Hi there, I'm in the process of buying a home in a medium-sized town in Yamanashi-ken. I put in an offer thought the agent, and waited for 10 days for the landlord to give the permission to go ahead (the built-up part is freehold, but the land is leasehold, so the sale has to clear the landlord first). Thereupon the agent presented my offer to the home seller. It has been four days since, but i have not heard from the agent yet. In a big city in the US, that would have been sufficient time to wrap up the deal already. Does anyone have experience in home bargaining in Japan outside of Tokyo? Do they always do things so slowly - takes days and days to turn around? I want to buy soon enough to do it up before the first snow. Should I press the agent a bit? Or is it bad manners to do that? Many thanks.

Yes, not unusual for them to take days to do a 5 minute job.
You will be paying the agent and he works for you - call him and ask what is happening.

hi eric, thanks for your advice. will see what happens.