Short answer: Kumamoto Prefecture runs one search site for most of its towns, the Kumamoto Prefecture Akiya Bank Platform, but four large cities (Kumamoto, Arao, Aso and Amakusa) keep their own banks that the platform does not show. It is in Japanese, so search with browser translation and the words 空き家バンク, 売買 and 賃貸. The point to put first is the ground: Kumamoto had two intensity-7 earthquakes in April 2016, and on 28 July 2026 the Japan Meteorological Agency recorded a magnitude 7.1 earthquake with intensity 7 in Uki City and Hikawa Town. If a listing is in the affected area, damage and repair history come before price.
The prefecture's platform. The prefecture's announcement says the Akiya Bank Platform began operating on 1 April 2023 with 33 participating municipalities, pulling municipal listings into one wide-area search with pictogram-based search and 360-degree virtual viewing. The site lets you search sale (売買) and rental (賃貸) listings by conditions, on a map or by area, and offers a house-search manual and a page on each municipality's support schemes. Its notice says Kumamoto City, Arao City, Aso City and Amakusa City operate separate banks that cannot be viewed on the platform, so for those cities go to the city's own page. The platform is run by the prefecture's Regional Revitalisation Division (096-333-2155).
Relocation portal and consultation. The prefecture lists relocation consultation centres in Tokyo, Osaka, Fukuoka and Kumamoto on its relocation support centre page. Expect Japanese.
National banks. At Home (akiya-athome.jp) and LIFULL HOME'S also carry participating Kumamoto towns. A listing is an introduction; the conditions on residence, renovation and neighbourhood participation are on the town's page, as described in our akiya bank conditions guide.
| Goal | Japanese to use |
|---|---|
| Most of the prefecture | 熊本県空き家バンクプラットフォーム, or open kumamoto-akiya360.jp |
| Kumamoto, Arao, Aso, Amakusa | [city] 空き家バンク (separate sites) |
| Sale or rental | 売買 / 賃貸 |
| Renovation subsidy | [town] 空き家 改修 補助金 |
| Quake and flood risk | ハザードマップ plus the town name |
Read the road frontage (接道), land category and the heating and water arrangements on every listing, and use the kanji red-flag guide. The agent question list is Japanese ready to paste.
The prefecture's fiscal 2026 relocation support page says the prefecture and its municipalities, "excluding some", pay the fund to people moving from the Tokyo area: ¥1,000,000 for a household of two or more and ¥600,000 for a single person, with extra amounts per child under 18 for moves to specified municipalities. The origin condition follows the national scheme (Cabinet Office): five of the previous ten years in Tokyo's 23 wards or commuting to them, with the last year continuous. You need a qualifying job on the matching site, prefecture-backed start-up funding, remote work (20 hours a week or more) or related-population status set by the municipality, and you apply within a year of moving and intend to stay five years. The page says the payment is taxable income. Kumamoto City does not appear in the list of covered municipalities. The pages reviewed did not mention nationality, and a buyer arriving from overseas would not meet the Tokyo-origin condition as written.
Weighing a Kumamoto house near the 2016 and 2026 earthquake zones? An Akiya Check report brings together the flood, landslide, elevation, zoning and liquefaction-related data available for the exact lot in one English report (emailed; PDF on request) and lists the follow-up questions for the agent. Compare 3 puts three candidates side by side.
Single report $49 · Compare 3 $99 Free 12-point checklistThe Fire and Disaster Management Agency's summary records a magnitude 6.5 earthquake at 21:26 on 14 April 2016 with intensity 7 in Mashiki Town, and a magnitude 7.3 earthquake at 01:25 on 16 April, 28 hours later, with intensity 7 in Mashiki and Nishihara; it calls this the first time in Japan's seismic observation history that two intensity-7 earthquakes occurred in succession. The prefecture's tenth-anniversary page counts 275 deaths (50 direct and 225 related), 2,739 injured and 198,385 damaged houses: 8,657 completely destroyed, 34,489 half destroyed and 155,239 partially damaged.
The Japan Meteorological Agency's press release records a preliminary magnitude 7.1 earthquake at about 16:27 on 28 July 2026, with intensity 7 in Uki City and Hikawa Town, of the strike-slip fault type, and a tsunami advisory for the Ariake and Yatsushiro seas. Its earthquake portal lists aftershocks, including a magnitude 6.1 event near Amakusa and Ashikita, and says elevated earthquake activity will continue for some time. Because the ground may have become fragile, the agency also applied provisional lower thresholds for landslide warnings, at 70 percent or 80 percent of the normal criteria, for municipalities in Kumamoto and, at 80 percent, in Nagasaki and Kagoshima; check whether those are still in force. The prefecture's page on emergency rental housing for the "Reiwa 8 Kumamoto earthquake" (updated 31 July 2026) covers 20 municipalities. The Cabinet Office publishes damage reports on its earthquake page; the figures are provisional and change, so we do not repeat them here.
For any listing in a municipality affected in 2016 or 2026, ask in writing: Was the house inspected or assessed after the earthquakes, and what was the result? What was repaired, when, and by whom? Are there records of the repair? Has the foundation or the ground around the house shifted, and does the lot sit on a slope or a retaining wall (retaining wall guide)? What cover will an insurer give for the address (fire insurance guide)? Then commission your own building inspection (inspection guide) and check build year and foundation (pre-1981 houses). These are inspection questions, not findings: no official source we reviewed rates individual houses.
Check the flood and landslide layers on the national hazard map for river and hillside lots. JMA's 1991 to 2020 normals count 3.8 typhoon approaches a year for northern Kyushu and 4.3 for the Amami and southern Kyushu region, against 5.8 for the whole mainland (JMA).
Yes. The Kumamoto Prefecture Akiya Bank Platform (kumamoto-akiya360.jp) began operating on 1 April 2023 with 33 participating municipalities and lets you search sale and rental listings by conditions, map or area. Kumamoto City, Arao City, Aso City and Amakusa City run separate banks that cannot be viewed on the platform. It is in Japanese.
Yes. The Japan Meteorological Agency recorded a magnitude 7.1 earthquake in Kumamoto at about 16:27 on 28 July 2026, with a maximum intensity of 7 in Uki City and Hikawa Town. The agency's portal says elevated earthquake activity will continue for some time. Damage figures are provisional and published by the Cabinet Office, so check the latest report for the town you are considering.
The prefecture's tenth-anniversary page counts 275 deaths, of which 50 were direct earthquake deaths and 225 related deaths, and 198,385 damaged houses: 8,657 completely destroyed, 34,489 half destroyed and 155,239 partially damaged. Two earthquakes of intensity 7 struck 28 hours apart, on 14 and 16 April 2016.
The prefecture's fiscal 2026 page says the scheme applies in the prefecture and its municipalities except some, and Kumamoto City does not appear in the list of covered municipalities. It lists ¥1,000,000 for a household and ¥600,000 for a single person for people from the Tokyo area, and the pages reviewed did not mention nationality.
Have a specific listing in mind? Get the official zoning, hazard and transaction data for that exact lot — plus the questions to send the agent — in one report.
Get a $49 risk report Free 12-point checklistThis guide is general information based on public sources cited above. It is not legal, tax, or real-estate brokerage advice. Confirm every item for a specific property with the agent, the municipality, and licensed professionals.