You bought a condo in Tokyo. Or you are about to. The bank asks for fire insurance (火災保険). The agent mentions earthquake insurance (地震保険) almost as an afterthought. You sign. You move on.
That is where most foreign buyers lose money — not on premiums, but on coverage gaps they only discover after a claim. Japan sits on four tectonic plates. Tokyo has a non-trivial probability of a major seismic event in the next 30 years, per the Headquarters for Earthquake Research Promotion (地震調査研究推進本部). Insurance is not paperwork. It is a structural part of your purchase.
This guide explains how fire and earthquake insurance actually work in Japan for a condo (分譲マンション) owner, what is covered, what is not, and how to size your policy. We base this on standard market terms as of recent years. Premiums and product names change. Treat the numbers here as a reference estimate, not a quote.
What Fire Insurance Actually Covers in Japan
"Fire insurance" (火災保険) is a misleading translation. The Japanese product is closer to a multi-peril home policy. A standard contract typically covers:
- Fire, lightning, explosion
- Windstorm, hail, snow damage
- Water leaks from plumbing (水濡れ) — common in older condos
- Flood and inundation (水災) — optional in many policies
- Theft, vandalism
- Accidental breakage (破損・汚損) — optional
What it does not cover by itself: earthquake, volcanic eruption, and tsunami damage. Those require a separate earthquake rider. This is the single most misunderstood point for foreign buyers. A fire that starts because of an earthquake is also excluded from the base fire policy — you need the earthquake rider for that too.
Building vs. Contents
A condo policy splits into two parts:
- Building (建物) — the unit interior. In a Japanese condo, you insure only the exclusive-use portion (専有部分), typically from the inner surface of the concrete walls inward. The shared structure (共用部分) is covered by the building management association (管理組合) under a separate master policy.
- Contents (家財) — furniture, electronics, clothing, personal items.
You choose coverage amounts for each. A common analysis result we see: foreign buyers over-insure the building and under-insure contents, or the reverse. Both create problems at claim time.
How to Size the Building Coverage
The insurer asks for a rebuild-cost figure (再調達価額), not the market price you paid. This matters. A 90 million yen condo in Minato-ku may have a rebuild cost of 15–25 million yen for the interior portion, because land value and the shared structure are excluded.
Two methods are standard:
- New-value basis (新価) — pays the cost to rebuild at today's prices. Recommended.
- Time-value basis (時価) — pays depreciated value. Cheaper premium. Worse outcome.
Always confirm your policy is on a new-value basis. If the agent gives you a quote without specifying, ask. The difference at claim time can be 30–50%.
A Reference Estimate
For a 70㎡ condo in central Tokyo, the building coverage on the exclusive-use portion typically falls in the 10–20 million yen range. Annual premium for fire-only coverage on a reinforced-concrete (RC) condo runs roughly 8,000–25,000 yen per year, depending on coverage breadth, deductible, and term. Long-term contracts (5 years, paid upfront) reduce the effective annual cost.
These are tendencies, not quotes. Your actual premium depends on building age, location, and rider selection.
Earthquake Insurance — The Rules Are Different
Earthquake insurance (地震保険) in Japan is not a normal commercial product. It is a government-backed scheme run jointly by private insurers and the state, governed by the Earthquake Insurance Act (地震保険に関する法律). This has three consequences you need to understand:
- Premiums are identical across insurers for the same building class and prefecture. Shopping around does not reduce the cost. It only changes the bundled fire policy and service.
- Coverage is capped at 30–50% of your fire insurance amount. You cannot insure your condo to 100% of rebuild value against earthquakes. This is a legal cap, not a negotiating point.
- The maximum payout is 50 million yen for the building and 10 million yen for contents.
So if your fire policy insures the building at 15 million yen, your earthquake rider can be 4.5–7.5 million yen at most. That is the ceiling.
Payout Tiers
Earthquake claims are not paid as itemized repair costs. They are paid in four tiers based on damage assessment:
- Total loss (全損) — 100% of the earthquake coverage amount
- Major damage (大半損) — 60%
- Minor damage (小半損) — 30%
- Partial damage (一部損) — 5%
This is faster than itemized adjustment, but it means your payout may not match actual repair costs. A cracked wall and a destroyed kitchen may both fall under "partial damage" — 5% of your coverage. This is a structural risk of the product, not a flaw of any one insurer.
Discounts You Should Claim
Premium discounts apply if your building meets certain standards. These can reduce the earthquake premium by 10–50%:
- New seismic standard (新耐震基準) — built under the 1981 code or later. 10% discount.
- Seismic grade certification (耐震等級) — grades 1, 2, 3 under the Housing Quality Assurance Act (住宅品質確保法). Up to 50% discount for grade 3.
- Base-isolation structure (免震建築物) — 50% discount.
- Seismic retrofit (耐震診断) — 10% discount if the building has passed a diagnosis.
Ask the seller or the management association for the building's certification documents (適合証明書). If they do not have them, the discount is not applied. We see foreign buyers leave this on the table often. Verify before signing the policy.
What the Building's Master Policy Already Covers
Your management association (管理組合) carries a separate insurance policy on the shared portions — the structure, corridors, elevators, exterior walls, roof. You do not need to duplicate this. But you should read the association's policy summary, available at the annual general meeting (総会) or on request.
Two questions to ask:
- Does the master policy include earthquake coverage on the shared structure? Many do not. If the building's structural columns crack in a quake, repair costs are billed to owners through a special assessment (修繕一時金). Your individual earthquake policy does not pay for that.
- What is the deductible (免責金額) on the master policy?
This is where a second-opinion review matters. The gap between your unit policy and the master policy is the actual risk. RE : public reviews this overlap as part of the pre-purchase analysis.
Term Length and Payment Structure
Until 2022, you could buy fire insurance on a 10-year term. The maximum is now 5 years for new contracts, following industry-wide repricing tied to climate-driven claim trends. Earthquake insurance is sold in 1- to 5-year terms.
Payment options:
- Annual — highest effective cost, most flexible.
- Multi-year lump sum (長期一括) — typically 5–15% cheaper than annual over the term.
- Monthly — convenient, but the most expensive overall.
If you plan to hold the condo for at least 5 years, the lump-sum 5-year contract is usually the lowest-cost path. If you might sell earlier, mid-term cancellation refunds the unused premium on a pro-rata basis, but processing takes weeks.
Flood Risk — The Optional Rider Many Skip
Tokyo's eastern wards (江東区, 墨田区, 葛飾区, 江戸川区) and parts of the Tama River basin sit in flood-risk zones mapped by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism (国土交通省). The hazard maps (ハザードマップ) are public. Check yours before deciding on the flood damage (水災) rider.
Two notes:
- For a condo above the 3rd floor in central Tokyo, flood risk to the unit itself is low, and many buyers drop this rider. Premium savings: roughly 10–20%.
- For a 1st- or 2nd-floor unit, or a unit near a river, keeping the rider is reasonable. The 2019 Typhoon Hagibis (令和元年東日本台風) caused tower-condo basement flooding in Kawasaki that disabled electrical systems for entire buildings.
This is a tendency-based decision. There is no single right answer. Your floor, your district, your risk.
A Practical Checklist Before You Sign
Use this as a pre-purchase review:
- Confirm the building structure class (RC, SRC, wood-frame). RC and SRC get the lowest premiums.
- Get the building's seismic certification documents. Apply every discount you qualify for.
- Set the building coverage on a new-value (新価) basis, not time-value.
- Decide flood rider based on the hazard map for your address, not a generic recommendation.
- Set contents coverage based on an honest inventory, not a default suggested amount.
- Read the master policy of the management association. Identify gaps.
- Compare at least two quotes for fire insurance. Earthquake premiums will be identical, so judge on bundled fire terms and claims-handling reputation.
- Match the term length to your expected holding period.
Common Mistakes We See
- Buying through the bank's default partner without comparing. The bank's tied insurer is convenient but rarely the best-priced option.
- Insuring at the purchase price. The land portion is not insurable. You are over-paying.
- Skipping the earthquake rider entirely. The premium is non-trivial, but the risk profile of Tokyo makes this a hard one to skip.
- Forgetting to update contents coverage after buying expensive furniture or moving from abroad with shipped goods.
- Assuming English-language support at claim time. Most insurers handle claims only in Japanese. Plan for this — keep a bilingual contact, or use a broker who supports English.
How RE : public Approaches This
When we run a second-opinion review on a condo purchase, insurance is one of the line items. We look at:
- The rebuild-cost estimate vs. the proposed coverage amount
- The earthquake rider as a percentage of fire coverage
- The master policy of the management association and its gap with your unit policy
- The hazard map for the specific address
- The seismic certification status and whether discounts are being applied
The output is a reference estimate of appropriate coverage and a flagged list of risks. Not a quote. Not a recommendation of a specific insurer.
This is not investment advice. The final decision is yours.
RE : public — independent second-opinion for condo buyers in Japan