In most places around the world, property taxes, which are levied on buildings and land, are administered and collected by local governments for the benefit of those governments. This is also true in Japan, but it's useful to keep in mind that property tax rules and regulations are determined by the central government.

Individual localities may differ in the way they assess property values or collect taxes, but the principles governing property taxes are uniform throughout the country, and the first thing potential homeowners need to understand is that the assessed value of a property for tax purposes has little to do with the price you paid for it or even the retail market value.

In April we received the first tax bill for our land, which we purchased last summer. In Japan, the main criterion for assessing land is its proximity to roads, in particular main arteries and railway stations. In principle, residential land (takuchi) is supposed to be checked and reassessed every year, but that is logistically impossible, given the sheer number of plots throughout Japan, so most municipalities carry out assessments once every three years, which means the landowner pays the same tax for three years after an assessment, unless a significant change takes place with regard to the property in the meantime. For instance, overall land values in our city went down last year, so the local government has readjusted all land taxes accordingly, across the board, for the next two years without making new individual assessments.