Comments on: Do Rich/ Upper Class Japanese Have Vacation Homes On The Beach In The Philippines?

By: @wrestle

@wrestle — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:41:45 +0000

The Japanese people I see in the Philippines are the working-class Japanese. By local standards, they will be upper class. No, I haven’t seen any concentration of Japanese people in Philippine beaches. They live mostly in high-rise condominiums in Makati.
There are no “tourist towns” either. They tend to scatter themselves in different places. Although Baguio and Tagaytay, because of the generally cooler climate, attract a lot of them.

By: tz

tz — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:41:45 +0000

First of all, foreigners are not allowed to own land in the Philippines, so they’re pretty much restricted to condos. Even with my wife being a Filipina, I still have no legal rights to her properties. We had to get our kids dual citizenship just so they can inherit them. Rich Japanese probably wouldn’t vacation in the Philippines (they would go to Hawaii). This leaves Koreans and Chinese.
We have a timeshare in Clark and its full of vacationing eastern asians. There were some villas that were supposedly owned by Koreans, but I believe they were more “long-term leases”. Initially I thought the place was 30% Koreans, 10% Japanese, and 10% Chinese, and 5% other non-Filipinos. However, I visited the casinos and found large populations of Chinese so I would say the ratio is 25% korean, 20% chinese, 10% Japanese, and 5% other non Filipinos. I can differentiate the spoken languages as I speak mandarin, understand a few Chinese dialects,a little Japanese, and know what Korean sounds like.
I’m an American of Taiwanese decent, but I did pretend to be an American-Korean just so I could play a round of golf at the Korea Country Club. It was 90% Koreans there and was a real hidden gem of a golf course. They say it is open to the public now, but I still sense a certain level of discrimination.
I traveled the PI quite a bit and I haven’t seen a larger congregation of east Asians. There are direct flights from Seoul and Hong Kong into Clark Airport and most of those people stay in Clark. Korean, Chinese, and Japanese also dropped about half a billion dollars to develop the Clark zone so naturally there would be a high concentration.
No beaches. I met some Korean, Australian, and German ex-pats in Boracay, but no where near the population ratio as Clark. From an economic standpoint, there is no reason for a foreigner to “own” in the Philippines even if they could. That’s another discussion.

By: oneiloil

oneiloil — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:41:45 +0000

No. Main reason is no foreigners may own land in the Philippines. Now unless someone built townhouses or condos on the beach the chances are zero.

By: mark go

mark go — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:41:45 +0000

if there are those are probably DUMB rich/ upper class japanese. every body know that investing in anything at philippines dumb move.

By: Only

Only — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:41:45 +0000

Yes, I see Japanese and Koreans all the time at Boracay and Chinese and Koreans in Northern Philippines, but it’s hard to tell sometimes because alot of filipinos are light like chinese people.

By: ALing BaKekAng

ALing BaKekAng — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:41:45 +0000

i also heard that,…they also buy private islands in the arki-pe lago

By: miray200

miray200 — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:41:45 +0000

Just visit davao city and Go to PEARL FARM, its amazing…

By: I'dStill

I'dStill — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 17:41:45 +0000

I don’t think so