<story><title>Why Japan Is Crazy About Housing</title><url>http://www.archdaily.com/450212/why-japan-is-crazy-about-housing/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bcbrown</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m curious, what would that nook space be used for?</text></item><item><author>twelvechairs</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m an architect (of the building kind) who has worked across countries (though not Japan). I have to concur that one of the things which most frequently dictates what gets built is half-baked rules by mortgagers and financiers.&lt;p&gt;This article also conflates the &amp;#x27;average&amp;#x27; and the &amp;#x27;architecture&amp;#x27; (as seen on arch daily) which is very much atypical.Though even with the average there is a stronger actual interest in space than in the west (probably due to actual exposure of average people to different spaces). For instance, I remember looking at the website of a mass house-builder in Japan and the big item being advertised was a 1.5m (approx.) half-height &amp;#x27;nook&amp;#x27; space in your living room. This would never happen in the west (most people would think &amp;#x27;whatever would I use that for?&amp;#x27;.</text></item><item><author>kohsuke</author><text>A Japanese here. I think this article fell into the same trap that many other similar articles fell into. Namely, in trying to make the article interesting, it attributes more to the culture and psyche, ignoring more mandane logical reasons.&lt;p&gt;One of the primary reasons houses depreciate in value so rapidly in Japan is simply because that is the accounting rules. If you look at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www1.m-net.ne.jp/k-web/genkasyokyaku/genka-tatemono.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www1.m-net.ne.jp&amp;#x2F;k-web&amp;#x2F;genkasyokyaku&amp;#x2F;genka-tatemono.h...&lt;/a&gt; (and I hope Google Translate translates it well), you see that the typical wooden houses (the kinds you see in California, where I live) depreciate competely in just 20 years in the eyes of tax agency. This has real effect on mortgage.&lt;p&gt;The rules around the market are different, too. For example, in California most houses are sold and bought as-is. In Japan, the seller is on the hook for up to an year for problems that weren&amp;#x27;t discovered at the point of sale.&lt;p&gt;These differences depress the existing house market, and that is made up by the new house market, which in turn translates into a lot more new houses.&lt;p&gt;I find this report from Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism highly educational. It comes with lots of numbers: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mlit.go.jp/common/001002572.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.mlit.go.jp&amp;#x2F;common&amp;#x2F;001002572.pdf&lt;/a&gt; more</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>avdd_</author><text>&lt;a href=&quot;http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokonoma&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&amp;#x2F;wiki&amp;#x2F;Tokonoma&lt;/a&gt;</text></comment>
<story><title>Why Japan Is Crazy About Housing</title><url>http://www.archdaily.com/450212/why-japan-is-crazy-about-housing/</url></story><parent_chain><item><author>bcbrown</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m curious, what would that nook space be used for?</text></item><item><author>twelvechairs</author><text>I&amp;#x27;m an architect (of the building kind) who has worked across countries (though not Japan). I have to concur that one of the things which most frequently dictates what gets built is half-baked rules by mortgagers and financiers.&lt;p&gt;This article also conflates the &amp;#x27;average&amp;#x27; and the &amp;#x27;architecture&amp;#x27; (as seen on arch daily) which is very much atypical.Though even with the average there is a stronger actual interest in space than in the west (probably due to actual exposure of average people to different spaces). For instance, I remember looking at the website of a mass house-builder in Japan and the big item being advertised was a 1.5m (approx.) half-height &amp;#x27;nook&amp;#x27; space in your living room. This would never happen in the west (most people would think &amp;#x27;whatever would I use that for?&amp;#x27;.</text></item><item><author>kohsuke</author><text>A Japanese here. I think this article fell into the same trap that many other similar articles fell into. Namely, in trying to make the article interesting, it attributes more to the culture and psyche, ignoring more mandane logical reasons.&lt;p&gt;One of the primary reasons houses depreciate in value so rapidly in Japan is simply because that is the accounting rules. If you look at &lt;a href=&quot;http://www1.m-net.ne.jp/k-web/genkasyokyaku/genka-tatemono.htm&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www1.m-net.ne.jp&amp;#x2F;k-web&amp;#x2F;genkasyokyaku&amp;#x2F;genka-tatemono.h...&lt;/a&gt; (and I hope Google Translate translates it well), you see that the typical wooden houses (the kinds you see in California, where I live) depreciate competely in just 20 years in the eyes of tax agency. This has real effect on mortgage.&lt;p&gt;The rules around the market are different, too. For example, in California most houses are sold and bought as-is. In Japan, the seller is on the hook for up to an year for problems that weren&amp;#x27;t discovered at the point of sale.&lt;p&gt;These differences depress the existing house market, and that is made up by the new house market, which in turn translates into a lot more new houses.&lt;p&gt;I find this report from Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism highly educational. It comes with lots of numbers: &lt;a href=&quot;http://www.mlit.go.jp/common/001002572.pdf&quot; rel=&quot;nofollow&quot;&gt;http:&amp;#x2F;&amp;#x2F;www.mlit.go.jp&amp;#x2F;common&amp;#x2F;001002572.pdf&lt;/a&gt; more</text></item></parent_chain><comment><author>lovemenot</author><text>A shrine to a dead relative or a place for similar artefacts such as arranged cut flowers.</text></comment>