Housing in Japan – Renovation
Many houses built in Japan are only meant to last a single generation. It is quite common for people to tear down houses built only a few decades earlier to rebuild new houses on the spot or sell empty plots of land rather than try to find buyers for used homes. Often this is because the houses are not built well-enough to stand up to years of use, especially if owners don’t make great efforts to maintain them.
Recent years seem to have seen an increase in the number of renovated/renewed old homes being re-sold, and companies have been quick to point out the “Eco” qualities of such a practice . Here is a commercial airing on Japanese TV in which Sekisui House promotes “Ever-Loop” renovated homes:
The man in the commercial is telling the girl about how it is common to see lots of old buildings in Europe. This is because the owners take care of homes and keep them in a condition that can be passed on to new owners. The girl agrees, noting that it is just like the way fine musical instruments and works of art are treasured so that future owners and enjoy them.
After a narrator explains the amazing concept of re-using homes after renovating them , the girl says that we (the Japanese) should also start doing this kind of thing with old homes.
- Akihabara News – Gadgetry from Japan (Subscribe)
- dannychoo.com – Your portal to Japan (Subscribe)
- Kirainet.com – A geek in Japan (Subscribe)
| Related Posts: |
|
Housing Discrimination in Japan Miyako Inn Best Western in San Francisco’s Japantown to get a WACKY JAPANESE MAKEOVER ^_^ Proudly Advertising Narrow Housing Conditions |
Full RSS Feed
I have seen so many beautifulk buildings destroyed since I first came to Japan in 1982, it can be very depressing sometimes. On the flip, design disasters—and there are way too many—don’t last very long either!
I would like to send a message to the young lady:
Japan was FIREBOMBED and the houses were mostly made of WOOD.
Europe did go through horrific bombing as well, but most of the buildings in Europe were and are made of STONE.
It’s not that Japan wouldn’t re-use old homes or buildings that are still standing, Japan just doesn’t have that many from the very old days that are left for general use by the mass public as residences.
Not really relevant. For one thing, bombs did a lot of damage to European cities as well. But more to the point, not every part of every municipality was firebombed. Even in places that got it good, like Tokyo, there are still a surprising number of prewar buildings.
I’d love to see some of the homes in my area preserved, but I think most of them are probably already too far gone to save. I’m glad they keep up the small shrines and temples, at least, so there’s still something beautiful and distinctive to see in amongst the rows of grey boxes.
I’m glad to see a commercial like this, though I wonder how much more expensive it would be to renovate some of the older homes as opposed to just knocking them over and starting from scratch.
My home in the States is nearly 50 years old and still way better/higher quality than most new homes in Japan.
I think construction companies in Japan have been making “disposable houses” on purpose so that they have a constant construction cycle to go through. In a country so prone to earthquakes, though, you’d think higher-quality homes would be a priority.
Alex: I’d say they built low-quality homes so when earthquakes occur, it’d be cheaper to demolish and build anew than to fix.
to Yuyu: World War II was 60 years ago. Several generations of houses have passed since then, so your argument doesn’t make any sense. Furthermore, this situation is not imputable to the necessities of a developing country, since Japan has been considered as a developed country since the mid-seventies. For example, the massive destruction of traditional housing in Kyoto occurred from 1980, during the bubble years, when Japan was significantly more rich than it is today.
What are the reasons explaining this situation, unique in the world for a developed country?
1. Japanese governmental agencies have a financial interest in developing the construction sector (several times more developed than in any other country)
2. The absence of urban planning (see reason #1 and also because the bureaucracy is quite inefficient)
3. Japan is more or less a bureaucracy dictatorship. Contrary to popular belief, politicians in Japan don’t have much power facing bureaucrats, and the population (due to local culture and an educational system controlled by the bureaucracy which promotes a total obedience to the system) is unable to express itself for civic and public matters.
To sum-up, Japan is still a modern nation state, with modern objectives (industry, construction) while most other developed country moved to a post-modern system (services, tourism, knowledge economy).
Piglet,
I think YuYu was trying to simply explain the impression that the young lady had got in Europe, which was, that the the buildings in Europe are OLD, but are maintained enough that they could be passed on – without the young lady realizing that the reason why the buildings can be passed on even if they extremely old, is the fact that they are built from stone – so as to have solid enough structures that could be lived in. Whereas in Japan, yes, there are older buildings too, but mostly made of wood, and most of the time not good enough to be passed on safely for habitation. Many of the older shrines may be standing from a very long time ago, but they are also not good enough for habitation on a permanent basis.
“Japan is more or less a bureaucracy dictatorship. Contrary to popular belief, politicians in Japan don’t have much power facing bureaucrats, and the population (due to local culture and an educational system controlled by the bureaucracy which promotes a total obedience to the system) is unable to express itself for civic and public matters.”
I mostly agree with this part of your comment, Piglet, but I don’t agree that Japanese bureaucrats are inefficient.
One of the biggest differences between the financial situation between average people in Japan and other rich countries, is that when you buy a house in Japan, it’s value steadily declines, instead of increasing. Therefore Japanese people don’t see a house as an investment, and there is no market for pre-existing homes. The reason for this state of affairs is that you can not qualify for a low interest housing loan if you want to buy a house more than 5 years old.
Who do you think made that rule? Well, the bureaucrats of course. And why would they make such a rule? Well, to prevent ordinary Japanese from being able to retire on the equity that would naturally accrue on their homes if there were not such a rule. This is one way to force ordinary people to save. That the saving rate is high in Japan has nothing to do with culture and everything to do with economics–specifically the way the economy is run by the bureaucracy.
“One of the biggest differences between the financial situation between average people in Japan and other rich countries, is that when you buy a house in Japan, it’s value steadily declines, instead of increasing.”
We are living in the year 2009,right? Ever heard of sub-prime loans,Eric?Or drop on the price of real estates in UK and Spain?
Before 1992,the year bubble economy banged,the value of your real estate value had steadily increased and so had been for decades.That’s why people “saw” the house as an investment.
And on bureaucratic dictatorship.
My uncle used to be the head of urban planning for the Tokyo metropolitan government and I know that it takes whole decade to build one additional lane of 100 meter in the center of Tokyo.And you must heard about what Narita can’t open the new run ways even after 30 years of negotiations with the local land owners.
Bureaucratic dictatorship applies to places like China and Singapore.But not Japan.
More or less, the small-business owners (and the local land owners that you mentioned in your example) have great bargaining power in Japan to effect the larger companies and such.
“Bureaucratic dictatorship applies to places like China and Singapore.But not Japan.”
I see now, a “bureaucratic dictatorship” (not my phrase actually, but one I was qoting and said I “mostly” agreed with) sounds like a negative thing so would naturally not apply to Japan but only to foreign countries; especially countries like China or Singapore.
That’s interesting because it seems to me that China, Singapore and Japan have a lot in common. One common feature is wealth. In fact, even though most Americans haven’t noticed this, the three countries you’ve mentioned demonstrate more clearly than any others the power shift from The U.S. to Asia. Another common feature that these countries have is high savings rates. Those high savings rates are government policy, and one way in which they are achieved is through limiting the average persons access to affordable, spacious housing, thereby suppressing consumption.
Of course, America’s troubles are of its own making, and this shift is happening because these countries have managed their economies in a much more responsible manner, but still, not Chinese, nor Japanese, nor Singaporean citizens have much a voice in the way that their economies are managed, or the decisions that are obstensibly made on their behalves.
“I see now, a “bureaucratic dictatorship” (not my phrase actually, but one I was qoting and said I “mostly” agreed with) sounds like a negative thing so would naturally not apply to Japan but only to foreign countries; especially countries like China or Singapore”
Not only it sounds like a negative thing,but also doesn’t fit the Japanese situations.More than 90% of Singaporeans are living in the public apartments build and managed by the state.Which gives greater freedom to Singaporean government since they can remove these populations anytime they wish.
Chinese government restricts personal possession of estates to individuals and government can always confisticates any land they wish.They also have restriction of movement of rural population flowing to the big cities like Beijing and Shanghai to control urban population which is another huge option for the uraban planners in the government.
Japanese bureaucrats have no such dominant power as to call “dictatorship”.Chiba prefecture has been reclaiming some part of Tokyo bay has been insisting to sell lease it to the developers for more than 20 years,yet has been halted by the civic groups and green jleaning Governors like Takeshi Numata(whose brother is the chairman of the envieronmetalist group NACS-J）and his successor,Akiko Doumoto who happened to be the vice chairman of Intenational Union of Conservation of Nature.
Hey, it’s that homely girl from Yasuko to Kenji! She’s so unfortunate looking, but she’s so charming in dramas.
Renovating older homes is a great idea – ‘Eco’ issues are becoming more significant in the design philosophy of new and renovated housing.
If only there were official qualifications for getting an “Eco seal of approval”. Most of the crap being sold as “eco” these days is the exact same old crap with a new sticker on it.
This is one of the things that bugs me about houses in japan. Once, a very long time ago, Japanese made houses to last. These houses are now in such high demand that they are taken apart and relocated for a very high price. The “modern” home is made to last 50 years or less. I grew up in a 300 year old building that has seen earthquakes, fire, storms, etc… The shit here is a fucking joke.
You can LEAVE any time, dude.
If everyone left a place when they were a little bit dissatisfied with it, we’d be a world full of perpetual-migrants.
Besides, it’s perfectly possible to loathe one aspect of a country and like a whole lot of others. Japanese housing has got better in recent years, but anything built from 1945 to 1985 or even later is a pile of crap, basically, at least compared with how they used to build.
But we also should not kid ourselves too much about traditional Japanese houses. For the poor especially, these were not exactly the pristine wabi-sabi museum pieces we see today: small, cramped, and unhygenic. Living in a one-room tenement longhouse in a narrow dirt alley behind a shop in commercial Edo, sharing outhouses and wells, diseases like cholera were all too frequent. Plus contractors regularly cut corners in construction due to the landlords figuring that another fire would destroy them soon enough anyway.