Short answer: Okayama does not have one prefectural akiya website. It has a shared system, the Okayama Akiya Information Distribution System (岡山県空き家情報流通システム), in which the prefecture, participating municipalities and the real estate associations publish municipal akiya bank listings together on the Sumairu Okayama portal. Everything is in Japanese. You search it with browser translation and three words, 空き家バンク, 売買 (sale) and 賃貸 (rental). The support on offer is set by each municipality, including trial-stay accommodation subsidies, and the Tokyo-origin relocation fund does not obviously apply to a buyer from overseas. The hazard that defines Okayama is river flooding on the scale seen at Mabi in July 2018, followed by landslides and the many farm ponds of the countryside.
The distribution system on Sumairu Okayama. The prefecture's housing support page describes the system as a collaboration of the prefecture, municipalities and housing organisations that shares the vacant-house information of participating municipalities. The listings are on a special page of the Sumairu Okayama (住まいる岡山) real estate portal, ok-smile.jp/vacant-house, where you choose rental search or purchase search and then an area. The page says the listed properties are handled by member agents of two professional associations, who prepare the important matters documents and the agreement, which is a useful reassurance compared with listings that are only introductions. The page is Japanese-only. When it was reviewed it named Okayama City, Kurashiki City and Tsuyama City among the participating municipalities, noting a count as of April 2023 that will have changed since.
Municipal akiya banks. Participation is municipality by municipality, and a municipality can also keep its own page. The prefecture's relocation portal, Okayama Hare-no-Kuni Life (おかやま晴れの国ぐらし), has a page per municipality with news such as updated akiya bank listings. The prefecture also publishes a list of consultation windows and subsidy programmes for akiya in the prefecture (空き家ガイドブック・相談窓口・補助制度一覧), and its text tells you to contact each municipality for subsidy details.
National banks. At Home and LIFULL HOME'S each run a national akiya bank; use them to see which Okayama municipalities have stock. How the conditions work is in our akiya bank conditions guide.
| Goal | What to type or click |
|---|---|
| Find the shared listings | 岡山県 空き家バンク, or go straight to ok-smile.jp and pick 売買 (buy) or 賃貸 (rent), then an area |
| One municipality's rules | [municipality] 空き家バンク, for example 真庭市, 津山市, 備前市, 和気町 |
| Trial stay | お試し移住 or お試し居住 plus the municipality |
| Subsidy for the house | [municipality] 空き家 改修 補助金 |
| Farm-pond risk | ため池ハザードマップ plus the municipality |
Browser translation reads conditions pages well enough but changes place names, so keep the Japanese names in your notes. Use the kanji red-flag guide for listing labels and the question list for emails.
Trial stays. The prefecture's housing page says that several municipalities subsidise accommodation for exploratory stays: roughly ¥2,000 to ¥4,000 per night, with annual caps of about ¥24,000 to ¥100,000 depending on the place. For a buyer who cannot visit often, a short subsidised stay in the town is the cheapest way to test winter, neighbours and access. See also buying from overseas without visiting if you cannot.
Renovation subsidies. The same page says that some municipalities provide subsidies for preparing a home, including renovating an akiya, and gives no amounts: "contact the municipality" is the official answer. The prefecture's child-raising pages say some municipalities have renovation subsidies for households with children. Because the conditions differ, ask three things in writing: Must the house be registered with the akiya bank? Must I live there for a minimum number of years? Is the work limited to local contractors?
Relocation support fund. The prefecture's employment and relocation page says that people moving from Tokyo's 23 wards to Okayama Prefecture can receive ¥600,000 (single) or ¥1,000,000 (two or more people). The conditions are those of the national scheme described by the Cabinet Office: five years in the 23 wards (or commuting there) within the last ten years, a qualifying job or business, a five-year stay and repayment on early departure. The pages reviewed do not mention foreign nationals or visa status, and a buyer coming from overseas would not meet the Tokyo-origin test as written.
Shortlisting houses near a river in Okayama? An Akiya Check report puts the flood depth, landslide, elevation and zoning data for the exact lot in one English report (emailed; PDF on request) and lists the follow-up questions for the agent. Compare 3 shows three addresses side by side.
Single report $49 · Compare 3 $99 Free 12-point checklistThe Cabinet Office's disaster summary for the July 2018 heavy rain (2019 White Paper on Disaster Management) records 237 deaths, of which 115 were in Hiroshima Prefecture, 66 in Okayama Prefecture and 31 in Ehime, and describes major flooding centred on Mabi in Kurashiki. The Okayama River Office of MLIT (Oda River overview) says the levees breached along the Oda River at Mabi, that the maximum flood depth is estimated at about 5 metres and that cumulative rainfall exceeded 400 mm; care facilities, hospitals and schools were flooded. What this means for a buyer is concrete: a riverside plain can have a flat, pleasant, cheap house that is also the deepest part of the flood map. Read the flood depth layer and the river's flood scenario on the national hazard map, ask whether the house flooded in 2018 (a disclosure question, see kokuchi jiko), and check whether the ground floor is raised. Also ask an insurer whether flood cover is available and what it costs for the address, since cover terms differ by policy.
The same July 2018 event produced landslides across western Japan. The Cabinet Office counts 2,581 sediment disasters nationwide, and Hiroshima, Okayama's neighbour, is covered in our Hiroshima guide. For a hillside Okayama lot, check the landslide warning layer for the address and read the retaining wall and cliff guide.
Agricultural reservoirs are a feature of rural western Japan. MAFF's reservoir disaster-prevention page introduces the special law on disaster-prevention work for priority agricultural reservoirs and reservoir hazard maps. If a rural akiya is downhill from a pond, ask the municipality whether the pond is designated as a priority reservoir and whether a hazard map exists for it. The Okayama count of reservoirs is not given on the pages reviewed, so none is quoted here.
It is a system in which Okayama Prefecture, municipalities and housing industry groups share the akiya bank listings of participating municipalities, published on the Sumairu Okayama real estate portal at ok-smile.jp. You can search for rentals or purchases by area. The pages reviewed are in Japanese only.
The prefecture's relocation portal says several municipalities subsidise accommodation for exploratory stays, roughly ¥2,000 to ¥4,000 per night with annual caps between about ¥24,000 and ¥100,000 depending on the place. Check each municipality for current terms.
The prefecture lists ¥600,000 for a single person and ¥1,000,000 for a household of two or more moving from Tokyo's 23 wards, with conditions on employment and staying. The page reviewed does not mention foreign nationals, so ask the municipality.
Levees on the Oda River breached at Mabi in Kurashiki, and the Okayama River Office estimates the maximum flood depth at about 5 metres after more than 400 mm of cumulative rainfall. The Cabinet Office counts 66 deaths in Okayama among 237 for the whole July 2018 event. It is a reason to read the flood depth layer carefully for riverside addresses.
The Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries has a special law for disaster-prevention work on priority agricultural reservoirs and publishes information on reservoir hazard maps. A house below a pond can be affected if the embankment fails, so ask the municipality whether a pond hazard map covers the address.
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.