Whenever "investment" is mentioned, is it stocks that come to mind for the first time?
However, due to the epidemic, in the past two years, a new way of investment has gradually emerged among young people in Japan - buying mountains.
If you search the web, you'll even find a dedicated mountain and forest trading website to help you get started quickly.
Starting from the purchase procedures, how to find the mountain forest, how to choose the ideal mountain forest, to the formalities and costs after the purchase... All kinds of popular science is available.
Although "investing in the mountains and forests" seems quite easy, it is still more difficult to really wait for money to be profitable.
But there is such a strange person, who has become a winner in life by investing in the mountains and forests...
First of all, it should be explained that in Japan, the mountain forest is allowed to be privately owned by individuals.
In fact, even Mt. Fuji, which everyone is familiar with, is actually private property. It originally belonged to the Tokugawa family, who later gave Mt. Fuji to Asama Shrine.
Therefore, the Japanese government pays a large rent to The Asama Shrine every year to rent Mt. Fuji for tourism.
And our protagonist today, the investor Shoichi Nagano, has hundreds of mountains and uses very little capital to achieve the ideal of "sleeping at home and constantly collecting money".
In fact, in the beginning, Nagano Shoichi did not buy the mountain forest for investment.
In December 2017, he took a fancy to a house in Sado City, Niigata. In order to be able to buy the house of his choice at the lowest price, Nagano Shoichi and the homeowner have been negotiating.
The house that Shoichi Nagano wanted to buy was initially sold for 2 million yen. After some haggling, the price dropped to a quarter, or 500,000 yen.
"Can you think of a way to lower it a little more?"
So the real estate company staff made a suggestion: the seller was worrying about what to do with the mountain. If you buy the mountain as well, the house can be cheaper.
It was a hill of about 100 tsubo.
As a result of the negotiations, Nagano Shoichi bought a three-bedroom villa and a mountain for one-tenth of the price, 200,000 yen.
After this time, he learned from the real estate company that when selling a house in a more remote place, "How about the mountain buying it together?" "The situation is unexpectedly numerous.
As a result, Shoichi Nagano learned a lot from this transaction. He started searching the website for information on the sale of houses in the mountains...
In fact, it costs much less to buy an ordinary mountain forest in Japan than we think.
Depending on the geographical location, land area and the type and number of trees, the prices of each mountain also vary. Mountains near the city may cost 1,000 to 5,000 yen a square meter, but if you are close to the countryside, the standard price will drop to 100 to 1,000 yen.
If it is in the mountains, it will cost less than 100 yen a square meter. In other words, a mountain with an area of 1 hectare can be bought for about 500,000 yen.
Moreover, most of the mountain forests owned by Shoichi Nagano were purchased at very low prices.
The cheapest mountain even costs only 1 yen (about 5 cents for about 5 cents)...
As for the reasons —
The previous owner was anxious to sell the land, but could not give it to someone else for free (the law stipulates), so he received a symbolic 1 yen.
Although Nagano bought the mountain for 1 yen, 30 years ago, the owner at the time spent 2.8 million yen.
Today, he owns hundreds of mountains in Japan and is nicknamed the "Mountain King" by everyone.
Seeing this, is there a small partner who should be curious: the mountain that was bought back cannot be moved or dismantled, so how to make money?
It's actually very simple, even if he lies still at home and has money in his account every month.
1. Land occupation fee and compensation fee of infrastructure
The mountain is equipped with electric towers and transmission cables. The cables laid down from the mountain are hundreds of meters long, for which the power company needs to pay a certain fee to the landowner.
The infrastructure such as electric towers and cables on this mountain needs to be paid by the power company for 100,000 yen a year. And the purchase price of this mountain only cost 44,000 yen...
And if the branches around the tower and the cable grow too high, it may interfere with the equipment. So the company also pays thousands of yen for each cut.
As long as the transmission cable is not removed, even if the power supply is stopped due to accidents, the land occupation fee and compensation fee here will continue to be paid as usual.
2. The land occupation fee of the telephone pole
In Japan, if you have a pole installed on land you own, you can collect the fee from the power company in the name of "pole occupancy fee".
The fact that this land has a pole is tantamount to leasing the land where the poles are installed to the power company. Once the utility company has confirmed that it is correct, it must pay the corresponding fee.
Moreover, the pole is charged by "root"...
In general, the land occupation fee for a pole in the mountain forest is 200 to 300 yen a year for a pole. If the registered use of the mountain forest is "residential land", a telephone pole can get 1,500 yen a year.
By the way, it's not just the poles, the fixed steel cable "pillars" that support the poles cost the same as the poles, 200 yen a piece.
Although there is not much money that can be made by a single pole, many poles are often built on the mountain. A year is 20,000 yen for 100 sticks, and 200,000 yen for 1,000 sticks.
The accumulation of small amounts will lead to huge gains. So, hmm...
In fact, in addition to investing in the mountains and forests to make money, Nagano Shoichi's previous experience also stunned a large number of people.
He has been obtaining various professional qualifications since junior high school. Banking verification, securities foreign affairs officer, Tokyo public nuisance prevention manager...
By the time he was 18 years old, he was still in his third year of high school and already had 100 professional qualifications. There are 13 certificates that he broke the record for the lowest age of the recipients alone...
As for the 6 million yen spent on the examination, he earned by investing 150,000 yen of his own capital (savings of the old age and pocket money) into stocks.
Shoichi Nagano, who graduated from high school, was successfully admitted to Waseda University.
At the same time he began to learn to play mahjong, and at the age of 19 he became a professional mahjong player, the youngest professional at that time.
In order to make "mahjong popular as an intellectual competition", he also founded the Student Mahjong Federation.
During his studies, Nagano also advocated the goal of "creating an environment suitable for students with little affinity in the club", and established more than 100 student groups such as sightseeing, politics, advertising research associations, and horse racing.
Can only say, with this mind, what does he do not earn ah!?
In fact, in addition to investing in the mountains, Nagano Shoichi also acquired many low-cost houses. After buying it, he will do it himself, spending the least amount of money to transform the house into a more comfortable look.
He then rented out hundreds of renovated homes at low prices to disadvantaged groups such as single parents.
And when he did this, it wasn't just about making money.
"I grew up without enough to eat, and I often had to worry about where I lived, and I had to live on the money I earned..."
"There are a lot of vulnerable people [who can't rent a house]. So I want to be someone who can get them to rent a house. ”
Shoichi Nagano, who has experienced a lot of hardships since he was a child, chose to help those who were worried about their lives like their former selves.
At the same time, he also wrote down his own experience with a pen, hoping to help more people. Hence the book", "Life Without Money: Ways to Invest in Mountains".
"It's because I've experienced those pains myself that I have to cherish the connection with people."