About YEN LOANS
A licensed Japanese lender, built for the cross-border borrower
Japan's domestic lending infrastructure is oriented around resident borrowers with local income documentation. YEN LOANS was established to serve the case it leaves out — borrowers whose financial profile is international, wherever they are currently based.
Why YEN LOANS exists
A gap that domestic lending was never built to close
Japan's mortgage market is oriented around a particular borrower: resident, employed locally, paid in yen, filing Japanese tax returns and banking with a Japanese institution. For that borrower the domestic system works well, and there is no reason to look elsewhere.
Anyone outside it tends to find that the obstacle is not affordability. A foreign national living overseas, or living in Japan without permanent residency, may have income and assets that comfortably support the loan — and still find that income earned abroad is difficult to evidence, and that the process assumes Japanese documentation throughout.
YEN LOANS was established specifically for that cross-border case. We hold a Japanese money lending license, we accept verified global income from borrowers in our eligible countries and regions, and we require no Japanese income, residency or bank account. Applications are handled in English, and can be completed entirely remotely.
What we do is deliberately narrow: a focused product, published pricing, and criteria stated plainly enough that you can tell early whether we can help — or whether we cannot.
What we are
Four things worth being precise about
Terms like “lender” and “finance provider” get used loosely in this market. This is what YEN LOANS is, exactly.
A licensed lender, not a broker
YEN LOANS K.K. is registered with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government under the Money Lending Business Act — the primary regulatory framework governing lending in Japan. We are the lender of record on every loan we offer. We do not introduce you to somebody else and take a fee for it.
A principal lender
We underwrite each case ourselves, make the credit decision ourselves, and retain the credit risk on the loans we offer. That is why we can assess a global income profile on its merits rather than against a domestic checklist.
Published, transparent terms
A yen first-mortgage product, priced at 1-month TIBOR + 3.50%, with every fee published before you apply. There are no undisclosed loadings.
Security registered the standard way
Every loan is secured by a first-priority mortgage lien registered by a licensed judicial scrivener (司法書士, shihō-shoshi) — the same legal mechanism used in any domestic Japanese property transaction. Nothing about the security structure is unusual because you are a foreign national.
Leadership
Mark T. Drabkin
Representative Director & CEO
Nineteen years in credit trading at Goldman Sachs across Tokyo, New York and Hong Kong, latterly as a managing director. Fluent in Japanese; B.A. in economics, Yale University.
Shinji Nakamura
Director & COO
Seventeen years at the Long-Term Credit Bank of Japan — now SBI Shinsei Bank — in corporate finance and M&A, then Cerberus, where he led investments including The Nippon Credit Bank (now Aozora Bank). Later the founding CEO in Japan of Sotheby’s International Realty. Law degree, Hitotsubashi University.
David J. Hinde
Chairman of the Board
More than thirty years as a managing director across real estate and finance, beginning at CBRE and Lendlease. In 2006 he founded the BC Invest Group, financing non-resident buyers of property in Australia and Europe. Degrees from RMIT and Monash, and a master’s in applied finance.
Track record
Loans we have made
A selection of recent financing cases, generalized for confidentiality. They are a fair picture of the borrowers we work with and the structures we use — from a ~¥30M investment purchase to a primary residence of over ¥500M.
The overseas investor
A Chinese national with no Japanese income, bank account or residency, financed two new-build investment apartments in Osaka on a five-year interest-only structure.
The resident buyer
A foreign national resident in Japan without permanent residency, with income sourced largely from overseas, financed a high-value central Tokyo apartment as a primary residence.
The equity release borrower
An owner released equity from a central Tokyo apartment that had appreciated substantially since purchase, refinancing the existing loan at settlement.
Regulation
Licensed in Tokyo, and making loans
Valid 12 October 2024 to 11 October 2027
Verify on the FSA registerThe industry’s self-regulatory body
View the member recordBoth public registers are in Japanese.
YEN LOANS K.K. was established in March 2024 and licensed as a money lender by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government in October 2024, under the Money Lending Business Act — the primary regulatory framework governing all lending activity in Japan. That license is what allows us to lend in our own name, rather than arrange finance through somebody else.
YEN LOANS lends as principal. We underwrite each loan, make the credit decision, and retain the credit risk ourselves.
Tokyo office · ARK Mori Bldg. 31F, 1-12-32 Akasaka, Minato-ku, Tokyo, Japan 107-6031
Email · inquiry@yenloans.com · Telephone · +81 (0)3-6230-5257
YEN LOANS K.K. is a money lender registered with the Tokyo Metropolitan Government under the Money Lending Business Act (MLBA), license Governor of Tokyo (1) No. 31998. All loans are full recourse to the borrower. Nothing on this page is an offer to lend or a promise of any commercial term; all lending is subject to underwriting, valuation and the criteria set out under eligibility. Effective annual rate (実質年率) within 14.6%, calculated on the principal net of fees; late-payment charge up to 20.0% p.a. Applications are subject to careful review and may be declined. Please check the terms of your agreement and borrow within your means. 慎重な審査の結果、お申込みの意に沿えない場合がございます。ご契約内容をご確認のうえ、ご利用は計画的に。 The approved Japanese disclosure is published in full under 貸付条件の表示.