Sato-san's workshop is a converted rice barn at the end of a single-lane road in southeast Iiyama. The workbench is his grandfather's. Three of the tools on it are older than the building they're being used to repair. He has been restoring kominka for eight years — the first three as apprentice, the last five on his own. We sat with him in October to talk about what the work actually costs.

The typical job

Sato-san takes on about six houses a year. Most are 80-120 years old, post-and-beam, single-storey or two-storey kominka in Iiyama, Iiyama-shi's outlying hamlets, and the Chikuma valley. Average project: nine months from first walkthrough to final invoice. Average buyer: a Tokyo professional in their forties.

"Foreign buyers I get about one a year," he said. "Usually they have a Japanese partner. Sometimes not. The work is the same. The conversation about expectations takes longer."

What's different about a foreign-buyer project

Sato-san named three things. The first is timeline. "Japanese buyers want to be in by a season they've named. Foreign buyers usually have an immigration window. The window doesn't bend, so the work plan has to."

The second is materials. Foreign buyers, he said, are more likely to want to keep older materials — sliding doors, latticed windows, the engawa — than Japanese buyers, who often want them replaced with modern equivalents. "I prefer the foreign approach," he said. "The old materials are usually better."

The third is communication. He works through a translator from Iiyama Town Hall for foreign-buyer projects. "It slows things down. But the alternative is the buyer making decisions they don't understand, which I have seen end badly."

The rate sheet

Sato-san agreed to publish his current rates, on the condition that we explain they are starting points and not quotes. Every project varies.

  • Site walkthrough + assessment — ¥30,000, one day, includes a written report.
  • Structural inspection — ¥120,000, two days, includes beam-by-beam assessment and a structural-soundness opinion.
  • Roof relay (existing tiles, no replacement) — ¥800,000-¥1,200,000 for a typical 100㎡ kominka.
  • Roof replacement (new tiles) — ¥2,400,000-¥3,600,000.
  • Floor replacement (post-and-beam restoration, original boards where possible) — ¥15,000 per ㎡.
  • Shoji/fusuma restoration (per panel) — ¥25,000-¥45,000.
  • New tatami (8-mat room) — ¥180,000.
  • Double-glazing install (per opening, retaining wooden frame) — ¥65,000-¥120,000.
  • Kitchen replacement (standard size, modest materials) — ¥1,200,000-¥1,800,000.
  • Bath replacement (unit bath retrofit) — ¥1,400,000-¥2,200,000.
  • Daikoku-bashira (central column) inspection / treatment — ¥80,000-¥200,000.
  • Full house renovation (whole-job pricing, typical 120㎡ kominka) — ¥12,000,000-¥25,000,000.

The question he wanted us to answer

At the end of the interview, Sato-san had one thing to ask. "Why is it that foreign buyers come to me with a budget that is twenty percent of what the work actually costs, and Japanese buyers don't?"

The honest answer, we think, is that the Japanese property internet for foreigners is dominated by the cheapest listings. A buyer who sees three videos about ¥100 houses and one about a ¥4M kominka has a deeply distorted picture of what restoration costs. We have argued before in the renovation guide that the renovation budget should match purchase price for kominka. Sato-san put it more directly: "Whatever the purchase price, double it. Then renovate."

He laughed when he said it. He wasn't entirely joking.