Bargaining For a Home

Hi there, I'm in the process of buying a home in a medium-sized town in Yamanashi-ken. I put in an offer thought the agent, and waited for 10 days for the landlord to give the permission to go ahead (the built-up part is freehold, but the land is leasehold, so the sale has to clear the landlord first). Thereupon the agent presented my offer to the home seller. It has been four days since, but i have not heard from the agent yet. In a big city in the US, that would have been sufficient time to wrap up the deal already. Does anyone have experience in home bargaining in Japan outside of Tokyo? Do they always do things so slowly - takes days and days to turn around? I want to buy soon enough to do it up before the first snow. Should I press the agent a bit? Or is it bad manners to do that? Many thanks.

Wheels turn slowly in Japan. Give it more time. You don't have to press for an answer, but how long did they say it would take? If they didn't tell you, there's always a polite way of asking them how long you should expect, without sounding rude. I would also never count weekend days as part of the process, in case that's what you did.

thanks for the advice. will proceed.