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Kill the landlord

Posted on by catforehead

Two days ago there was a huge fire in Yayoi-cho, Itabashi ward in western Tokyo. A large wooden yashiki (mansion, literally) burned to the ground. Two bodies were found on the premises, presumably belonging to the 74-year-old owner of the house and his 69-year-old wife. Though the bodies were burnt beyond recognition, police determined that both had been stabbed. They also found some 10,000-yen notes scattered about. The house stood on 3,000 square meters of land, which is huge for Tokyo, and the owner is one of the biggest landlords in that part of town. Read More

Vertical life

Posted on by catforehead

At present the tallest structure in Japan is Tokyo Tower. In Dec. 2011, a new broadcast tower, the Tokyo Sky Tree, will be completed near Oshiage station in Sumida Ward, thus becoming the tallest structure in Japan at 610 meters. Sumida Ward is the heart is “shitamachi,” the old working class residential district of Tokyo. Though much of eastern Tokyo was destroyed by firebombing raids during World War II, this particular area was spared, so it retains the cramped, maze-like character that makes shitamachi unique. Families have lived here for generations in very tight-knit communities, in mostly old wooden structures called “nagaya,” which literally means “long house.” The streets are so narrow in this part of town that they can’t even be called alleys, and if there’s a fire (and there often is), forget it. No fire trucks can get through. These neighborhoods predate anything approaching city planning, but because of the Sky Tree, a lot of people had to be talked into moving or selling their land. Read More

What’s in a name?

Posted on by catforehead

I live in a tall, publicly managed apartment building, and when I provide my address on forms or recite it over the phone I leave off the name of the building, because it’s long and unnecessary. However, some forms and interlocutors insist on building names, and in the case of verbal communication it can be a real pain–all those distinct katakana syllables standing in for Western words. The thing is, this naming insanity is getting worse and worse. Read More

Stress test

Posted on by catforehead

The other day, during a relatively lighthearted discussion on NHK about a heavy subject–the economic prospects for the current generation of 35-year-olds–a statistic dropped like a bomb. According to some government survey, 82% of all 35 year-olds in Japan makes ¥2 miiion or less a year. This number was cited in relation to marriage prospects, since most women these days are becoming more practical-minded about marriage partners. However, the government, not to mention the housing industry, should be very, very scared by this statistic. Read More

High anxiety

Posted on by catforehead

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Today is Children’s Day, a national holiday in Japan. To mark the occasion, the health and welfare ministry always releases statistics about the state of the country’s birthrate, which continues to be dire. As of Apr. 1, there were 17 million Japanese between the ages of 1 and 14 years, accounting for 13.4% of the total population. That is the lowest rate in the world for any country with a population of at least 30 million. One of the prime reasons Japanese people are not having children is the country’s housing situation, though it’s considered merely one of many reasons (women’s “position” in society tends to get the most notice). Japanese housing policies since the war have been intrinsically bad for kids, creating residences and neighborhoods that are expensive, cramped, and, most of all, dangerous in ways that you might not expect. Read More

Romancing the sponge

Posted on by catforehead

The atomization of society has inevitably led to more and more elderly people living alone and, consequently, dying alone, too. In 2006 in Tokyo, 357 old people died in public housing units without anyone knowing until days or even weeks after they passed. One of the biggest “danchi” (apartment house complexes) in Tokyo is the Toyama Danchi, located about 10 minutes from Takadanobaba station in the center of the city. This particular complex is for low-income people, which means a fair number of older people live there. At present, almost 52% of the residents are over 65. This is not accidental, however. It has been very carefully planned. Read More

The why of buy

Posted on by catforehead

The information magazine publisher Recruit just released the results of its annual condominium purchase survey, which sampled 2,431 respondents who bought condos in the Tokyo metropolitan area in 2008. The two largest age groups represented were 30-34 year olds and 35-39 year olds. The latter demographic was unchanged from 2007, but the former group, which are known in Japan as “post-boomer juniors,” increased by several percentage points, which makes sense since that’s a prime age to buy a first home. However, this figure will likely drop since fewer young people are securing stable employment these days. Read More

Silver linings

Posted on by catforehead

After it was revealed in 2005 that many structures built by Huser Construction used false earthquake-proofing data to save on building costs, the company agreed to rebuild the affected structures. Eleven condominiums were rebuilt with subsidies from the central government. Nine have so far been completed, and this month, residents of one of them, the Grand Stage Rivage (formerly the Grand Stage Sumiyoshi) in Koto Ward, Tokyo, will move in. It will be a bittersweet move, to say the least. Read More

Don’t be dense

Posted on by catforehead

The government’s disaster prevention commission recently came up with guidelines and measures that it said it would work on in response to major earthquakes that are projected to strike the Chubu and Kinki regions sometimes in the next 70 years. The commission estimated that if an earthquake the magnitude of the one that struck Kobe in 1995 (7.3 magnitude) happened in these two areas, about 42,000 people would die in the Kinki region and about 11,000 in the Chubu region. The Kobe earthquake–or, the Great Hanshin Earthquake, as it’s officially called–claimed 6,434 lives. Read More

Recession proved?

Posted on by catforehead

According to a leading real estate research organization, 40,166 new condominiums were put on sale in the Kanto region (Tokyo + the surrounding five prefectures) in 2008, which is about 30% less than the number put on sale in 2007. It was the first time in 16 years that the number of new condominiums dropped below 50,000 units. In addition, the portion of those actually sold was 64.1%, which is about 2.2 percentage points less than the contract rate in 2007. The analysis of this trend isn’t difficult to understand: the recession has put the bite not only on consumers’ buying habits, but also on developers’ ability to build new buildings. However, anyone who has been watching the condo market closely for the last ten years or so has to wonder if some other aspect isn’t being overlooked. Read More