Hiroshi Matsuo: Origins and Prospects of the Owner-Unknown Land Problem

After the collapse of the bubble economy and the shattering of the "land myth" that land prices would never fall, the increase in owner-unknown land gradually came to be viewed as a problem. Owner-unknown land refers to land where the owner or their whereabouts cannot be identified even after exercising reasonable efforts normally expected of a searcher, such as investigating the real estate registry.

Owner-unknown land has negative impacts on the environment, such as being left unutilized and unmanaged, becoming overgrown with vegetation, being subject to illegal waste dumping, and breeding pests. Even if buildings or trees on the land are abandoned and pose risks such as collapsing onto adjacent properties, immediate action cannot be taken. Furthermore, when implementing public works or (re)development projects, the time and cost of searching for owners increase, and in disaster-stricken areas, it hinders reconstruction projects and disaster countermeasures. It also interferes with the collection of fixed asset taxes. As a result, the increase in owner-unknown land causes national losses.

To address this owner-unknown land problem, a series of legal reforms have been implemented. These began with (1) facilitating the utilization and management of forests and farmland in cases where co-owners are unknown, followed by (2) the Act on Special Measures concerning Promotion of Utilization of Owner-Unknown Land, which aimed to promote public works and regional welfare promotion projects targeting owner-unknown land without simple structures. Then, (3) through the amendment of the Civil Code, systems were established to facilitate management for owner-unknown land in general, such as the owner-unknown land management system and the creation of management rules for cases where co-owners are unknown. The system for obtaining court authority to acquire or transfer the equity of real estate where some co-owners are unknown also leads to the resolution of owner-unknown land. Additionally, to prevent the occurrence of owner-unknown land, a management system for poorly managed land was introduced. Similarly, (4) the Act on Land Escheat to the State Treasury allowed the state to take over land acquired through inheritance, etc., under certain requirements, and (5) the amendment of the Real Estate Registration Act imposed a registration obligation on the acquisition of real estate ownership through inheritance. These are in line with the 2020 amended Basic Land Act, which required the state and others to ensure the "suppression of occurrence, resolution, and smooth utilization and management" of owner-unknown land.

The owner-unknown land management system received over 500 applications in the first year after its enforcement in April 2023. For the land escheat system, from its enforcement in April of the same year to the end of April 2025 (approximately two years), there were 3,732 total applications, 58 rejections, 54 non-approvals, 604 withdrawals, and 1,586 cases of escheat to the national treasury. These figures suggest a high demand for these systems.

However, these legal reforms alone will not necessarily resolve the owner-unknown land problem quickly. This is because the occurrence of owner-unknown land is deeply related to the history of Japan's land ownership system. Japan's private land ownership system originated when the Meiji government, in order to secure a fiscal base, liberalized land transactions to create land value and taxed that value in exchange for issuing land certificates as proof of ownership. While land use regulations lagged behind, land transactions became active, land prices rose, and land-collateralized finance developed, becoming the foundation of economic activity. Population migration from rural to urban areas increased, and urban land prices rose continuously in conjunction with economic expansion.

Post-war population migration from rural to urban areas continued, supporting high economic growth and forming the land myth, which led to overheated speculative land transactions. However, the bubble soon burst, and as the disposal of non-performing loans continued, the aging of society and population decline progressed, the economic scale shrank, and land prices began to fall. The economic benefit of simply owning land no longer outweighed the burdens of management and taxation. In addition, the concentration of population in cities has particularly exacerbated the shortage of people to own and manage land in rural areas. Against this backdrop, land that was not managed and not registered even when rights were transferred through inheritance, etc., saw generational shifts progress, leading to an increase in owner-unknown land.

Looking at it this way, it is clear that the owner-unknown land problem is a consequence of the development of national land policy in Japan. The Third National Spatial Strategy (2023), based on the National Spatial Planning Act, has already proposed national land development that corrects the over-concentration in Tokyo and connects the regional power of each area formed through a bottom-up approach. Furthermore, the Sixth National Land Use Plan (the same year), based on the National Land Use Planning Act, launched the promotion of regional management concepts as the foundation for forming such regional power. Land management based on regional consensus-building, including owner-unknown land, was also reflected in the Basic Policy on Land (revised in 2024) based on the amended Basic Land Act.

The promotion of measures against owner-unknown land was also emphasized in the recent basic policy by the relevant ministerial meeting (June 6, 2025). The owner-unknown land problem is a problem of Japan's national land management. It should not be overlooked that it provides an opportunity to build a land ownership system from the regional community level—even if it takes the next 100 years—as a foundation for shaping high-quality social capital through which citizens can feel true wealth.