Juyo-jiko-setsumeisho (Important Matters statement)

This is the single most important document in a Japanese purchase that buyers treat as a formality. By law a licensed agent must walk you through it in person before contract signing, covering zoning, flood and landslide risk, building violations, easements, infrastructure, and — critically for condos — the management association's finances and repair reserve fund. Foreign buyers routinely skim it and miss line items that cost real money later: an underfunded elevator or facade reserve, an upcoming special assessment, a restriction on short-term rental use. Read it before contract day, not on it, and challenge anything you don't understand. Every clause exists because something went wrong for a buyer before you.