Buying a condo in Japan: management fees, repair reserves and the April 2026 domestic manager framework

Ownership creates membership in a management body

Japanese listings use mansion for a building that can contain individually owned apartments. Japan's condominium system is based on unit ownership: a private unit sits beside common parts, a site and facilities that cannot be understood from the unit's floor plan alone.

Article 3 of the Act on Building Unit Ownership starts with the owners rather than a management company. All unit owners form a body to manage the building, its site and attached facilities. That body can hold meetings, make bylaws and appoint a manager. Membership follows ownership; it is not a separate subscription.

区分所有者は、全員で、建物並びにその敷地及び附属施設の管理を行うための団体を構成し、この法律の定めるところにより、集会を開き、規約を定め、及び管理者を置くことができる。

Article 30 allows the bylaws, kanri kiyaku (管理規約), to govern management and use among the owners in addition to the statute. Rules on cost allocation, common areas, alterations, voting and owners living abroad can therefore differ from one building to another. A national rule and a building's current bylaw answer different parts of the same question.

Management fees and repair reserves do different jobs

The management fee, kanrihi (管理費), pays recurring operating and management costs. The repair reserve contribution, shuzen tsumitatekin (修繕積立金), accumulates money for planned repair work and the uses authorized by the applicable rules and decisions. The Ministry's March 2026 English brochure makes the same separation.

Article 19 supplies a default allocation rule for common-part burdens: each co-owner contributes according to the owner's share unless the bylaws provide otherwise. It does not set a national monthly price. The amount attached to a unit comes from the building's rules, budget, plan and decisions.

各共有者は、規約に別段の定めがない限りその持分に応じて、共用部分の負担に任じ、共用部分から生ずる利益を収取する。

A current monthly contribution is therefore not a measurement of adequacy. The opening balance, planned work, plan period, transfers from parking or other use fees, mechanical parking equipment and approved future changes all affect the reserve calculation. A low contribution does not prove a shortage; a high contribution does not prove overfunding.

What the statutory pre-contract explanation covers

Article 35(1)(vi) of the Real Estate Brokerage Act places specified condominium rights, management and use matters inside the Explanation of Important Matters delivered before a contract. Article 16-2 of the enforcement ordinance supplies the detailed list. For a sale, items 5 to 10 identify six categories of information:

This list is a statutory floor for the explanation, not a promise that every underlying record is handed over in full. An accumulated reserve figure is not the long-term repair plan. A statement of recorded repair work does not amount to several years' worth of meeting minutes. Nor is the explanation a building diagnosis or an opinion on future costs.

Records outside the mandatory explanation

Additional records can connect the disclosed figures to the association's plans and decisions. Availability is a separate question. The statute quoted above does not say that every prospective buyer receives all plans, accounts, minutes, copies or English translations.

• ■The current bylaws and detailed use rules.
• ■The current long-term repair plan and the calculation supporting the contribution method.
• ■Recent budgets, financial statements and association balances.
• ■Meeting notices and minutes recording approved increases, lump-sum collections, borrowing or repair projects.
• ■The management services agreement and the division of roles between the association manager and the contracted management business.
• ■The date and scope of recorded repair work, plus any current proposal that the record holder is willing and permitted to provide.

Article 42 requires minutes of an owners' meeting to record an outline of the proceedings and the result. It also gives an interested party a route to request inspection. That wording does not let this page decide whether a particular prospective buyer is an interested party, what format must be supplied, or whether a translation is owed. A practical request therefore asks the seller or licensed broker what is available without presenting every desired record as a guaranteed entitlement.

How the 2024 national reserve guideline works

The Ministry revised its Guideline on Condominium Repair Reserve Funds in June 2024. It calculates a plan-wide average per square meter per month as Z = (A + B + C) ÷ X ÷ Y. A is the reserve balance at the start of the plan, B the total contributions collected during it, C transfers from exclusive-use fees and similar income, X total exclusive floor area and Y the number of plan months.

The guideline then gives observed reference ranges from long-term repair plan examples. Mechanical parking is excluded from the table and handled through a separate addition.

These figures are neither a statutory minimum nor a pass-or-fail test. The Ministry says expressly that a figure outside the range is not automatically inappropriate. Shape, scale, location, finishes, equipment, work prices and the scope of planned improvements can change the required amount. The table is a reason to read the plan, not a substitute for one.

Equal and step-increase contribution methods

An equal contribution method spreads the amount needed over the plan at an even monthly level. The Ministry describes that method as desirable for stable accumulation. Equal does not mean permanently frozen: a revised plan can still require a revised contribution.

A step-increase method begins lower and schedules later increases. The 2024 guideline uses the monthly amount under an equal plan as its base. Under the guideline, the initial amount should be at least 0.6 times that base, and the final amount should be no more than 1.1 times it. The same page warns that these factors are guidance for an achievable increase path, not caps preventing a larger increase when a revised plan or changed costs require one.

The guideline also calls for the long-term repair plan to be reviewed at intervals of about five years and the contribution amount to be reassessed based on the revised plan. That review interval is guidance. It is not a guarantee that a charge stays unchanged until the fifth year.

Certification and segregation answer different questions

The Act on Advancement of Proper Condominium Management provides a voluntary management-plan certification route. Article 5-13 requires the application to address repair and management methods, the associated financial plan and association operations. Article 5-14 supplies the criteria. Certification means the submitted plan met the applicable criteria; it does not guarantee structural safety, investment value or the absence of a future increase.

Article 76 answers a custody question instead. A condominium management business holding reserve funds or other specified association property must segregate it from the business's own property and from property belonging to other associations, using the method set by ordinance. Segregation does not establish that the balance is large enough for the repair plan.

The domestic-manager rule from April 2026

The version of the Act on Building Unit Ownership effective 1 April 2026 includes Article 6-2. It applies when an owner has no address or residence in Japan, or will cease to have one. For a corporate owner, the test refers to the head office or principal office. The eligible owner may appoint a person with an address or residence in Japan as a kokunai kanrinin (国内管理人), a domestic manager, for management of the private unit and common parts.

区分所有者は、国内に住所又は居所を有せず、又は有しないこととなる場合には、その専有部分及び共用部分の管理に関する事務を行わせるため、国内に住所又は居所を有する者のうちから管理人を選任することができる。

Paragraph 2 authorizes acts of preservation; use or improvements that do not change the nature of the unit; receipt of meeting notices; exercise of voting rights; and payment of specified obligations owed to other unit owners and arising from common parts, the site, facilities, bylaws or meeting resolutions. If the building has a manager or an incorporated association exists, paragraph 3 requires notice without delay of the appointment and the domestic manager's identity and Japanese address or residence.

The statute says an eligible owner may appoint one. It does not impose a universal appointment duty on every overseas owner. The bylaws can contain building-specific procedures, and the Ministry's 2025 model-bylaw materials include a possible rule requiring appointment. A model clause is not proof that a particular building adopted it.

Three roles remain separate. The domestic manager is appointed by the overseas owner. The association manager acts for the owners' body. A condominium management business performs contracted management work. Article 16-2 item 9 concerns the arrangement where the association's manager is also an entrusted management business; it is not a disclosure about an overseas owner's domestic manager.

The ordinary voting rule also changed in April 2026

Comparing the versions in effect on 31 March and 1 April 2026 shows a second change. Before the reform, Article 39 stated that an ordinary resolution required majorities of all unit owners and all voting rights unless another rule applied. The current paragraph requires a majority of participating unit owners and a majority of the voting rights held by participants. Written and proxy votes count as participation under paragraph 2.

That is the ordinary rule. The Act or the bylaws may provide a different requirement, and special resolutions have their own provisions. Meeting minutes should therefore be read with the current statute and the building's current bylaws rather than with an assumed percentage.

A document-based way to organize the information

The available records can be separated into four groups without turning the exercise into a property rating.

The distinction running through all four groups is simple. The statutory Explanation of Important Matters supplies specified information. A broader record request asks how those figures connect to plans and decisions. Neither process authorizes this page to conclude that a reserve is sufficient or that a building is well managed.

What this page does not decide

No individual bylaws, plans, accounts, minutes, arrears records, repair proposals or building conditions were reviewed. This page does not decide whether a reserve is sufficient, whether a future collection is likely, whether unpaid charges transfer with ownership of a unit, whether an owner must appoint a domestic manager, or whether a certified plan makes a property suitable for purchase.

Tax treatment, financing, insurance, structural condition, engineering, repair methods, disputes and contract rights are outside the scope of this page. No property, agency, management company, adviser or contractor is named or recommended. The dates and article numbers describe national sources checked on 18 September 2026; later amendments and building-specific rules can change the position.

Sources

The four statutes and orders below were read through e-Gov API version 2 with asof=2026-09-18. The Ministry pages and PDFs were read on the same date. The English renderings used in this guide are unofficial; the Japanese text controls.

A note on the operator

SHINWA CREATIVE, K.K. is a welding and metalwork company in Miyagi Prefecture. It does not offer real-estate, property-management, document-review or advisory services on this page, takes no commission or referral fee, and carries no affiliate link.

Our sincere thanks go to everyone who has taken the time to read this guide. We hope the separation between monthly charges, building records and the new domestic-manager role makes Japan's condominium system clearer.