MailMate can help overseas property owners in Japan arrange suitable building insurance for their properties. Whether you have a single property or multiple units, we can obtain quotes, explain your options, and coordinate with insurers on your behalf.

How to Get Home Insurance

To obtain home insurance, we will go through the 3 steps below.

1. Getting a Quote

To request an insurance quote, we typically need the following documents for each property:

• Purchase Contract (売買契約書)
• Statement of Important Matters (重要事項説明書)
• 2–3 exterior photos of the property
• The intended use of the house

Once we have these, we will contact our insurance partner and prepare options for your review. We proactively check whether insurance is in place for the properties we manage. If we notice a gap in your coverage, we will notify you and offer to help.

2. Document Signature

After receiving the quote from the insurance company, we will share it with you for your review. In addition, we will send you two documents to sign to confirm that you agree with the terms related to the insurance and authorize us to sign the insurance contract on your behalf.

3. Final Contract With the Insurance Company

After you review the quote and the documents we sent, and confirm that you agree with everything, we will notify the insurance company and sign the contract on your behalf to make the insurance effective. The insurance bill will then be mailed within 2 to 3 weeks.

What to Insure

You can choose to insure the building only, household contents only, or both. For most overseas property owners, the building is the primary coverage concern. Contents (furniture, appliances, personal belongings) can be added separately if desired.

Coverage Plans

The policy offers three plan tiers, each covering a different range of risks:

Comprehensive (充実タイプ)
Covers all major risk categories: fire, wind/storm, water/flood, theft/water leakage, accidental breakage, and earthquake.

Standard (スタンダードタイプ)
Covers fire, wind/storm, theft/water leakage, and earthquake. Flood coverage is available but with a modified payment structure.

Condo (マンション向けタイプ)
Standard-level coverage designed for condominium units (専有部分). Accidental breakage is not included.

In practice, the right tier depends on the property type, location, and intended use. We can advise on which plan makes sense for your situation.

Coverage Options for Rental Property Owners

For rental properties, additional riders are available:

Rent Income Coverage (家賃収入補償特約)
If the property is damaged by a covered event (fire, typhoon, flood, etc.) and cannot be occupied during repairs, this rider compensates for the rental income lost during the repair period. Coverage period is selectable at contract: 3 months, 6 months, or 12 months per incident.

Landlord Expense Coverage (家主費用補償特約)
Available when Rent Income Coverage is also active. Covers situations where a solitary death, suicide, or criminal death (特定事由事故) occurs inside a rental unit, which can make the property difficult to re-let. Covers:
- Rent loss for the affected unit during vacancy or rent-reduction periods (up to 12 months per incident)
- Rent loss for adjacent units if they are vacated due to the incident
- Incident response costs up to ¥1,000,000: cleaning, disinfection, deodorization, estate clearance, and exorcism/memorial service fees

What Is Covered

Standard building coverage includes:

• Fire, lightning, and explosion
• Wind, typhoon, hail, and snow damage
• Water/flood damage (floor flooding, ground-level flooding exceeding 45cm, or damage ≥30%)
• Theft, vandalism, and external impact damage
• Accidental breakage (comprehensive plan only)
• Earthquake damage (automatically included — see below)
• Personal liability — unlimited within Japan, up to ¥100,000,000 overseas

Automatically included expense coverage:
- Emergency flood funds (¥100,000 immediate payment when a flood payout is triggered)
- Temporary repair costs (e.g., boarding up broken windows before full repairs)
- Debris removal costs
- Fire prevention and fire-fighting costs
- Frozen pipe repair (up to ¥100,000 per incident)
- Earthquake fire expense costs (5% of coverage, up to ¥3,000,000 per site)

Optional add-ons for rental owners:
- Building Management Liability (建物管理賠償責任補償特約): Covers legal liability if a building management failure causes injury or property damage to a third party (e.g., exterior wall collapse). Coverage limits: ¥1M / ¥3M / ¥5M.
- Personal Liability for All Residents (個人賠償責任補償特約・包括契約用): Covers all residents' daily-life liability and residential unit management incidents (e.g., a resident flooding the unit below).

Earthquake Insurance

Earthquake insurance (地震保険) is automatically bundled with building coverage and cannot be purchased separately. The earthquake coverage amount is set at 30–50% of the building policy amount, up to a maximum of ¥50,000,000. Payouts are tiered based on the level of damage:

• Total loss (全損): 100% of earthquake policy amount
• Major damage (大半損): 60%
• Moderate damage (小半損): 30%
• Partial damage (一部損): 5%

What Is Not Covered

• Household contents (家財) are not covered under building-only insurance. A contents rider can be added if needed.
• Damage caused intentionally by the insured or their household
• Nuclear incidents or war
• Earthquake-caused fires are covered under earthquake insurance, not the main fire coverage

Building Structure and Premiums

Premium amounts vary based on the property's structure classification:

• M構造 (Mansion/RC Condominium): Reinforced concrete condos — lowest premium
• T構造 (Fireproof construction): Fire-resistant wood or light steel frame — medium premium
• H構造 (Other construction): All other types — highest premium

Location (flood risk zone, etc.) and selected coverage level also affect the premium.

Premium Discounts

Discounts may be available depending on the property's earthquake resistance:

• Seismic isolation discount (免震建築割引): 50%
• Earthquake resistance grade 3 (耐震等級3): 50%
• Earthquake resistance grade 2 (耐震等級2): 30%
• Earthquake resistance grade 1 (耐震等級1): 10%
• Seismic retrofit diagnosis discount (耐震診断割引): 10%
• Building age discount (建築年割引): for buildings constructed before 1981

Supporting documentation (e.g., seismic evaluation reports, certification documents) is required to apply discounts.

Important Notes

Property use restriction: Our insurance partner covers vacation homes (second homes) and rental properties only. Properties used for minpaku (民泊) or short-term lodging (e.g., Airbnb-style rentals) cannot be insured through our partner.

Multi-property policies: We can arrange insurance for multiple properties, but discounts for multiple units under the same owner are not currently available.

Bringing your own insurer: You are welcome to use a different insurance provider. We are happy to coordinate with your existing insurer and can help compare coverage.

Mid-term changes: Notify us if the number of rental units, monthly rent amount, or tenancy type changes during the policy period so we can update the insurer accordingly.

Policy renewal: Policies can be set to renew automatically. Renewal notices are sent approximately 2 months before the policy expiry date.

Our Insurance Partner

We work with Tokio Marine Nichido (東京海上日動) through a dedicated insurance partner. Policies are issued on a 1-year basis (or optionally up to 5 years with auto-renewal) and renew annually.

If you would like us to check your current insurance situation or obtain a quote for a property, please contact us.

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Documentation is updated from time to time — please confirm with MailMate personnel in all cases. Documentation may be out of date, lack details, or have mistakes.