Shocking Admission Requirements at Ultra-Luxury Retirement Home Sakurabia Seijo Demand Dignity and Financial Means

Nonfiction writer Hironori Jinno’s “Reporto: Super Luxury Nursing Home for the Elderly” (Diamond Inc.), an in-depth report on “closed retirement homes,” is now on sale.

Previous article “[High-end sushi restaurants and even bank counters are available! In the previous article, “Sacravia Seijo, a luxury home for the elderly,” we discussed the unimaginably generous support provided to residents at Sacravia Seijo. What kind of people are eligible for this facility?

Report on Ultra-Luxury Nursing Homes is a book that has become a hot topic. We present an excerpt from this highly discussed work, partially edited for this article.

 

Fierce Competition for the More Expensive Rooms

It is not widely known that “Sakurabia Seijo,” a facility resembling a luxurious cruise ship, once nearly sank. The management had deteriorated.

The ones who extended a helping hand to this sinking ship were Secom and Mori Building. The two companies jointly invested to establish a new company, officially acquiring management rights from the condominium developer in 1996. Sakurabia Seijo made a fresh start. This was about five years after the bubble economy collapsed. It was also the year after the Long-Term Care Insurance Act was enacted. Matsudaira Kensuke (pseudonym), who serves as a director at the company that operates Sakurabia Seijo, says.

“I have been involved in the senior business for nearly 30 years. The reason places like Sakurabia Seijo can continue operating is because of the high upfront fees we collect from residents. For luxury retirement homes, the range is usually around 50 million yen. This type of business has a limited number of customers. Revenue comes from the number of rooms multiplied by the upfront fees and monthly charges, so the larger the scale, the better the profits. That’s why I often get asked, ‘Aren’t you planning to expand Sakurabia?'”

Indeed, in recent years, many retirement homes developed by major real estate companies have a scale of around 500 rooms. This is because the larger the scale, the more profitable it is, and those profits can be used to fund building repairs and operational costs, allowing the business to run smoothly.

On the flip side, having a small scale with high upfront fees means that any vacant room poses a significant management risk. For a facility like Sakurabia Seijo, where the average upfront fee is about 200 million yen, a vacant room could represent a high risk in terms of management.

“About ten residents pass away each year, so we currently have around ten rooms available.”

When I checked the website, it indeed indicated that as of the end of December 2023, rooms around 60 square meters were vacant. On the other hand, the spacious top-floor rooms and popular corner rooms were already fully occupied.