mytest
eBooks, Books, and more from ARUDOU Debito (click on icon):
UPDATES ON TWITTER: arudoudebito
DEBITO.ORG PODCASTS on iTunes, subscribe free
“LIKE” US on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/debitoorg
http://www.facebook.com/handbookimmigrants
https://www.facebook.com/JapaneseOnlyTheBook
https://www.facebook.com/BookInAppropriate
If you like what you read and discuss on Debito.org, please consider helping us stop hackers and defray maintenance costs with a little Paypal donation:
Thanks for your support!
Hi Blog. With some media outlets forecasting a rise in rents due to an alleged economic recovery Abenomics (somehow seeing rising fixed costs for businesses and people as a harbinger of something good), here’s an article stating that Japan’s depopulation (except in Tokyo, where any real opportunity for economic upward mobility is clustering) is probably going to render that moot. Japan’s housing (as you longer-termers probably know, it’s already pretty crappy and not built to last) is also depopulating, as this fascinating article from the Japan Times excerpted below demonstrates. Already more than 10% of all homes in Japan are vacant, and in less than a generation it will be nearly a quarter. And yet there are forecasts for rents (okay, office rents) to rise again. I smell another real estate bubble in the works, although media-driven instead of demand-pulled. Should be some bargains out there for those who can find the realtors and renters who aren’t “Japanese Only.”
I put this under “Fun Facts” because these stats are surprisingly insightful statements on the way things are, or will be, in Japanese society. Those of you more in the know about Japan’s property market (I’ll ask Terrie Lloyd and see if he’ll comment), please feel free to prognosticate. ARUDOU, Debito
///////////////////////////////////////////
NATIONAL
Land tax loophole ensures unused, dilapidated firetraps stay standing, till they fall
Abandoned homes a growing menace
BY TOMOKO OTAKE
THE JAPAN TIMES, JAN 7, 2014
As Japan’s population ages and shrinks, run-down, uninhabited properties like this are becoming more common. As of 2008, the most recent year for which statistics are available, there were 7.57 million vacant homes, or 13.1 percent of all houses in Japan, up from 3.94 million in 1988 and 5.76 million in 1998, according to the Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry. The rate is expected to rise to 23.7 percent in 2028.
While these figures include second homes and properties waiting to be rented out or sold, more than a third of the 7.57 million vacant homes in 2008 were categorized as properties left unattended by owners or whose owners have died and are not taken care of at all. Many of these properties are now causing problems in their communities, experts say. As the structures age, the risk of collapse and fire increases. Some have leaked wastewater, damaging neighboring properties. They are also a magnet for criminal behavior, such as arson.
Rest of the article at http://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2014/01/07/national/abandoned-homes-a-growing-menace/
20 comments on “Fun facts #18: More than 10% of all homes in Japan are vacant, will be nearly a quarter by 2028”
Hardly surprising when you see the extent of depopulation in Japan’s regions (only set to accelerate).
For example Yamagata Prefecture, when I first came to Japan in 2000 had a population of 1,244,147, according to wikipedia now has a population of 1,139,172. That has to mean a lot of empty houses somewhere.
Well, I don’t think they can count on immigration from Asia with antics like these: http://youtu.be/Ct1EBD1ywuw Is this guy for real? Makes my good ol’ buddy Blinky look like UN rep. Sadaka Ogata!
So..
“..In October 2010, Tokorozawa introduced the nation’s first ordinance specifically targeting vacant homes, in response to mounting calls from residents worried or angry about the problems they cause. The ordinance spells out the owners’ responsibility to properly manage their properties and allows the city to order them to improve the situation — and publicize their names if they don’t….”
rather than address the issue of crappy cheap nasty, yet hyperbolate the selling price despite crap quality, life-spans of just 20years, poor insulation, etc etc, they blame the owner.
The Govt./house makers continue to ‘print money for old rope’ with utter rubbish houses, then blame the owner for not looking after it. Somewhat diffuclt to look after a hosue that has no quality built in from the start.
But:
“..“There are many houses, not just vacant ones, but ones in which people still live, that have long been left to deteriorate to a degree that they pose a danger to other people,” he said,…”
it appears they recognise the problem, but as always fail to discuss the elephant in the room.
And if that is not enough
“…And even more fundamentally, people shouldn’t let unused properties remain idle, says Ueda of the Tokorozawa NPO….”
More control??…..ok Mr Tanaka, we (the bank) shall lend you the money for the cheap nasty crappy built house, that wont last more than 20years. And every winter you moan that it is too cold and every summer moan that it is too hot and wonder why after a few years things fall apart but you’re happy because you’ve paid stupid amounts of money for a “contract” that says “we(the house maker)” will fix it for you, for up to 20years, when in fact a simple screw driver will do…..but if you get fed up with the crap quality and do not invest into your property like the rest of the world (even Afghanistan house prices are rising) to improve it and update it (as a financial investment), you cannot leave the house unused. You must have some poor sucker living in the house when it is even further unfit for human habitation than when you first bough it.
Great solution!!!
The whole control issue from Govt laws (which are shocking) to the control and cartel of the house makers coupled with the extremely cheap crappy quality and the crazy tax system all related to the feudal days of land tax (because the Govt has no other intelligent means of generating money) is not to blame then!
BTW…if anyone is interested. When i bought my house, i wanted it made from brick..not allowed. Law says nothing over 1.50m high, earthquakes was the lame excuse. But it becomes clear why, it means quality it means the house will last (if designed and built properly; bricks/stones are used in many other earthquake zones with great success). If the house lasts the cartels no longer have the control..the control is with the owner as is the housing market price for second hand houses like the rest of the world, inc Afghanistan. I could go on…but it’ll take up unnecessary band width.
The report is not surprising at all….but as always fails to address the problems root cause. The fact that house makers are building brand new homes everywhere I look, and remain empty and wonder why (not just poor quality – although J’s don’t recognise this- but who is to buy them when the population is declining) is QED.
Slight tangent, but indirectly related:
“..Parents of mixed kids look abroad for high schools..”*
Interesting, but not unexpected comment:
“..“Our son has always been unafraid to speak his mind, so not a ‘typical’ Japanese,” Kazu says. “We didn’t want him changing his personality in order to fit in, so we looked for other options.”..”
*http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2014/02/02/general/parents-of-mixed-kids-look-abroad-for-high-schools/#.Uvl55s7HTLh
They need to change the tax situation on the property. Calculate the property tax based on the market value of the property (building and land) or just land.
I always think back to the depopulation issue when people say we don’t have the space for foreigners…
If the Japanese built cars like they build houses:
* You would have little choice between a lovingly restored T-model Ford, the latest Prius hybrid, or a rusted out 1978 Sunny.
* Changing a tyre would require a team of engineers.
* The heater/air conditioner would heat/cool only one seat at a time.
* Aerodynamics and space would be sacrificed at the expense of attempting very badly at looking like a classic car.
* The glove box would be an expensive optional extra.
Terrie Lloyd writes back:
I did indeed write about this phenomenon. In the industry they’re
simply called Akiya. Seems like the numbers vary somewhat though…
http://www.japaninc.com/tt565_vacant-houses-in-Japan
General Edition Sunday, May 16, 2010 Issue No. 565
+++ WHAT’S NEW
Now that Japan’s population is officially dropping and will
probably continue to do so for the foreseeable future, it
is easy to predict that from here on we will start to
experience a surplus of vacant housing. Actually, this
trend is already happening in the countryside areas all
over the nation, not just from people dying faster than
they are born, but also because of the ongoing trend of
urban migration.
Indeed, last year, Tokyo was one of the few cities to
continue recording an increase in population, adding 83,000
people. And if you include the surrounding bed towns, then
the migration trend is even more obvious. So just how many
vacant properties are there in Japan? According to the
Internal Affairs and Communications Ministry in 2008, there
were an amazing 4.127m unoccupied housing units, up 451,900
from 2003.
That’s a lot of unused homes.
Unoccupied homes, otherwise known as “akiya” in Japan
apparently account for about one in eight dwellings. We
could not find any definitive figures, but from our
experience, they fit broadly into three major categories:
1) The ancestral home, where all the kids have moved to
nearby cities and mom and pops are either in old age homes
or have already died of old age. These houses are
recognizable because they’re older style homes that are
being overrun by vines and vermin, and yet no one seems to
be making much effort to stop the rot. Most such homes
should be demolished, but since this costs more than the
place might be worth, the family legally leaves things as
they are. Many of these homes are beyond repair and
although officially registered are uninhabitable.
2) Next are the apartments and postage stamp size houses
in bed towns and the countryside where people have simply
upped and moved to the city and were unable to sell the
house. Often these places have tax liens against them, and
you can often see them coming up for sale in tax
foreclosures. Check out the site http://bit.sikkou.jp/. We
have a friend in Okayama who bought one of these houses and
she was telling us about a property consisting of a
recently built log house on 60 tsubo of land, that was
being sold by the local court for just JPY3MM. That would
have been about 50% of the replacement value of the house
alone. Of course, you’d have to want to live in the deep
countryside to wind up with such a bargain. The closer you
get to the major cities, the higher the bids by people
wanting to buy foreclosed property. You can track the bids
on the website. Quite interesting stuff. All in Japanese of
course.
3) Second homes owned by wealthy city dwellers who fell in
love with a town or countryside location, bought some
property and built a house, then forgot about it. The best
way to find these places is to drive around your favorite
location and go in and pester the local real estate agents.
Favorite places to find such homes include the Izu
Peninsular, Karuizawa, and in and around Mount Fuji. Now
that several foreign banks are willing to lend against
second homes, this is quite viable as an option. We’re told
the key to a bargain is to be persistent with the owner and
wait until they need the money badly enough. With the
economy sputtering along the way it is, you may not have to
wait that long.
You can find akiya all over the country, and particularly
out in the countryside. Trawling the internet has turned up
some quite interesting websites and blogs of foreigners who
have bought into local communities rather cheaply, by
acquiring a disused Japanese style house (“Minka”) and
fixing it up. Not all the experiences being posted are
positive, but they certainly point to the fact that in the
face of declining populations, many countryside towns would
welcome anyone, even foreigners, into the midst so long as
it means the rejuvenation of their community.
One reason why foreigners are a good fit to solve the
vacant housing problem is that they are more willing to
live in older properties and to perform their own
maintenance. Japanese have been educated over the last 50
years that housing older than 25 years old should be
demolished and rebuilt, leading people to really only want
to buy new places. This writer knows this firsthand, after
a relative bought a countryside property, built a
substantial Japanese-style post-and-beam house on the land
(and which will last another 50 to 100 years), but being
told by the bank several years ago that the house itself is
now considered to already have zero value….!
So with this in mind, we have been wondering if there isn’t
a business in gathering information about akiya, and
setting up some kind of buy-sell-rent exchange center,
where a property manager would handle the details but
owners could find tenants looking for a bargain. There is
in fact such a company doing this, and we met with them
last year, but they told us that the demand by Japanese
themselves for akiya is very low. As a result, although
they are the largest handler of akiya in the nation, they
only have 4,500 dwellings on their books.
Akiya might be in low demand with Japanese right now, but
if the polarization in the economy continues for much
longer, there will be an increasing number of people who
can’t be choosy. And then, of course there are the
foreigners. Our imagination quickly conjures up a program
of akiya communities in, say, Kyushu or Sado Island,
serving Chinese and students of other nationalities,
needing somewhere cheap to live while they study Japanese.
We don’t know if the locals would be too happy about it,
but we figure they will get over it as the rent money starts to
flow. 🙂
Or are property owners just too stubborn to want foreigners
in their midst?
The Japan Times ran an interesting article last week about
an organization called the Japan Property Management
Association, which called a seminar of 170 real estate
agents to discuss how to get more foreigners into the
vacant housing stock of the nation. Indeed, with
foreigners in Japan being the only increasing population
group, it is inevitable that they will be the renters of the
future.
The seminar basically dug up the same old stuff about the
majority (60% according to one survey) of all estate agents
being uncomfortable dealing with foreigners and not being
able to communicate. It appears that the Association is
making vigorous efforts to help overcome the language
barrier and has published guides in four foreign languages
for non-Japanese tenants, spelling out the rules of
tenancy. It is going to take a long while for old
prejudices to be broken down and certainly the problem
isn’t just non-Japanese speaking foreigners not knowing
which trash to throw out on which specific day.
In the end, we wonder if the language of cold hard cash
might not overcome that discomfit? This has certainly been
the experience of another moribund area that was
rejuvenated by foreigners moving in — we speak of
Nisseko. Sooner or later, the financial needs outweigh the
emotive ones: Maslow’s hierarchy of needs at work…
ENDS
Lloyd is being a bit disingenuous about the whole housing thing. He should know that Japanese houses are dreadfully constructed. Carrying out maintenance on a flimsy badly insulated rabbit hutch in the sticks will only get you so far, especially with the increasingly brutal winters. Plus you have punishingly high taxes payable to local authorities. These are very high out in the country: hundreds of dollars a moth and more, and they will rise as cash strapped authorities try to get money from dwindling numbers of rural dwellers. Transportation routes are dreadful, too, and will get worse as construction money stays in Tokyo. Basically, I think that foreigners are getting fooled into buying “bargain” houses that Japanese wouldn’t go near. Foreigners need to be aware that in the long run, these houses are a very bad and potentially dangerous investment. If you want to buy property, look elsewhere in Asia.IMO
I did see something in Nagano on certain websites where the akiya are an alternative to summer houses, and people could use them as hotels or just rent them out by the week.
Much cheaper than staying in normal hotels.
I could not do this, as I have two dogs and pets were not welcome.
“The whole control issue from Govt laws (which are shocking) to the control and cartel of the house makers coupled with the extremely cheap crappy quality and the crazy tax system all related to the feudal days of land tax”
Control indeed. Feudal indeed. Corporatism indeed- Government passes laws favoring big business but punishes or disallows small entrepreneurs.
Mussolini would have been a fan, as he was one of the first to install corporatism in modern times.
Alas, postwar rebranding of Japan fog people from seeing what this really is. It is not a free market. It is once again the obligations of the citizen to serve the state.
Lets just call it for what it is, which is a word beginning with F and ending in “ascism”.
Almost 3 years ago I moved to Japan to an apartment in the countryside. It seems to be holding up alright, but when I first arrived here, there were a couple of rice paddies behind the building. In the past half year they were demolished and paved to make way for two brand new houses(I had the joy of listening to them being constructed every morning). This is just ridiculous to me because the area around my apartment is littered with abandoned buildings that are not being put to use. What’s more, there’s a dirt lot not far from here and closer to the local grocer that would have been a perfect spot to build new houses rather than demolish rice paddies that were being put to use.
“Lloyd …. should know that Japanese houses are dreadfully constructed. Carrying out maintenance on a flimsy badly insulated rabbit hutch in the sticks will only get you so far, especially with the increasingly brutal winters.”
I get the impression that poor housing comes under the branding “traditional Japanese culture” and any “good” gaijin trying to “make a go” of it here will buckle under to some extent and try to “focus on the positive”.
Upon leaving Japan for a couple of weeks, one tends to view things from a “western” perspective, i.e. the housing is what it is, the emperor’s new clothes.
Sounds like realtors have made a gross miscalculation on demographic shifts in the last ten years. There are lot of housing construction going on in the Kanto Plain (i.e., Tokyo, Kanagawa, Chiba), since people keep coming in for various reasons such as education, jobs, family issues. The thing is not all of those are committed to stay in a long-term; many end up leaving within 3-5 years. Some of those end up drifting from one place to another in a year or two.
So, the city extends its area outside the downtown to build many apartments by tearing down local park or buy out an empty land spot for suburban sprawling.
It’s bad city planning, and waste of property tax that goes up in smoke.
@ Loverillakkuma #14
I think that the Japanese realty sector suffers from the same problem as most other Japanese businesses; they found a ‘winning formula’ way back in the 1060’s (or whenever), no latitude for innovation, self-appraisal and improvement, and have set the formula in stone, refusing to accept that outside factors have changed. As per usual, the Japanese consumer doesn’t understand that they wield the power in the dynamic of supply and demand.
@post 13:
Upon leaving Japan for a couple of weeks, one tends to view things from a “western” perspective, i.e. the housing is what it is, the emperor’s new clothes.
That’s spot on. It was only upon leaving Japan that I realised the amount of self delusion so many NJ partake in. I included myself in this for a long time. I suppose it’s a coping mechanism. Seriously, by almost any objective standard, life for NJ in Japan has been getting worse for years now at pretty much every level. Yet there are quite a few NJ whose reaction to their increasingly diminishing wages/precarious employment prospects and rights is to consider buying decrepit shacks in some of the most hostile and radioactive land in the “developed” world! And they think this is a great thing! People are going to have to start copping on soon, IMO
(NB: By “hostile” I mean environmentally hostile terrain. Mountainous areas with extreme weather conditions and suchlike.)
I`ve been recently looking at buying a used home (can`t afford a new one) but the ones that I`ve seen have been in such horrible condition. I can`t believe someone would let their dwelling just rot away. I thought it was just shameful to let your home fall to pieces. After checking numerous homes, and all being in the same condition, I don`t know what I should do. And after reading some of the comments I`m not sure if it`s worth it. Might have to find a way to buy property back home but 150000 won`t get you much in North America. Any ideas???
@ Colin # 16,
Two main factors dictate the reasle price of a house: the age of the house (which drops to zero after about 20 years) and its distance from a station.
As an example, when we were looking at buying a house, we were shown several properties of approximately equal price. One was a decrepid old building just above slum level but within 20 minutes walk of two stations. Another was about 20 minutes walk away from the nearest bus stop, and nearly an hours walk to the station, but was only a few years old and in immaculate condition.
Housing quality has improved somewhat in very recent years (think: use of space, insulation, soundproofing), and even the housing cartels are asking themselves why Japanese houses have the shortest lifespan in the developed world.
Not much help for those of us still paying off older houses, though!
@Colin:
Just so you don’t think I’m trolling, I’m basing my comments on personal experience. Me and my wife shopped around our area in Japan for a few years looking for houses. Many were cheap, but the other issues mentioned meant that we couldn’t justify buying property here.we no longer live in japan. However, I hope you get something decent. I’m sure there are exceptions, but as a general rule, I think buying property in Japan is a bad long term decision, aside from having a place to call your own. Philip Brasor who writes about property in the Japan times has a recent article basically arguing the same point. (Sorry, I can’t find a link at the moment).
I noticed increasingly Japanese and NJ are buying property in other parts of asia, so that might be worth looking into. Malaysia and Thailand spring to mind.
Hi Colin,
I continue to rent due to certain tax advantages, so you can take what I say with a grain of salt, but the real estate market in Japan (as with all real estate markets) is extremely location sensitive. It is really wrong to say that the real estate market in Japan, writ large, is bad. We continue to see cities attract residents while the countryside loses residents, with most major metropolitan areas in Japan seeing positive growth (think Tokyo, Sapporo, Sendai, Nagoya, Osaka, Hiroshima, Fukuoka). Given these demographic trends, I think you can expect the value of your real estate in these areas to be relatively stable for the foreseeable future. The problem, as you point out, is that the cost of admission in these markets is particularly high. For its part, the countryside also has limited potential, but it is mostly in resort’ish areas such as Karuizawa and Niseko where foreign investment is helping to drive the economics and pushing values up.
If you just want to own something (I understand the urge), then purchasing overseas as you suggest may also make sense. I’ve even seen more than a few foreign nationals acquire overseas houses just to take advantage of Japan’s accelerated depreciation schedule (wooden, of course).
In other words, I wouldn’t give up hope. Japan is relatively stable with (incredibly) strong ownership rights (as opposed to many other Asian nations) and it continues to attract foreign capital into its real estate sector. If I were you, I’d see what kind of rates I could get from my local bank (a big factor) and see if that could get me a place in or close to one of the big cities. I wouldn’t expect to hit an investment home run, mind you, but if you want a place to call your own, I think it would be a relatively safe choice.
On the slightly different topic of build quality, I think most of the complaints voiced here are fair, although I think we are seeing a particular improvement in new construction. As for yours truly, I live in a 1980s building that was fully renovated (and renovated well), with two unfortunate left-overs: single-pane windows that are only slightly effective and an ancient central HVAC, both of which play a large role in some obscene utility bills. Otherwise, though, I’m happy.
(Also, I think the Japan Times article that DeBourca kindly referenced is here: http://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2014/02/03/how-tos/the-housing-conundrum-to-own-or-not-to-own/.)