November 14, 2026 What My Daughter's Coming of Age Ceremony Taught Me About Planning in Japan

Hello to all our visionary investors, global families, and brave pioneers! Magandang araw po! It is Anna, your bilingual client liaison and content specialist at Anhome. Welcome to another Saturday with us!

This year, my eldest daughter had her seijin-shiki the Coming of Age ceremony that marks turning twenty in Japan. It was a significant occasion, and one that required quite a lot of preparation.

The kimono rental alone needed to be booked a year in advance. I learned this from other parents before the time came, which was fortunate because my daughter was studying abroad in the Philippines when the booking window opened, and even with that early warning, coordinating everything from a distance was not simple. She came back to Japan for the ceremony, which meant a week away from her school overseas.

The ceremony itself was meaningful. The preparation was, as I will put it plainly, expensive.

What the seijin-shiki experience made very clear is something I had already noticed in other ways: Japan runs on a planning horizon that is longer than what many foreign families are used to. The kimono reservation is one example. School enrollment applications are another. Even certain municipal procedures have windows that open and close on schedules that take time to learn.

For a foreign family settling in Japan, this longer planning horizon is part of what becoming part of life here actually means. Things do not happen at the moment you want them to. They happen at the moment the system opens for them and you have to be ready in advance.

When I think about foreign families who are considering buying a home in Japan, this is one of the things I find myself wanting to say: a settled address is not just about having a place to live. It is about being in a position to participate in the rhythm of life here.

Nursery applications, school enrollment, ceremonies like the seijin-shiki these are tied to where you are registered, and to the networks of information that form around a stable community. Families who move frequently, or who are in temporary housing, are often catching up rather than planning ahead. A home you own and intend to stay in changes that.

As this year draws toward its close, I think about families who are picturing their lives in Japan a few years from now their children growing up here, participating in the milestones that Japanese life offers. That picture requires a foundation. For many families, a home is part of what makes it real.

If you are a global family thinking about what putting down roots in the Osaka area would look like, I am here to help you start that conversation.

Whether you are just beginning to think about buying or are further along in the process, reach out. The earlier the conversation starts, the more prepared you can be.

Phone: 072-489-5661

— Anna

Anhome (Follow-Up Inc.)