The other trick may be getting a loan from a Japanese bank with no work authorization, so are you prepared to pay cash?

There are not many other cities where one can live 2 miles from a trailhead and 5 miles from a Trader Joe's for as little money.

@Gibson BeusI read a cool Japanese proverb the other day-“A spoonful of sweat can save a bucket full of blood”See, told ya it was cool. 

Are you currently doing investing into Japanese real estate or US based investing exclusively?

I watched as business such as Trader Joes, Chick Fil A, Whole Foods, etc. started setting up shop here.

So, EVERY broker or trader is self taught.

There are less drastic trade rates example from a high end multifamily with a 5% cap converted into a hotel and then trade with 8%-10% cap, but this is not what I am doing.

There are whole nation states that live in denial (a friend of a friend recently called the USA a "shining beacon of compassion" in the world and told me that it was inappropriate for me to bring up Japanese-American internment camps and two atoms bombs dropped on civilian populations as a counterexample to what he was saying), so is it so strange that these people just cut themselves off from dealing openly with their financial problems or making rational decisions about strategies to avoid foreclosure?

I met with one this past week, and he pretty much shut down my business idea immediately, quoting sections from the Real Estate and Business Brokers Act of 2002 which provides a *very* broad definition for the word 'trading', and goes on to say that nobody may trade real estate in the province of Ontario who is not registered as a broker or salesperson working for a brokerage, or who is otherwiese 'registered' as defined in the Act.Here's a link, see section 4 subsection 1:http://www.e-laws.gov.on.ca/html/statutes/english/elaws_statutes_02r30_e.htm#BK6Now I will fully admit that the attorney I met with didn't seem to have much experience dealing with real estate investors - perhaps I should have screened him more carefully.

I have searched criagslist, equipment trader, iron planet.