Can You Buy a Closed School in Japan? How Municipal Proposals Work
As Japan's rural population shrinks, thousands of public schools have closed since the early 2000s. Many municipalities now look for companies, organizations and individuals to reuse the buildings, often for very little money. The Ministry of Education (MEXT) supports this through its "Minna no Haikou"(closed schools for everyone) project.
How you get one
Municipalities usually choose a buyer or tenant through a public proposal (koubo-gata proposal) rather than simply selling to the highest bidder.
- Call for proposals. The town publishes the conditions: sale or lease, minimum price, permitted uses and the deadline.
- Site visit. Most towns hold an on-site briefing. Some require attendance before you can apply.
- Application. You submit a business plan and financial documents, in Japanese.
- Selection. A committee scores the proposals, often weighing local jobs, community use and the soundness of the plan as much as the price.
- Contract. Contracts often include conditions, such as keeping the gym open as an evacuation shelter or operating for a minimum number of years.
Some towns accept individuals and foreign-owned companies; others require a corporation registered in Japan. Read each call for proposals carefully. Most overseas applicants work with a Japanese partner, architect or agent.
What it costs
The price can be zero, but a school is a large public building, and the costs that matter are:
- Infrastructure: the high-voltage power substation (cubicle), water and drainage, the septic tank, roof waterproofing and fire safety equipment. These often need replacing after a few years of disuse.
- Conversion: classrooms are easy to use as offices or studios. Turning them into lodging, care facilities or restaurants needs a change-of-use application, fire safety upgrades and sometimes sprinklers.
- Running costs: fixed asset tax (unless exempted for the agreed use), insurance, statutory inspections of fire equipment and the power substation, and grass cutting on large grounds.
Each closed-school page on this site shows an estimate for each of these, and the total for different uses, so you can compare schools by what it really costs to start.
Popular uses
Satellite offices and coworking, lodging and camps, food production, indoor farming, data storage and archives, workshops, and community spaces are among the most common new uses.