What it's really like40:48 in the full recording
Yes, you can own a car
A myth almost every Australian buyer believes, and it's wrong.
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Transcript
- MichelleWell, yeah, I think we'll at least rent a car.
- So, one of the other misconceptions: we were always told that you can own a home,
- but you can't have a bank account and you can't own a car. But I understand now
- that there is an option to buy a car.
- JapanoMaOh, yeah.
- MichelleSo that was a misconception, that I think a lot of Australians think: that you can't own a car over there.
- Look, I've only discovered that this week, because everyone was saying to me,
- oh yeah, but you can't buy a car. It's like, oh, okay. So now I figured out that we can.
- So that'll be my next research project, probably. And as long as you get the local policemen
- to have a look that you've got a garage and everything. But they already know the house,
- because I remember when we were explaining to people which house, and they said, oh,
- that's [the owner]'s house. And I'm like, yes, that house.
- So everybody knows that he has a garage. So I think that will be fine.
Transcribed from the recording. Lightly punctuated for reading.
Michelle was told, repeatedly, that a foreigner can own a home in Japan but not a bank account or a car. The week of this conversation she found out the car part is wrong: it is an option, and the local police check that the house has a garage.
In Yubari that check is a formality. When the family described which house they had bought, people already knew it, and everyone knows it has a garage. A car of their own is the next research project; this winter they will rent one.
Everyone was saying to me, oh yeah, but you can't buy a car. So now I figured out that we can.
Michelle’s experience, told in her words. Not a cost promise, legal advice or a general claim about risk.