Standard of Living in Japan - Housing

Housing

Japanese homes, though generally newer, are often smaller than those in most other industrialized nations. Even though the percentage of residences with flush toilets jumped from 31.4% in 1973 to 65.8% in 1988, this figure was still far lower than in other industrialized states. In some primarily rural areas of Japan, it was still under 30% at that time. Even 9.7% of homes built between 1986 and 1988 did not have flush toilets.

The need for heating depends on the geographic location. Northern and central Japan can experience several meters of snow during the winter, while southern Japan hardly experiences freezing temperatures (but can get extremely uncomfortable without air conditioning in the summer).

In the metropolitan areas, houses are built extremely close to each other, with narrow straps of green doubling for a garden, if any. Apartment buildings with ten to twenty floors can be found even in suburbs. While lacking space, these houses offer all other amenities.

The cost of Japanese housing differs a lot between urban and rural areas. The asset price bubble of the 1980s inflated land prices in the metropolitan areas, but have stabilized since the early 1990s at about 50% of the peak. In the cities, housing is still expensive relative to annual income, even though the high cost is somewhat offset by low interest rates. Large companies often offer subsidies to their employees to pay for housing.