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japan house

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Data shows that the average area of a single property in Japan is 94.13 m².
The average for Toyama, 151.37 m², is the largest, followed by Fukui and Akita.
Properties near the Japan Sea coast area have bigger areas than in other locations.
On the other hand, the average for Tokyo, 63.94 m², is the smallest,
while other big cities such as Osaka and Kanagawa also tend to have smaller areas.

These days we can see many very tall skyscraper apartment buildings and public apartments,
reflecting the lack of available land for housing. Nationally, on average,
about 52 percent of houses are purchased.
However, the proportion of purchased houses in the 23 districts of Tokyo is only about 24 percent. In Tokyo,
the number of purchased apartments is 19 percent, while the figure for rental apartments,
28 percent, is the highest in the country.
The national average for rented apartments as a proportion of all homes is about 13 percent,
so the rental rate in Tokyo has reached twice the national average.

The homeownership rate is increasing among people in their 30s,
and has reached more than 60 percent for those in their 40s.
Properties are very expensive in Japan but it seems that people still like to own their own home if they can.
Even though new apartments are increasing in number, people continue to enjoy traditional Japanese aesthetics
and there are many homes which still have at least one Japanese-style room.

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japan culture

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traditional Japanese houses

Most traditional Japanese houses are made of wood and have a Japanese style room,
which has tatami flooring.
The tokonoma, an alcove, is a space for decoration where people display Japanese drawings,
flowers and so on.
You can usually experience the Japanese aesthetic in this space.
Shoji, wooden framed sliding doors covered with Japanese paper,
produce the distinctive shadow and light of Japanese houses by making the sunlight
softer as it comes through the paper.
While concrete houses with wooden floors are also popular these days,
Japanese people still like to have at least one Japanese style room in their house.

Japan from a geographical point of view, has a lot of earthquakes,
so the brick houses often seen in Western countries are not suitable for Japan.
Even if you see what appears to be a brick house, it probably just has brick-like tiles on the walls.
Sliding doors used to be used for the entrance, but Western style doors are common now.
Also kawara, a traditional Japanese tile, used to be a common material,
but many houses have Western tiles or flat, accessible rooftop balconies these days.

Since Japan is an island country with rough terrain,
the areas suitable for living are overcrowded and there is a shortage of land.
As a result, land is very expensive and a house with a garden in the city
tends to be beyond most people’s reach.
Compared to houses in Western countries, which are made with stone and bricks
and so retain their value, wooden Japanese houses are said to have a useful life of only 30 years
and a depreciation period of about 15 years.
After a certain number of years wooden houses tend to lose value as an asset.
Many people say that we need to change the house valuation criteria to reflect this.

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Please let me know if you have any comments!
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