A Non-Japanese Real Estate Agent in Japan (Part 1)

Japan the land of the rising sun and the home of over 123 million Japanese people, over 2 million registered expats/foreign nationals, and the the rest for a total population of approximately 126 million.

There are over 124,000 real estate companies, agencies, brokerages registered in Japan with over 570,000 people working in the real estate business. Osaka has over 12,000 real estate companies, agencies, and brokerages registered with over 35,000 people. In the macro, I am just one of 570,000. Changing the variable to non-japanese, I am one from a even smaller population, which is pretty neat.

Today I want to share with you all my experience as a non-japanese human in the real estate industry in Japan.
The plan was for me to write out all of the content into one post but since others have broken down their posts into one or multiple, allow me to be "Japanese" and follow suit (lol). This also will allow me to have content for next week!

Part 1 will cover the challenges which I've experienced.

Challenges

(1) Language Barrier
The most challenging part was and is the language barrier. Even though I could speak Japanese on a conversational level, speaking with other companies or other agents was a challenge. I didn't know a ton of words, real estate terminology, the kanji characters, etc. It was an extra challenge since I was new to the industry and didn't really know the terminology used in English.

"So, what did you do to overcome this challenge Mike?"

I found literature on real estate in English to familiarize myself with the terminology. Literature was found in free e-books which talked about real estate and articles online. I also bought a book, Legal Issues in Japanese Real Estate Investment, which was an extremely boring read but had the terminology in both English and Japanese. The words were written in Kanji and Romaji, which is the alphabet spelling for Japanese words. Additional input practice included listening to others on the phone on how they spoke with clients and other people in the real estate industry.
As far as output practice, I went out to real estate companies and met with other sales people and agents and did what I could to hold a conversation. Doing this really taught me the general dialogue people have in this industry.

Of course the best practice is the practical part in front of clients and potential clients. It took some time to get comfortable and confident, but like anything it becomes second nature after a while. I believe my real estate Japanese is better than my real estate English. I am still learning and getting comfortable with the language, but what I did learn in my experiences is that Japanese people don't even know the meaning or use of certain words in real estate.

(2) Cultural Differences
There are a ton of cultural differences between your home country and Japan. I am going to lump this challenge into the cultural differences umbrella, but Japanese people don't necessarily express themselves all too well. People in Osaka do a better job to express themselves compared to other regions or areas in Japan, but aren't as blunt as Westerners.

"So, how does this relate to real estate Mike?"

Renting, buying, selling, lending all requires you to make a decision. Japanese people tend to overanalyze things therefore making the final decision a bit tougher. They might need a extra "push" or what I like to say the road mapped out in front of them to guide them to their options in the end becoming his or her decision.

Also when they express themselves, it tends to be indirect rather than a direct expression.
There is nothing wrong with this at all, but it was tough at first to understand. My thought process was, "your an adult you should be able to make a decision!" But this was me not understanding the cultural aspect and not empathizing with the individual. Now I can understand the different nuances in the language to catch myself and take a step back.

"So, what did you do to overcome this challenge Mike?"

PRACTICE and having a someone who you can talk to who is Japanese. This Japanese person experienced different cultures which definitely helped and currently helps a lot!

(3) Perception
Japan is an island country, the term for us non-Japanese is Gaijin (外人). Breaking down the literal meaning of the kanjis', "outside person" or outsider.

Story Time:
A few years back I had an opportunity to represent a developer from Singapore. They wanted to use me as their representation to a purchase a hotel in Osaka. Great start to the story, but when I spoke with the seller he would not sell the hotel to the Singaporean developer because I was their representation. The seller's reasoning being me as a non-Japanese person not knowing the intricacies of Japanese real estate law/rule and process. Which in his defense was true at the time. We even had the developer's lawyer, who was Japanese contact the seller to speak with him directly. Long story short, the sale was through a different agency. You can imagine how upset I was.

There are other real estate owners and landlords whose perception of us non Japanese is in a negative light. One example can be landlords not renting to non Japanese for a number of reasons. On the flip side, some landlords had a bad experience in the past with a non Japanese tenant. Their negative perception was created from something, personal experiences etc.

"So, what did you do to overcome this challenge Mike?"

Easy, just don't let it bother me too much. I'm human, it bothers me, but if I focus my energy on the negative feelings for that individual they win. Also, do my part to change these negative perceptions. I definitely cant do it alone, but will most definitely do my part.

Reflecting back to the story above and other experiences I've had, on the surface there might be a negative perception, but there are other variables and factors involved. This is where empathy comes in, understanding both sides.

Disclaimer: I am not saying these people with these negative perceptions are horrible people. I just wanted to share my thoughts and opinions on the matter. Hopefully I didn't sound too negative.

Hopefully you the readers can take something out from my experiences. Anyone who wants to share or discuss his or her own, I am open to being contacted. My profile has my email and phone number just click on my face above.
For convenience sake, I will share my contact info here as well.

Email: michael.bennett@remax-agt.net

Again I hope I didn't come off as too negative, considering my experiences here in Japan are all positive learning experiences.

Part 2 will be posted next week, March 5th. Turn on your push notifications!