I’d like to ask Aya, one of the female members.

It’s a hassle. The allowance must be paid in cash.

Thank you for your question. The purchase agreement with the seller has only just been completed, and the loan agreement is still to come. Also, at my papa’s request, extensive renovations are still needed, so I won’t be moving in for a little while. However, the apartment is in my name. As my papa put it, “Otherwise, there’d be no point.” I hope that someday you’ll also change the title and transfer the asset to the woman. I’ve heard that Minomonta also gave a luxury condo worth hundreds of millions of yen to his former Ginza hostess mistress as a thank-you for their long relationship. The taxes would be terrifyingly high, but I think someone who can afford that could reasonably do the same. As others have mentioned, please consult a tax accountant about how to purchase a property in your own name. These days, obtaining accurate information requires a certain amount of money or effort. I don’t think it’s good for you to place too much trust in information that can be obtained easily and for free on a site like this. Besides, every couple’s circumstances are different, so my situation may not be something you can replicate. And if I were a bad person, I could simply be lying, couldn’t I? There are all kinds of scams going around these days, so please be careful. I’m sorry I couldn’t be of more help. As a hint, this was the result of my papa carefully thinking through “how to legally purchase it while keeping it strictly in my name.” I hope you’ll be able to transfer the apartment to the woman soon, for her sake.

There’s no real financial rationality in buying a condo worth around ¥100 million for a woman who isn’t even a relative, so whether that amount becomes ¥200 million or not seems beside the point. I guess this is what people mean when they say someone’s sense of money is “bugged.” It’s quite something to be so stingy that you end up losing out or putting yourself through unnecessary trouble, then go to the point of saying you’ll buy her a condo—so extravagant yet so penny-pinching that ordinary people can’t make sense of it—only to put it in your own name and lie about it in the end. It must be exhausting. You probably couldn’t do something like this without being seriously out of whack in several ways, so in a sense, I respect it. Whether it’s ¥1 million or ¥2 million, if you put the question to a trusted professional you already work with, such as your tax accountant, I’m sure you’d get a proper answer.

You’ve come to completely the wrong place for advice. Please hire a professional. What bothers me is that you’re trying to get advice casually and for free. Was that supposed to be some kind of harsh joke? If I were to take this on, I’d charge a 2% fee based on the property price. Sorry for being so unscrupulous, darling. (I’m including all incidental costs, so I consider it quite reasonable.)