Kichi means base.

The name

基地 Kichi is Japanese for base. Pronounced KEE-chee.

Every Japanese adult remembers building a himitsu kichi as a kid: a secret base in the park, under the stairs, in the gap behind the shed. The den where your real life happened. Ask anyone here about theirs and watch them smile.

A Kichi is that idea, grown up. Not a room you pass through on the way to somewhere else, but the house you live from: where the laundry dries while you work, where the market vegetables get cooked, where you come back to after the ferry, the surf, the temples. Guests already talk this way. "My base in Kansai." We just gave the base its proper name.

And when you tell a neighbour you've booked a kichi for a month, it lands as charming and starts a conversation. The name does its own marketing in the field.

Where the houses come from

Kichi is operated by Property Pilot Japan, a bilingual property consultancy that helps overseas owners buy and manage homes across Japan. Between tenants, well-kept houses sat empty: furnished, connected, cared for, and dark. A street away, travellers were paying hotel prices for a room smaller than the kitchen.

Kichi is the fix. Real houses, on real fixed-term leases, at monthly prices. The owner's house earns its keep, you get a front door of your own, and the neighbourhood gets a resident instead of a suitcase.

Property Pilot Japan was founded by Glen McAlevey, who still inspects the houses, sets them up, and reads every enquiry that comes in.

How we're different

Most monthly-stay platforms are marketplaces: thousands of listings, an inbox in another time zone, and nobody who has actually stood in the house. We are the opposite, and we intend to stay that way.

• Houses we know personally

  Every Kichi is inspected, set up and managed by us. If something needs fixing, we are the ones who arrange it, not a ticket queue.

• Bilingual, on the ground

  We speak fluent English and Japanese, and deal with owners, agents and neighbours directly.

• Licensed where it matters

  The house we own is leased directly by Property Pilot Japan. For partner-owned houses, leases are prepared and executed by licensed Japanese real-estate agents, including the statutory explanation required by law, with plain-English support throughout.

• Honest about the houses

  Many are older houses in ordinary neighbourhoods. That is the product, not a caveat. We describe them as they are, photograph them as they are, and say so when one isn't right for your plans.

Where we're going

One house at a time, on purpose. The portfolio grows across Kansai, the Boso coast and western Kyushu, only as fast as we can keep knowing every kitchen personally. We would rather run a few houses well than a hundred from a dashboard.

If a month in a Kichi turns into wanting a place of your own, and it happens more than you'd think, Property Pilot Japan's findhouse.jp lists thousands of Japanese homes for sale, with the same bilingual support behind it. Stay before you buy.

And if you own a Japanese house that sits empty: inherited, in-between, or simply unused, we'd like to hear from you. Write to [email protected] and tell us about the house.