The disaster checklist for Japan's material-information disclosure — what is disclosed and what is not

Just before signing a property sale or lease in Japan, a licensed real-estate transaction specialist delivers the material-information disclosure (jūyō jikō setsumei). Because disaster items come up in that meeting, many buyers conclude they do not need to research anything themselves.

That is a misreading of what the disclosure is for. What the law requires is that the broker state whether a limited set of conditions applies — not that they evaluate and explain the overall disaster risk of the land.

This guide separates the four disaster items that are legally required from the items nobody is obliged to tell you, then gives a six-step checklist you can run during the meeting itself.

Disclosure is not a risk assessment

Every disaster-related item in the disclosure is designed as a duty to state whether a zone applies, or to point out a position on a map. None of them is a duty to evaluate how severe the risk is.

The flood hazard map requirement, for instance, ends at presenting the map and indicating where the property sits. There is no obligation to go further and say "this is a 3m projected-depth area, so a first-floor unit would have its living floor submerged." Plenty of agents will say exactly that — but that is the individual's diligence, not a guarantee built into the system.

Understanding that boundary changes how you approach the meeting. Treat it not as a session where you passively receive information, but as verification of what you already researched.

The four disaster items legally required

Under Article 35 of the Building Lots and Buildings Transaction Business Act and its enforcement regulations, these four items must be disclosed:

1. Whether the property is in a Developed Land Disaster Prevention Area

   Enforcement Regulations Art. 16-4-3, item 1

   An area of previously graded residential land designated as carrying significant disaster risk. It concerns the stability of fill and retaining walls, so it matters most for properties on graded slopes. Disclosure applies regardless of land or building, sale or lease.

2. Whether the property is in a Landslide Caution Zone

   Enforcement Regulations Art. 16-4-3, item 2

   The so-called yellow and red zones. Essential for any property near a slope or valley. Red zones (Special Landslide Caution Zones) are areas where structural damage is projected, which affects building restrictions and insurance premiums. Disclosure applies regardless of transaction type.

3. Whether the property is in a Tsunami Disaster Caution Zone

   Enforcement Regulations Art. 16-4-3, item 3

   A zone designated under the Act on Development of Tsunami-Resilient Communities. Where it applies to a coastal property, verifying evacuation sites and routes becomes mandatory homework. Note that designation progress varies by prefecture — 'not designated' does not mean 'no tsunami risk.'

4. The property's location on the flood hazard map

   Added by the amendment effective August 28, 2020

   Brokers must present the flood (river, internal, and storm-surge) hazard map prepared by the municipality under the Flood Control Act and indicate where the property sits. In practice the map is attached to the disclosure document with the position marked. What is shown is the location — not an assessment of inundation depth.

The fourth item is relatively new, added by an amendment to the enforcement regulations effective August 28, 2020. It reflects a regulatory acknowledgement that, given the frequency of severe water disasters in recent years, flood-risk information is a material factor in the decision to sign. In practice the hazard map is attached to the disclosure document, the body text refers to the attachment, and the agent points to the property's position on the map during the explanation.

Note that the first three zone designations must be disclosed regardless of whether the transaction involves land or a building, and whether it is a sale or a lease. They apply to rentals too.

What is not disclosed — your own homework

This is the core of the article. The following carry no disclosure duty — nobody will raise them for you.

Liquefaction deserves particular attention. Damage manifests as a building tilting by tens of centimeters, which can cost more to remedy than above-floor flooding. Despite that, it is not among the Article 35 items — so the information simply does not surface unless the buyer goes looking for it.

Six steps to run on disclosure day

1. Review the hazard map yourself a few days before — check the flood, landslide, liquefaction, and tsunami layers on the Kasaneru Hazard Map.
2. Locate the property on the attached flood hazard map with your own finger — don't settle for a verbal summary; look at the mark yourself.
3. Read the three zone-designation fields — Developed Land Disaster Prevention Area, Landslide Caution Zone, Tsunami Disaster Caution Zone. Where it says "not applicable," distinguish between terrain that genuinely doesn't qualify and a designation that simply hasn't been made yet.
4. Compare projected inundation depth against the floor level — outside the disclosure duty, so judge it yourself. Check the inundation-duration layer at the same time.
5. Check liquefaction and ground history yourself — use the prefectural liquefaction map and GSI's map portal for former river courses and reclamation history.
6. Verify evacuation sites and routes before deciding to sign — confirm a designated site within walking distance and a route that avoids hazard zones.

Questions to ask the agent on the spot

Even outside the scope of the disclosure duty, brokerages often know more than they are required to say — and will answer if asked. These are worth raising:

• Is there any record of past flooding or standing water at this property?
• What is the construction year and which seismic standard applied?
• (For condominiums) On which floor are the electrical switchgear and water pumps installed?
• Is this land graded fill or natural terrain?
• Is there a rough sense of water-damage insurance premium levels for this area?

The third question is easily overlooked and matters a great deal. A condominium with electrical equipment or water pumps in the basement or on the first floor can become uninhabitable through power and water loss even without above-floor flooding. In a projected-inundation area, the floor your building's equipment sits on matters roughly as much as the floor you sleep on.

What to do before the meeting

Because the disclosure happens immediately before signing, learning about a serious risk for the first time in that room makes a level-headed decision harder. Once a deposit is paid and moving arrangements are underway, backing out is psychologically difficult.

The right sequence is to finish hazard verification before submitting an application on a property. For the step-by-step method, see "How to read Japanese hazard maps — 5 practical steps". If you are still narrowing down areas, the structural breakdowns for Tokyo's 23 wards and Osaka City are useful starting points.

The final call before signing

Falling inside a hazard zone is not automatically a reason to walk away. What matters is choosing knowingly. The decision comes down to three axes:

• Is the living floor above projected inundation depth? If yes, power and water loss — not flooding itself — become the main concern.
• Is there room to evacuate? A designated site within walking distance, reachable by a safe route.
• Is the risk priced in? Water-damage insurance coverage, seismic retrofitting, and the outlook for resale value.

SafeLand's assessment combines hazard information with vacancy rate, population dynamics, land-price trend, and daily convenience, returning a per-address Grade A to D. It is built for exactly the judgment that sits one step beyond the "applicable / not applicable" that disclosure gives you — and it can be run before you sign.