Purchase house and live in Japan

Hello,

I retired from my work one year ago, and would like to move in Japan with my wife.

Our idea would be to buy a small house in Yamagata prefecture.

Do we still have to apply for the 3-month tourist visa or is there any other option?

We wouldn't have any income, just living with what we saved in the years.

Thank you!

Purchasing and owning a house in Japan does not grant you unlimited access to the country. You still need a valid visa to enter and stay. Japan is not a retirement destination.

Japan is not an immigrant-friendly country, while some other Asian countries may be advertising themselves as �ghome after retirement.�h Even if you buy a house, you�fd need a proper visa to live in Japan, which is based on �gif needed to be in Japan�h basis, for example, work visa if an employer in Japan wants you for your skills, so that you can come to Japan and work for them, student visa if you are interested in studying in Japan, family-related visa if your parents/spouse are going to be in Japan so that you can live with them.
The 90-day temporary visitor status is not �grepeatable�h throughout the year. The only option I can think of is the long-term holiday-maker visa, which allows you (I believe) to live in Japan up to a year, if you meet certain savings criteria.

One question...

Is your Wife Japanese?

If so buying a house and settling down won't be too hard. Get a spouse visa and you are good to go. You can even come in on a tourist visa and convert that to a spouse visa (only married people can do this as tourist visas are normally not transferable). If you are retired a working holiday visa is out of the question.

If your wife is NOT Japanese....well you will have a much harder time. As mentioned you need to prove you NEED to be in Japan for some reason. Just wanting to live here isn't enough.

If your wife isn't Japanese i'd recommend talking to an immigration lawyer to exploer your options. If you have enough money there are other visas that you could apply for. But again as already mentioned, Japan is not a very immigrant friendly country like America or Canada. If you don't have a solid reason to be in the country long term or if you aren't somehow making Japan look good on the world stage (diplomat, famous artist) they (the japanese govt not the people) really don't want you here.

Yes, you can do that (when Japan starts issuing visas again, which it is not doing currently). Buying property is not hard. And you can come for 90 days.
THEN YOU HAVE TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY.
You can come back again for another 90 days, and
THEN YOU HAVE TO LEAVE THE COUNTRY.

Get the hint, you cannot stay or retire in Japan staying all year without permanent residency (which typically requires 10 years living in Japan before applying) or some other long term status of residence (or spouse visa as mentioned). As a retired person, you can stay up to 90 days on a temporary permit, but at the end, you have to leave the country.
You can stay more than one time a year, and you could actually manage 360 days per year (yes, that IS allowed), but that also means four trips out of Japan every year.

Thank you very much for all your answers!

Yes my wife is not Japanese. We are freelancer but reading your answers I understand it's not enough for Japanese immigration to stay.
I believed that I was allowed to stay only 90 days every year, but if I can really leave and then come back for another 90 days it's great!

Thank you again

Depending on your country - the 90 day visa is a tourist visa. I'm not sure this will allow you to open a Japanese bank account, purchase a property, open an electricity, internet, water account etc. Others will know this more

You can actually live in Japan without a local bank account. The fees/costs might be higher, but it is doable.
Buying a property is also fairly straight-forward, there are many non-residents that own property in Japan.
Getting a local cell phone will be more of a problem, but if you are fine with VoIP services like skype or Line, you may not need a local number.

You can't endlessly use the tourist visa waiver. I believe there is an "unofficial" rule of staying no more than 180 days in a year, and if you return again in that same year Immigration becomes suspicious. In the end you need to have a good reason to stay in Japan for most of a year, and simply owning a house is not enough - you are not really contributing to society and giving Japan a reason to want you to stay (e.g. working, studying, spouse).

Unless you find a visa category you can apply for, the idea of buying a house and retiring to Japan is not possible - it cannot be done on a tourist visa.