No. But you probably don't want to own these house anyway. First of all, you still have to pay to the real estate agent for completing the required transaction

No. But you probably don't want to own these house anyway. First of all, you still have to pay to the real estate agent for completing the required transaction regulation. You also have to pay tax on transaction and yearly. Some house owner actually pay you on transaction for the hope of freeing from above yearly tax cost. They are so desperate to un-own the asset. It has practically no value yet, the tax is calculated like it had a value once upon a time. You must also know that in Japan, you can't abandon the real estate. Once you own it, you must own it until you transfer it to the other willing to own it. It's not an asset, it's a debt, burden you for the rest of your life. If you actually purchase these free house and pay the tax and transaction cost, it's not over. Nobody want to rent it. And you can't practically live it. If it does, it won't be sold in zero JPY. Water, Power and Gas pipe need replacing as well as floors, walls and ceilings too. If you repair all of these, it's actually cheaper to scrap and build a new house. It will be better by all means, it meets all the recent regulation of anti-earthquake, anti-typhoon building standard. These regulation exists because of the reasons and you don't want to live in a house that doesn't satisfy these regulation for your life. The land itself has no value. It's located at very inconvenient places. The best case, you have to drive hours just to go to the local store. In most cases, it's located at small island so you have to use ship instead of car.