As dreaming adults in this world, no matter what you believe and how much you earn, one of the most important parts of everyone’s bucket lists is owning a home. A place that reflects their identity and is just their own. But what happens when you finally have the abode, only to realise that you don’t want it anymore?In 2020, Sia and Mikael Lilja bought a small piece of land about 15 minutes outside Malmö in Sweden. The couple who had been together for twelve years and married for four, decided to make it their dream home. They were planning for their long-term future, having kids and staying close to family.By the end of 2023, they moved in and while they were still renovating the home, they decided to give it time since it was the biggest project of their life. But soon, their plans began to change. They had joined a waiting list for IVF in 2021, but the process was delayed due to the pandemic. “We had a lot of hard conversations about the future we’d imagined for ourselves. By the time it was finally our turn to begin IVF, we’d already decided it wasn’t the path we wanted,” the couple shared with Business Insider.Then, the house felt too big for just them and their dog. They began thinking about what else could be done.
Finding the right plan
In 2019, the couple had spent six months travelling around Asia and “fell in love” with the region. “We’d always imagined that if we ever moved abroad, it would be somewhere like Bali or South Korea. However, as we looked into both places more seriously, neither felt quite right,” they said.As they began exploring opportunities, they came across a podcast about buying a house in Japan. Since they had been waiting to visit the country for years, they booked a trip around the end of 2025. “Even though we’d never set foot in Japan, it already felt like the right place to begin our next chapter. Before our trip, we started browsing Japanese property listings online and began selling our home in Sweden.”By the time they arrived in Japan for a three-week trip in November 2025, their house in Sweden had already been sold. Over the next weeks, they explored different parts of the country, including the Kansai region where they decided they wanted to settle. Eventually, they narrowed it down to places within a 90-minute drive from Kyoto.Upon their return to Sweden, they amped up the house hunt. “We hired a buyer’s agent and set up alerts for akiya — old, vacant homes — that matched our criteria,” they said. Finally, in January 2026, they found what they had been looking for. “Our agent quickly arranged a viewing. Since we were still in Sweden, he walked us through the house over a video call. When we saw it, we knew it was exactly what we were looking for, so we made an offer immediately,” they revealed.Their offer was accepted and the purchase price was 8 million yen, or about $49,000, before taxes and other fees.
Life in Japan
“We decided to look at this time as a gap year for adults, so we both left our jobs. With that, we turned our attention to wrapping up our lives in Sweden. In May 2026, we handed over the keys and flew to Japan,” they said. The house they shared, was well-maintained and their neighbours, mostly older Japanese residents, were extremely welcoming. “Our house sits on the edge of a small village surrounded by fields and bamboo forest, and they’ve already shown us how to weed the property and look after the bamboo shoots.“While they went back to Europe for a few months, visiting family and finalising their dog’s vaccination paperwork, they are planning to officially move to Japan in September. “Once we’re back, we’ll start renovating. Unlike our house in Sweden, we don’t want this project to take over our whole lives. Instead, we want to travel around Japan and renovate the house little by little. There are plenty of places we’d like to visit with our dog. We’re looking forward to starting this new chapter,” said the couple.
