. The gap may be an omen of what’ll unfold on the Japanese property market for foreigners in coming months and years.
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Insight Into the Future