Engawa exists to give a deterred first-time buyer the best-explained akiya data anywhere, in plain English, with the source on the page. That promise only means something if we are equally clear about how we build the data and about what we do not know. This page is the honest account of both: where every figure comes from, how we keep it fresh, how we handle photos, how we make money, and the specific claims we refuse to make.
Where our data comes from
Every listing is composed from two things: the original source listing (a municipal akiya bank or an agent page) and official Japanese government records. We do not invent facts about a house; we assemble and translate what the source and the government publish, and we link back to both.
The government layers we attach include:
- Flood, landslide, and tsunami hazard from the national hazard mapping run through the MLIT and GSI hazard portal (disaportal), covering river and rainfall inundation, sediment-disaster (landslide) designations, and coastal tsunami inundation zones.
- Seismic hazard from J-SHIS, the national seismic hazard station run by NIED.
- Building era, derived from official records, which tells you whether a house predates Japan's 1981 seismic code (the shin-taishin standard).
- Land value, drawn from official land-value data, as an indication of the value underlying a plot.
- Renovation and relocation subsidies, matched per municipality from the towns' own programme pages, with amounts and source links.
We translate all of this into plain English rather than leaving government dataset codes in the copy. The source name is always available so you can verify it yourself.
The honest-null policy
Where the data for a house is thin, missing, or ambiguous, we show a null with the source link, rather than guessing or forcing a value to fill a template. We would rather say "we did not find this" than tell you something we cannot support.
This is the single most important rule we hold ourselves to, and it runs against the grain of the category, where sites tend to force-fit a value into every field to look complete. A forced value that turns out wrong is worse than an honest gap, because it misleads a buyer making a real decision. So when a plot falls outside every mapped hazard zone, or a subsidy programme's terms are unclear, or a house's construction year is not recorded, we present that honestly and point you to the source. We show "we found this," never "this is true."
How we verify freshness
Akiya listings go stale constantly, because sold and withdrawn houses often linger on fragmented municipal and agent pages. We run a source-verification sweep against the original listing pages and record a lifecycle state for each home, so a house whose source has 404'd or moved to "sold" is marked accordingly rather than shown as active. Each listing carries a "last verified" date.
We are honest about the limits of this. The verified date tells you when we last checked the source, not that the house is guaranteed available at this exact moment, because a house can sell between our sweeps. It is an honest signal, not a promise of perfection. You can also flag a listing for a fresh re-check, and a founder will look. We explain the wider problem in our guide on why akiya listings go stale.
Our photo policy
We show the original source photos for each house. Some source photos are low resolution. Where an original is below roughly 1200 pixels, we may use AI upscaling to make it more viewable, and where we do, we disclose it, because an enhanced image is no longer a raw record of the house.
The principle is the same as everywhere else on the site: we would rather you know exactly what you are looking at than present an enhanced image as if it were an untouched original. Upscaling makes a small, old photo easier to read; it does not add information that was not there, and it is not a substitute for seeing the house in person. Treat photos, upscaled or not, as a starting point, never as a condition survey.
How we make money
Engawa charges a flat fee for buying assistance and takes no commission on any sale. We are not paid more when a house is more expensive, and we are not paid by sellers or agents to promote listings. That is why we can show hazard data straight and mark a listing as stale without a conflict of interest.
The alignment matters. A commission model rewards talking up listings and closing expensive sales; a flat fee does not. It means our incentive is to give you accurate data and honest advice, including telling you when a house is a poor idea, because our income does not depend on the transaction size or on any particular house selling. Behind the data there is a real team, and every message gets a reply from a founder.
What we do not claim
We are careful about the limits of what we offer, because the honest version is stronger than an inflated one.
- We are not a national platform. We cover Kyoto and Kyushu today and add regions over time. We describe our coverage as regional, never national, and a per-prefecture view shows exactly what is live.
- We do not visit every listing. Nobody on our team inspects every house. We surface mapped and recorded data, not an on-site opinion of each property.
- We do not grade condition on site. Our data tells you a house's era, structure, and site hazards; it does not tell you whether the roof is sound. That requires a physical survey by a qualified local professional, which we always recommend.
- We are not "built with municipalities." We use public government data and public listing sources. We do not claim an official partnership we do not have.
- We do not give tax, legal, or immigration advice. Our guides are general information. For your specific position, confirm with a qualified professional; for example, buying a house grants no visa, as we explain in the akiya visa reality.
The reason we list these plainly is that structured, source-linked data plus a founder who actually replies beats a vague promise of nationwide, in-person coverage that no small team could deliver. We would rather under-claim and be trusted than over-claim and be wrong.
Frequently asked questions
Can I verify your data myself?
Yes, and we want you to. Every hazard, subsidy, and listing figure carries a source, and hazard and subsidy data trace back to government and municipal pages you can open directly. If a figure ever looks wrong, tell us and a founder will check it.
Why is some data shown as unknown?
Because we found no reliable value and refuse to guess. Under our honest-null policy, a missing or ambiguous field is shown as unknown with its source rather than filled with a fabricated value. An honest gap is more useful than a confident error when you are making a real decision.
Does an AI-upscaled photo mean the house is misrepresented?
No. Upscaling only makes a small, low-resolution original easier to view; it adds no information and we disclose it. It is not a condition assessment and is not a substitute for seeing the house in person or commissioning a survey. Treat every photo as a starting point.
Do you make more money on more expensive houses?
No. We charge a flat fee and take no commission, so our income does not rise with the price of a house or depend on any sale closing. That is deliberate: it lets us show hazard data straight, mark listings stale, and advise against a bad buy without a conflict.
The honest bottom line
We build every listing from official sources, show a null rather than a guess when the data is thin, date our freshness checks, disclose photo enhancement, and charge a flat fee with no commission. And we tell you plainly what we do not do: we are not national, we do not visit every house, and we do not grade condition on site.
Browse the source-linked catalogue for yourself, starting with Kagoshima or Kyoto, read our guides, or ask the team a question. A founder will reply.