Is a Real Estate Appraiser a viable path after a Real Estate Notary? There are two hurdles to overcome, but once you open a practice, there is work that people with both qualifications can collaborate on.

The second hurdle comes after you pass the exam: the practical training.

Even if you pass the essay exam, you cannot call yourself an appraiser yet. You must undergo one to two years of practical training starting December 1st, pass the final examination, and register with the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism before you officially become an appraiser. According to the guide for the 21st training session starting in December 2026, the total cost for the training is 1,115,700 yen (the upper limit if there are no exemptions due to deemed credits).

Real Estate Notary registration also requires two years of practical experience or an equivalent training course (Article 18 of the Real Estate Brokerage Act). However, the fact that there is over a year of training and costs exceeding 1 million yen waiting after the exam is a clear difference from the Real Estate Notary license. If you decide based solely on the exam pass rate, you will overlook this one year and 1.11 million yen in your calculations.

When you open a business, the two licenses have opposite ways of earning money

This is where the romantic part of the story begins.

To open a real estate brokerage business, you must obtain a license and either deposit a business security deposit of 10 million yen for the head office or join a guarantee association and pay a share of the compensation business security deposit of 600,000 yen for the head office (Article 2-4 and Article 7 of the Real Estate Brokerage Act Enforcement Order). Association membership fees and annual dues are separate. Compensation is a success fee paid only after a sale or lease is concluded.

For the appraisal business, you must register as a real estate appraisal firm with the prefecture (or the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism if you have offices in two or more prefectures) and place at least one full-time appraiser in each office (Article 22 and Article 35 of the Act on Real Estate Appraisal). The fee for a new registration is, for example, 15,600 yen according to Aomori Prefecture’s guide. Compensation is paid for the work of valuation itself, regardless of whether a transaction is concluded.

The way money comes in is exactly the opposite.

Brokerage can be lucrative if a deal is closed, but it is zero until then. Appraisal is built up case by case, but there are situations where people want to ‘determine the price first’ before deciding whether to sell. Examples include inheritance division, renewal of land leases, evictions, and sales between a family-owned company and the company president as an individual. In such cases, a price is needed regardless of whether a sale is concluded.

The entry points for consultation also overlap. Consultations about what to do with a parent’s house usually start with ‘How much is it worth?’ and proceed to ‘What should I do if I sell it?’ The first half is the appraiser’s domain, and the second half is the real estate brokerage’s domain. If you only hold one, there will be times when you have to pass the conversation to another office. If you hold both, the same person can oversee it from start to finish. This is the form that excites me the most.

Even if you hold both, there is a line you must not cross

However, this does not mean you can ‘earn twice from one case’.

The Real Estate Appraisal Standards state in Chapter 1 of the General Provisions that ‘in principle, one should not accept a real estate appraisal if there is a risk of harming a fair appraisal, such as when there is a personal connection or a special interest.’ Chapter 8, Section 2 requires the involved appraiser and appraisal firm to clarify the existence and content of any interest in the subject property.

If you set the appraised value yourself for a property for which you are acting as a sales broker, from the perspective of the client or buyer, the party wanting to sell at a high price is the one determining the price. This is the first thing that would be questioned in the field of valuation, and given the intent of the standards, it is natural to consider that you will encounter situations where you cannot accept the assignment.

There is also the question of whether one person can serve as the ‘full-time’ professional for both in a single office. The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism’s ‘Interpretation and Operation of the Real Estate Brokerage Act’ states that when performing the duties of a land and house investigator or administrative scrivener in the same location, a person will not be recognized as a full-time real estate notary ‘unless it is recognized that they can serve full-time after considering the volume of work in other industries, etc.’ I did not find any description specifically naming the appraisal business, but it is possible that it would be viewed with the same line of thinking. This is an item to confirm with the licensing office before opening your business.

Ultimately, the strength of holding both is not about collecting two fees for the same property. It is about being able to handle the consultation from start to finish, while deciding in each situation whether to act as the ‘party providing the valuation’ or the ‘party facilitating the transaction.’ The more you are able to draw the line yourself, the better these two qualifications will mesh.

The results for the Real Estate Notary (Takken) exam will be announced on November 25th. If you are seriously considering becoming an appraiser, I would personally read just Chapter 1 of the General Provisions of the Real Estate Appraisal Standards in the meantime. Anyone can read it on the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism website, and it is only a few pages long. You will be able to see just how deeply the ‘basis for price,’ which you memorized as just one line in the Real Estate Brokerage Act, is explored.

I have summarized what an actual answer for the appraisal theory exam looks like separately, as it is quite long. If you want to start by memorizing, please check this out.