What is a jiko bukken?

Jiko bukken (事故物件) literally means 'incident property' — a Japanese real-estate term for a residence where a notable past event has occurred that a reasonable renter or buyer would want to know about. The most common categories are deaths inside the unit (natural, accidental, suicide, or homicide), serious fire damage, and discovery of remains after long-undetected death. Properties typically rent or sell 20 to 30 percent below comparable units, and brokers are legally required to disclose the history under specific rules.

What are the disclosure rules?

In October 2021 the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (MLIT) issued the first national guidelines clarifying broker disclosure obligations. In short: natural deaths and routine accidental deaths (e.g., a fall in the bathroom) generally do not require disclosure beyond a baseline; suicides, homicides, and deaths discovered after long delay must be disclosed for at least three years from the date the next tenant moves in. For property sales, the obligation is broader and longer. Earlier rules existed via case law, but the 2021 guidelines made the standard clearer for brokers and renters.

Why would someone choose to live in one?

The most common reason is rent: a 20–30 percent discount on a Tokyo or Osaka apartment is meaningful, especially for students, young professionals, and people relocating on short notice. Surveys by Japanese real-estate sites and broadcasters have consistently found that roughly 40–50 percent of renters say they would consider a jiko bukken if the price were right, with the share rising for natural-death cases and falling sharply for homicides. A specialist site, Oshima-Teru, plots reported jiko bukken nationwide and has been used for over a decade by both renters checking properties and curious browsers.

Today I Learned

Japan, apparently, has a real-estate category for apartments where someone died — and surveys show roughly half of renters would still take one

Jiko bukken — Japanese rentals with a death history — must be disclosed under 2021 guidelines, typically rent 20–30% below market, and surveys show 40–50% of renters would consider one.

Published 2026-05-07 · 3 min read · By Daichi

◇ A neat Japanese apartment building exterior at dusk with one window lit, viewed from across a quiet residential street, with a real-estate listing icon overlaid

A real-estate category most countries do not have a name for

Open a major Japanese rental site, filter for the cheapest apartments in a desirable Tokyo neighborhood, and a few results are unusually well-priced — a Shibuya 1K at 70 percent of the going rate, a Shinjuku studio with a similar discount. Click through and the listing notes, in plain language, that the previous occupant died in the unit. Disclosure date, type of incident, and a small legal asterisk.

This category has a name: jiko bukken (事故物件), or “incident property.” It is a normal part of the Japanese rental market, governed by national guidelines, and surveys consistently show that roughly 40 to 50 percent of Japanese renters say they would consider one for the right price.

The fact

The relevant numbers, in order:

Discount range: 20 to 30 percent below comparable non-jiko units in the same building or neighborhood, with deeper discounts for cases involving discovery delay, fire damage, or homicide. Smaller discounts for natural deaths.
Disclosure period: three years for residential rentals, counted from the date a new tenant moves in after the incident, under the MLIT 2021 guidelines. Property sales have broader disclosure (no fixed expiry — material facts must be disclosed indefinitely).
Survey acceptance: roughly 40 to 50 percent of renters say they would consider a jiko bukken, depending on the survey wording, the type of incident, and the discount. Acceptance is highest for natural deaths and lowest for homicides.
Database coverage: Oshima-Teru, a public website founded in 2005, plots reported jiko bukken nationwide using user submissions, broker filings, and news reports. It carries tens of thousands of entries and is widely consulted by both renters and curious researchers.

Why it works this way

Several structural factors, and one social one:

Aging population, single-occupant households. Japan has a large and growing share of single-occupant homes, especially among the elderly. Natural deaths inside apartments — and, in some cases, deaths discovered only after some delay — are statistically common, particularly in older urban housing stock. Treating these as a real-estate category, with rules and discounts, was simpler than pretending they did not occur.
Tight urban rental supply with rapid turnover. Tokyo and Osaka have small unit sizes, short tenancies, and frequent moves. Carrying a unit at a discount for a few years is economically rational for landlords compared to an indefinite vacancy.
Pre-2021 legal ambiguity. Before the MLIT guidelines, brokers operated under case law that varied by court. Some required indefinite disclosure; others limited it to one or two tenants. The 2021 framework standardized expectations and reduced lawsuits.
Cultural attitude toward death and place. Japanese real-estate culture takes death-in-place seriously enough to disclose it but does not treat it as permanently disqualifying. The combination — formal acknowledgement plus continued use — produced a working market.

Where to see it (in normal real-estate terms)

Oshima-Teru (大島てる) — the long-running specialist database; also has an app.
Suumo, Homes, and other major rental portals — listings with a “tell me about past incidents” disclosure flag, often shown as a small note on the unit page.
Specialist brokerages — a small number of brokers publicly market jiko bukken as a value category, with extra cleaning and renovation included.
MLIT 2021 guidelines (Japanese, government PDF) — the controlling document for current disclosure rules.

Closing

A property in central Tokyo, 25 percent below market, is rented within a week. The renter knows the history, signs the disclosure form, and moves in. Apparently, Japan’s housing market quietly priced something most other countries leave unspoken — and most of the time, the next tenant is fine with it.