🇯🇵Japan

The Furusato Shimane Teiju Foundation pays people from outside Shimane ¥120,000 a month (plus ¥30,000 a month per household with children of junior-high age or younger) to spend 3–12 months learning farming, forestry, fishing, care work or traditional crafts with a host in the prefecture; some towns add rent or monthly top-ups.

PromiseSpend a year learning to farm, fish or make washi paper in rural Shimane with a monthly stipend while you decide whether to stay.

What it takesA stipend for hands-on training, not a salary, and no job is promised. Only for people living outside Shimane who intend to move there; drops to ¥60,000/month if you live with parents/grandparents in Shimane or train with a close relative; if you quit before 3 months you get only ¥30,000/month, and nothing under 1 month; paid every 3 months. Host matching and approval by the foundation. Foreign nationals would need a residence status that permits the activity — not addressed on the page.

Izumo City pays half the private rent (up to ¥20,000 a month for newlyweds, ¥25,000 for families with children under 18) for 12 months to couples and families who move from outside Shimane and take a new job with a local employer; 20 households a year, first come first served.

PromiseStart family life in the shrine town of Izumo with a year of help on the rent.

What it takesSmall and limited: 20 households for FY2026, first come first served until the budget runs out. You must have lived outside Shimane for 5+ continuous years, apply within a year of moving, be newly hired (with employment insurance) by an Izumo-based business — public servants and transferees excluded — and write a monthly blog post for the city's promotion site. Leaving Izumo within 5 years means repaying part of the grant. Company housing and public housing don't qualify.

Bungotakada (Oita) lists vacant houses priced at ¥1 or less as '0-yen akiya' for people living outside the city; incomers who build or buy a home get a move-in grant from ¥200,000, rising to ¥1,000,000 for out-of-prefecture buyers who demolish a 0-yen akiya and build new, and akiya-bank homes can get half of renovation costs (up to ¥400,000) plus clearance subsidies.

PromisePick up an old house in a Showa-era town on the Kunisaki peninsula for almost nothing and get help to fix it up or rebuild.

What it takes'0 yen' does not mean free: the city says buyers pay brokerage fees, registration tax and other costs, and many houses need major repairs or demolition. Only akiya-bank registrants living outside the city can buy 0-yen houses. The ¥1M grant needs out-of-prefecture residence at contract, demolition and a new build; grants are claimed within a year of registration and require tax clearance from your previous municipality. Renovation subsidies need local contractors and approval before work starts. You need a Japanese visa that lets you live there — buying property gives no residence right.

MLIT-backed national search of municipal akiya (vacant house) banks, run independently by LIFULL HOME'S and at home; about 1,153 municipalities & ~20,000 listings. Many listing towns pair them with their own purchase/renovation subsidies.

PromiseBrowse thousands of cheap rural Japanese houses in one place, often with local renovation or move-in subsidies attached.

What it takesThe bank itself pays nothing; subsidies are set town by town, usually reimburse part of renovation costs, often require you to register residence & stay several years, and some towns restrict use to people moving from outside the area. Houses often need heavy repairs.

National grant, administered by participating prefectures & municipalities, paying people who leave the Tokyo 23-ward area to live & work in a regional municipality: up to ¥1M per household (¥600k single) plus up to ¥1M per child under 18.

PromiseSwap Tokyo for a regional town & receive up to ¥1M, plus up to ¥1M more for each child who moves with you.

What it takesOnly for people who lived in or commuted to Tokyo's 23 wards for 5 of the last 10 years (incl. the most recent year); you must stay 5 years, & leaving early triggers full or half repayment plus a 10.95%/yr surcharge. Foreigners qualify only with permanent/spouse/long-term resident status.

METI-certified municipalities (e.g. Fukuoka, Tokyo, Osaka, Shibuya, Kyoto, Okinawa) sponsor foreign founders for a 'Designated Activities' status so they can prepare a startup in Japan before meeting full Business Manager visa requirements.

PromiseA softer on-ramp to founding a company in Japan, backed by a supportive city.

What it takesNo funding; the certified body checks your plan and monitors you monthly, and you must then meet the Business Manager status criteria, which were tightened from 16 October 2025.

Japan's remote-worker status (launched 2024) lets high earners from visa-exempt, tax-treaty countries stay up to 6 months working for foreign employers or clients; spouse & children can accompany.

PromiseSpend half a year living in Japan while keeping your overseas job or clients.

What it takesRequires ¥10M+ annual income, is capped at 6 months with no extension, issues no residence card (so leases, bank accounts & phone contracts are hard), and you must wait 6 months before reapplying.

Foreign nationals resident in Japan for five years or less in the preceding ten are taxed only on Japan-source income plus foreign income paid in or remitted to Japan, not on unremitted foreign income.

PromiseFor your first five years in Japan, overseas income you keep offshore stays out of Japanese income tax.

What it takesAutomatic status, not an application; ends after 5 years of residence in any 10-year window; remittances to Japan can be taxed; Japan-source salary taxed normally at progressive rates.

MIC-funded program where rural municipalities hire people who move in from urban areas for 1-3 years of paid community work (tourism, farming, forestry, health, education); ~7,910 members in FY2024.

PromiseGet paid a salary plus activity budget to live in rural Japan, with startup support of up to ¥1M (¥2M from FY2026 if you create jobs) to stay on afterward.

What it takesIt's a fixed-term municipal job, not a grant: pay is set by each town (national funding caps compensation at ¥3.5M/yr per member), you must move your registered residence into the area, and posts are competitive & mostly recruited in Japanese.

Nagano City subsidizes 2/3 (3/4 for under-40s from the big metro areas) of renovation costs on homes bought or rented through its akiya bank: up to ¥500k in town areas or ¥1M elsewhere, plus ¥200k per child (max ¥600k) and up to ¥300k for clearing out belongings.

PromiseFix up an alpine-city akiya near ski slopes & Zenko-ji with up to ¥1.6M of renovation help for a family.

What it takesReimbursement of costs you pay, only for akiya-bank properties, only for movers aged 18-59 who haven't lived in Nagano Prefecture in the past 3 years, and first-come until the FY2026 budget runs out.