Japanese government to reinvent its property registry with blockchain

by saramago

The Japanese government is preparing a system of property and real estate registries based on blockchain technology, which will have as one of its objectives to promote the reuse of empty or unowned land and unify data in one place.

According to a local source, the initiative is intended to unify all property and land records in urban, agricultural and forest areas into a single, accessible and secure accounting book with blockchain technology.

The project is based on the fact that Japan will be able to make its extensive real estate database more useful, through the consolidation and unification of data, in order to make clear the ownership of the property or land. In particular, it will solve the growing number of vacant houses and lots, with unknown owners, and be able to boost sales and re-urbanization.

Both the Ministry of Justice and the Lands maintain separate ownership records, reaching up to 230 million parcels and 50 million identified buildings in the country. This separation of records hinders the procedures, coupled with the data of municipalities and real estate companies.

With the application of a national registry of properties with blockchain, the government also has been prepared to prepare for possible natural disasters, taking advantage of vacant properties in these cases. It would also make discussions with landowners easier on re-development projects and public works.

Equally, the system will allow municipalities to make less effort to confirm the information needed for property taxes, for example. So in general, the plans are to link the data using blockchain technology to avoid tampering and have better data management, making them visible in one place.