I am not Japanese and don’t live in Japan right now. My Japanese brother in law has an abandoned house in the middle of nowhere Chiba. He has no intention of ever moving back to it and has no interest in it. Annual city tax is super low. He’s happy to give it to us.

I have no idea what we’d do with it. We will already be getting my in laws house in central Chiba in the future which we will keep as we go back and forth.

Is there anything we can do to make income from the house? It’s about a 40 minute walk from a nearest station, is a small house on a narrow block and definitely not a growing area. Husband is certain no Japanese person would rent it.

I was thinking about potentially renting it out to non Japanese people as I know they sometimes have problems securing housing especially not being taken advantage of? Even if it’s very low rent it’s better than nothing? Not sure if many non Japanese are around there as it’s very very inaka but every we go back there are more and more non Japanese out in semi rural Chiba. Any suggestions at all???? I may be way off with my thinking but would love some ideas whether it’s worth it?