Important Land Survey Act: what notification a property deal in a Monitored / Special Monitored Area needs

The key point: Under the Important Land Survey Act, if a property sits in a "Special Monitored Area" and is at or above a set size—land of 200 m² or more per parcel, a building of 200 m² or more in total floor area—a prior notification must be filed before concluding a contract to transfer or set ownership and similar rights, and it is the parties to the contract, the seller and the buyer both, who file it in advance with the Prime Minister (the window is the Cabinet Office) (Act on the Review and Regulation of the Use of Real Estate Surrounding Important Facilities and on National Border Remote Islands, etc. = Act No. 84 of 2021, art. 13(1); Enforcement Order art. 4). A plain "Monitored Area," by contrast, carries no notification duty at the point of sale; there the state surveys how land is used and may issue recommendations and orders against acts that impede an important facility's function (art. 6, art. 9). Concluding a contract without notifying, or filing a false notification, is punishable by up to 6 months' confinement or a fine of up to ¥1 million (art. 26). What a real-estate company (we) handle is checking—from the published designation and the Cabinet Office list—whether the property falls in a Monitored / Special Monitored Area and, if so, whether it meets the size threshold, providing that in the important-matters explanation (Real Estate Brokerage Act art. 35), and brokerage. The notification itself is for the party or an administrative scrivener; we do not file it. Designating areas and the security-related use review belong to the state (Cabinet Office); ownership-transfer registration to a judicial scrivener; inheritance-tax / capital-gains valuation and filing to a tax accountant; penalties and litigation to a lawyer—each an independent business contracted with separately (no referral fees are exchanged). The final judgment on which area a property falls in rests with the Cabinet Office and the respective licensed professionals.

For parties trading property near bases and Self-Defense Force facilities, nuclear plants or border islands—especially operators handling foreign-capital or non-resident buyers, and owners anxious about whether they are inside a Monitored Area—this article organises what you can confirm before signing, in the order of the law and public materials. This is general information; the final judgment on which area a property falls in, and whether notification is required, rests with the Cabinet Office and the respective licensed professionals.

Yotsuba Real Estate Co., Ltd. (四葉不動産株式会社), based in Bunkyo, Tokyo, provides surveys and brokerage of commercial and investment real estate. You can consult us from the stage of "is this property inside an area that requires notification".

What is the Important Land Survey Act, and since when has it been fully in force?

The Act's full name is the "Act on the Review and Regulation of the Use of Real Estate Surrounding Important Facilities and on National Border Remote Islands, etc." (Act No. 84 of 2021). It was promulgated on 23 June 2021 and came fully into force on 20 September 2022. Around defense-related facilities, Japan Coast Guard facilities, life-related facilities such as nuclear power plants, and national border islands, it lets the state survey how land and buildings are used, and regulate that use if necessary, to prevent them being used in ways that impede a facility's function.

The Act sets its regulated areas in two tiers: the "Monitored Area" (art. 5) and, within it, the "Special Monitored Area" designated for the most important of them (art. 12). What changes most for brokerage practice is that only the Special Monitored Area carries a "prior notification" at the point of a transaction.

Area	Basis	What the state does	Prior notification on a deal
Monitored Area	art. 5 (roughly within 1,000 m of an important facility's site; border islands)	survey of use (art. 6); recommendations/orders against function-impeding acts (art. 9)	none
Special Monitored Area	art. 12 (a Monitored Area tied to a designated important facility / border island)	same as above, plus receiving and reviewing notifications of deals above a set size (art. 13)	yes (both seller and buyer)

Both areas are designated by the Prime Minister after hearing the Real Estate Use Council, and take effect when published in the Official Gazette. Which places are designated is published each time and listed on the Cabinet Office "Important Land Survey Act" page.

How do you check whether your property is in a Monitored / Special Monitored Area?

Whether an area applies is fixed objectively from the property's address. A Monitored Area is an area, designated and published by the government, that lies roughly within 1,000 m of an important facility's site or within a border-island area (art. 5). A Special Monitored Area is designated where, among Monitored Areas, the facility's or island's function is especially important, or where impeding it is easy and substitution is difficult (art. 12).

The order of checking is below. The objective property-side condition—whether the address falls within a published area—is what we survey and provide in the important-matters explanation.

What to confirm	Where
Whether any designated area exists and which one the property falls in	Cabinet Office "Important Land Survey Act" area list and the Official Gazette
The area boundary against the property's position	Compare the published maps/area diagrams with the property's address and lot number
If a Special Monitored Area, whether the size threshold is met	Land area (land) / floor area (building) on the registration certificate
Where to inquire when unsure	The Cabinet Office call centre (number on the official page); the municipality

Designations are added and changed, so note the date you consulted. The final judgment on whether an area exists and its boundary belongs to the Cabinet Office; we handle the fact-check against the published information.

In a Special Monitored Area, who notifies what and when?

Where you conclude a contract (including a pre-contract) to transfer or set ownership or a right aimed at acquiring ownership over land etc. of a certain size or more inside a Special Monitored Area, the parties to the contract must notify certain matters to the Prime Minister in advance (art. 13(1)). The "parties" are both seller and buyer, not one of them. As a rule the notification is made before the contract is concluded.

The matters notified include each party's name and address (and nationality etc. for non-Japanese), the location and area of the land etc., the type and content of the right transferred/set, and the intended use of the land. The window is the Cabinet Office; by post it must arrive by the day before the planned contract date.

As exceptions, contracts specified by Cabinet Order—such as where the counterparty is the state or a local government—fall outside the notification. Where the contract arises from grounds specified by Cabinet Order, such as civil conciliation, the prior-notification rule does not apply (art. 13(2)); in that case you notify within two weeks of the day the contract is concluded (art. 13(3)). Land etc. inside a plain Monitored Area is not subject to this transaction notification at all.

The roles split as below. These cannot be bundled into one contract; each is an independent business contracted with separately.

Who	Role
Real estate (we)	Survey of area applicability and the size threshold; brokerage incl. important-matters explanation
The party / administrative scrivener	Preparing and filing the prior notification (we do not file it)
The state (Cabinet Office)	Designating areas; reviewing notified matters; the security-related use review
Judicial scrivener	Ownership-transfer registration
Tax accountant	Inheritance-tax / capital-gains valuation and filing
Lawyer	Penalties and disputes over the contract or the regulation

We handle the property survey and brokerage; the notification is the party's or an administrative scrivener's—with the windows separated, connected smoothly from one and the same window. No referral fees are exchanged.

Where is the line on the area or the deal that triggers notification?

Even in a Special Monitored Area, not every small piece of land etc. triggers notification. It applies to land of 200 m² or more, and a building of 200 m² or more counting the total floor area of each storey including annexes (art. 13(1); Enforcement Order art. 4). This area is judged per parcel for land and per building for buildings, even when several are sold together.

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The line	Content
Area	Inside a Special Monitored Area (a Monitored Area is out of scope)
Size	Land ≥ 200 m² / building ≥ 200 m² total floor area (judged per parcel / per building)
Contract	A contract to transfer or set ownership etc. (sale, exchange, pre-contract, etc.)
Timing	Before concluding the contract (the civil-conciliation exception: within two weeks after)

Note that while the land area and floor area that decide the threshold can be confirmed by us from objective property-side information such as the registration certificate, the final judgment on which land/building those figures correspond to inside the area is fixed against the Cabinet Office that receives the notification. Where boundaries or actual survey are involved, a land/house surveyor's survey may be a premise.

When the buyer is foreign capital or a non-resident, what extra care does the deal need?

The prior notification under the Important Land Survey Act applies to both parties whenever the Special Monitored Area and the size threshold are met, regardless of the buyer's nationality or residence. Whether the buyer is foreign capital, a non-resident, or Japan-resident, this notification duty itself does not change. The framing is "notify because it is a deal of a certain size in a Special Monitored Area," not "notify because the buyer is foreign."

At the same time, when the buyer is a non-resident, other systems overlap the same deal apart from this notification—for example the broker's identity verification under the Act on Prevention of Transfer of Criminal Proceeds, the post-facto report of inward direct investment etc. under the Foreign Exchange and Foreign Trade Act, and each country's rules on the international remittance of the price. These have a different basis and window from the Important Land Survey Act here, and get missed if confused with it.

For the identity-verification and transaction-check angle in a buyer's due diligence, see identity verification for a non-resident buyer (Criminal Proceeds Act); for the international remittance and settlement sequence, see remittance controls from mainland China and settling a Japanese property. For finding commercial / investment property, see the consultation desk for commercial and investment real estate. The Important Land Survey Act notification and these identity-verification / reporting / remittance rules proceed in parallel, each as a separate procedure.

From confirming area applicability to the property search, bring it to Yotsuba Real Estate—initial consultation is free

In your message, write the property's location (ideally the lot number), the size of the land/building, whether you are seller or buyer, and whether the buyer is a non-resident. We talk through everything from whether the property falls in a Monitored / Special Monitored Area and meets the size threshold, to where to refer the notification if it does.

Frequently asked questions

Q. When selling or buying property in a Monitored Area, is notification required?
A. No prior notification at the point of sale. The prior notification applies only to land etc. of a certain size or more (land ≥ 200 m², building ≥ 200 m² total floor area) inside a Special Monitored Area; land etc. inside a plain Monitored Area is not subject to it (Important Land Survey Act art. 13(1); Enforcement Order art. 4). Even in a Monitored Area, though, the state surveys use and may issue recommendations/orders against acts that impede an important facility's function (art. 6, art. 9). Which area a property falls in is confirmed on the Cabinet Office area list and the Official Gazette.

Q. For a Special Monitored Area notification, does the seller or the buyer file it?
A. Both the seller and the buyer, as parties to the contract, file it (art. 13(1)). One of them is not enough. The notification is made to the Prime Minister (the Cabinet Office window) before the contract is concluded. Where the contract arises from grounds specified by Cabinet Order such as civil conciliation, the prior-notification rule does not apply by way of exception, and you then notify within two weeks of the contract date (art. 13(2), (3)). Preparing and filing the notification is for the party or an administrative scrivener; a real-estate company (we) does not file it.

Q. What happens if you conclude a contract without notifying?
A. Concluding a contract without the art. 13(1) notification, failing to make the art. 13(3) notification, or filing a false notification is punishable by up to 6 months' confinement or a fine of up to ¥1 million (art. 26). Where a breach occurs in a corporation's business, the corporation too may be fined besides the actor (art. 28). Separately, breaching a state order in a Monitored Area (art. 9(2)) draws a heavier penalty—up to 2 years' confinement or a fine of up to ¥2 million (art. 25).

Q. If the buyer is foreign or a non-resident, does the notification change?
A. The Important Land Survey Act prior notification applies to both parties whenever it is a deal of a certain size in a Special Monitored Area, regardless of the buyer's nationality or residence. The framing is "notify because it is a covered deal in a Special Monitored Area," not "notify because the buyer is foreign." When the buyer is a non-resident, however, other systems overlap the same deal—identity verification under the Criminal Proceeds Act, the inward-direct-investment report under the Foreign Exchange Act, and international-remittance rules. Their basis and window differ, so confirm each separately.

Sources

The following public materials are starting points. Laws are amended, so check the current article, paragraph, item, enforcement date and latest amendment on e-Gov Law Search. Area designations are added and changed, so confirm whether a property falls in a Monitored / Special Monitored Area on the latest Cabinet Office area list and the Official Gazette. The applicability of a particular property and whether notification is required are judged by the Cabinet Office and the respective licensed professionals. Public materials were all consulted on 7 November 2026. The sources below are in Japanese.

• e-Gov Law Search: Act on the Review and Regulation of the Use of Real Estate Surrounding Important Facilities and on National Border Remote Islands, etc. (Act No. 84 of 2021; art. 5 = designation of Monitored Areas (roughly within 1,000 m of an important facility's site, etc.), art. 6 = land-use survey, art. 9 = recommendations and orders to users in a Monitored Area, art. 12 = designation of Special Monitored Areas, art. 13(1) = prior notification of a contract over land etc. of a certain size or more in a Special Monitored Area, art. 13(2),(3) = the civil-conciliation etc. exception and notification within two weeks, art. 25 = penalty for breaching an order (up to 2 years' confinement or ¥2 million fine), art. 26 = penalty for failing to notify / false notification (up to 6 months' confinement or ¥1 million fine), art. 28 = dual-liability provision)
• e-Gov Law Search: Enforcement Order of the same Act (art. 4 = the area that triggers notification (land ≥ 200 m² / building ≥ 200 m² total floor area); confirm the specific figures in the text)
• Cabinet Office "Important Land Survey Act" guidance (the outline, the list of designated areas, and the form and filing window for the prior notification of contracts in a Special Monitored Area; full enforcement 20 September 2022, promulgation 23 June 2021; consulted 7 November 2026)

This article provides general information and does not guarantee which area a particular property falls in or whether notification is required. The survey of area applicability and the size threshold and brokerage are real estate's (ours); preparing and filing the prior notification the party's or an administrative scrivener's; designating areas and the security-related use review the state's (Cabinet Office); ownership-transfer registration a judicial scrivener's; inheritance-tax / capital-gains valuation and filing a tax accountant's; penalties and disputes a lawyer's—each judged and handled by them.

Joji Uramatsu (浦松 丈二), Representative Director and licensed real estate transaction specialist, Yotsuba Real Estate Co., Ltd. (四葉不動産株式会社). As a licensed real estate transaction specialist in Bunkyo, Tokyo, we provide surveys and brokerage of commercial and investment real estate. Author profile

Updated: 7 November 2026