FSA Tightens Oversight of 40- and 50-Year Mortgages — 5ch: “Even If You Sign at 20, You’re Still Paying at 70”

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The story

Japan’s Financial Services Agency (FSA) has decided to step up its oversight of how banks screen borrowers for ultra-long mortgages with 40- or 50-year repayment terms. With Bank of Japan rate hikes and rising long-term interest rates threatening to inflate borrowers’ total repayment amounts, the FSA wants to check whether banks are lending beyond what borrowers can actually afford, and plans to begin examining practices at major banks, regional banks, and online banks as early as this fall. On 5ch, opinions were split: some worried about how old borrowers will be by the time they finish paying (“even if you sign at 20, you’re still paying at 70”), while plenty of others defended the ultra-long-loan approach, saying “take out a loan with low payments while you’re young, then pay it down early once your income goes up.”

It was learned on the 4th that Japan’s Financial Services Agency has decided to strengthen oversight of how banks screen applicants for ultra-long mortgages with 40- or 50-year repayment terms. The agency plans to begin examining practices at major banks, regional banks, and online banks as early as this fall.

The concern is that as the Bank of Japan raises rates and long-term interest rates climb, the resulting increase in interest burdens could inflate borrowers’ total repayment amounts — meaning banks may be lending more than some borrowers can actually handle.

Regulators will examine how banks explain risks to borrowers, including the risk of rising interest rates as well as concerns like falling income or declining asset values.

Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here

What people said

7AnonymousSep 5, 2026 01:15
Honestly, they should be encouraging this. Otherwise nobody could afford to buy a place at all.
90AnonymousSep 5, 2026 02:23
Re: #7
Then just don't buy a house at all lol
10AnonymousSep 5, 2026 01:19
You're gonna keep paying for 50 years?

Your odds of dying before it's paid off go up too, you know.
27AnonymousSep 5, 2026 01:29
Re: #10
From what I get, the idea is you take out one of these ultra-long loans to keep payments low while your salary's still low and you're young, then once you're older and earning more, you make extra payments to shorten the actual payoff period.
171AnonymousSep 5, 2026 05:21
Re: #10
It's basically no different from just handing over free tax money. Give it another 13 years and the consumption tax rate will probably hit 50% too.
12AnonymousSep 5, 2026 01:20
Wouldn't be surprised if they eventually roll out a 60-year loan spanning three generations of the same family next.
113AnonymousSep 5, 2026 02:51
Re: #12
A 100-year loan across three generations of Tokugawas, lmao (a joking reference to the centuries-long Tokugawa shogunate dynasty)
13AnonymousSep 5, 2026 01:20
They clearly understand rate hikes will mean more defaults. They're probably just writing it off as an unavoidable sacrifice.
104AnonymousSep 5, 2026 02:40
Re: #13
Defaulting over a rate hike this small? Even now, rates are nowhere near as high as they used to be historically. Zero interest for all these years was the abnormal part — this is just things going back to normal. If people are going to default on their mortgage over rates this low, they should just do what people used to: chug a Yunker (a Japanese energy tonic drink) and work around the clock. This isn't even close to 'sacrifice'-level rates.
19AnonymousSep 5, 2026 01:23
Sign at 20, done paying at 70 — no way, no way.
137AnonymousSep 5, 2026 04:07
Re: #19
LMAOOO
29AnonymousSep 5, 2026 01:31
The bank: "Keep 'em alive, but don't let 'em thrive" (said with a smug straight face) (an old phrase for squeezing peasants for taxes without pushing them to outright ruin)
34AnonymousSep 5, 2026 01:33
Re: #29
If that actually worked, the 2008 financial crisis never would've happened.
32AnonymousSep 5, 2026 01:31
A friend of mine stretched himself thin to buy property and said he won't finish paying it off until he's 75. I mean, that's assuming he can't make extra payments early — he's a taxi driver out in the countryside, so honestly I'm a bit worried for him.
40AnonymousSep 5, 2026 01:36
Re: #32
Can he even hang onto his job long enough to survive until self-driving taxis take over?
38AnonymousSep 5, 2026 01:34
Honestly, I think taking out as big a loan as you can while you're young to build up assets gives you better odds of ending up rich.
41AnonymousSep 5, 2026 01:36
Re: #38
Yeah, your assets really don't grow unless you invest. A salaryman's lifetime earnings aren't all that impressive. You've got to take some chances somewhere if you want to get rich.
65AnonymousSep 5, 2026 01:49
Bought a used house in cash 13 years ago for 5.5 million yen — feeling like a winner. Built in 1996, so it's still got plenty of life left.
67AnonymousSep 5, 2026 01:54
Re: #65
That price with land included? Did someone die in that house or something?
73AnonymousSep 5, 2026 02:01
Spending most of your life paying off a mortgage is just ridiculous.
74AnonymousSep 5, 2026 02:03
Re: #73
And paying rent forever isn't ridiculous?
142AnonymousSep 5, 2026 04:36
Re: #73
Paying rent your entire life is the crazy option.
85AnonymousSep 5, 2026 02:18
Re: #74
Think of it as the cost of being able to leave whenever you want — that's cheap. Ideally you rent for as long as you can and buy a small place once you're older. Way too many people are stuck on this new-build mindset of trying to make one house double as both a family home and a forever home.
144AnonymousSep 5, 2026 04:39
Re: #85
If it's a condo in one of Tokyo's 23 wards, you can just sell it once the kids are grown and it'll free up more than enough cash to buy some cramped little house.
147AnonymousSep 5, 2026 04:43
Re: #85
Escape from what, exactly? In a few years rent's going to climb so high you won't be able to afford that either — is that your idea of a family falling apart? People who can't manage money well won't be buying any house in their old age. What are you gonna do when building materials get even more expensive?
106AnonymousSep 5, 2026 02:41
A house with a pond in the yard sounds pricey, huh…

Hanno — 2.9 million yen. Forget a pond, this one's got an actual river running behind it~
https://www.athome.co.jp/kodate/6989073972/?DOWN=1
110AnonymousSep 5, 2026 02:45
Re: #106
There are a ton of leaky-roof properties out there. Depends how bad it is. A landslide special-warning zone is sort of a 'well, what can you do' situation.
114AnonymousSep 5, 2026 02:53
Re: #106
Nah, way too much stuff left behind in that one. Did the owner die, or skip town in the middle of the night?
122AnonymousSep 5, 2026 03:29
Shouldn't they be dealing with the insane rise in housing prices first? All this does is make houses even harder to buy.
132AnonymousSep 5, 2026 03:52
Re: #122
Apparently central Tokyo condo prices are already showing signs of a real estate bubble about to burst.
154AnonymousSep 5, 2026 04:51
Re: #132
Starting this month, Chinese nationals apparently can't travel abroad as freely anymore, right? And on top of that, their overseas assets are getting taxed too? I think Chinese real estate investment here is basically finished.
156AnonymousSep 5, 2026 04:53
Re: #132
It won't collapse — the rise will just stop.
199AnonymousSep 5, 2026 05:38
Loan paid off at 80. Meanwhile, interest rates just keep climbing the entire time.
200AnonymousSep 5, 2026 05:39
Re: #199
If it's a fixed rate, you could actually come out way ahead lol
207AnonymousSep 5, 2026 05:44
Re: #199
Meanwhile, the building you bought keeps aging, and repair costs keep piling up on top of everything.

Background and Key Points

Ultra-long mortgages with 40- or 50-year terms have become more common in recent years amid the rise of dual-income households and soaring housing prices. The typical approach is to keep monthly payments low while young, then make extra payments once income rises, effectively bringing forward the real payoff age. What the FSA is actually concerned about isn’t “paying for 50 years” in itself, but lax screening — whether, as interest rates rise, total repayment amounts balloon beyond initial expectations, with banks ending up lending more than borrowers can really afford. The thread split between those arguing young people should borrow to build assets, and more cautious voices warning that payoff ages could stretch into the 70s or 80s and that rising rates will mean more defaults. It’s also easy to miss that some pointed to a deeper structural issue behind all this: housing prices themselves have simply kept climbing, meaning the debate extends beyond loan terms into the supply-side price increases driving them in the first place.

*This article is compiled as an excerpt and summary of the 5ch (News Speed+) thread “FSA to Monitor 40- and 50-Year Mortgages Over Excessive Lending Fears.”

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