A Sprawl of Ghost Homes in Aging Tokyo suburbs

choi

Jonathan Soble, A Sprawl of Ghost Homes in Aging Tokyo suburbs. New York Times, Aug 24, 2015 (front page).
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/2 ... -tokyo-suburbs.html

Quote:

"Despite a deeply rooted national aversion to waste, discarded homes are spreading * * * some eight million dwellings are now unoccupied, according to a government count. Nearly half of them have been forsaken completely * * *

"Once limited mostly to remote rural communities, it is now spreading through regional cities and the suburbs of major metropolises.

"The houses are a steal for the rare souls who will have them. But just one has been sold through the home bank so far, a 60-year-old single-story wooden home with a patch of garden that was listed for 660,000 yen, or $5,400. Places farther up the hill can be had for the equivalent of just a few hundred dollars.

"Japan’s population of 127 million is expected to drop by a million a year in the coming decades.

"The new national law, which came into effect in May * * * removed a perverse incentive that has contributed to the problem. A tax break introduced decades ago to encourage home construction sets property tax rates on vacant lots at six times the level of those on built-up land. That means that if an owner demolishes a home, the tax rate soars — a big reason many let even crumbling houses stand.  Now the government can revoke the preferential tax treatment for houses whose absentee owners are letting them fall apart.

"Hidetaka YONEYAMA 米山 秀隆, a housing specialist at the Fujitsu Research Institute 富士通総研 0based in Tokyo], a think tank, said that until recently, homes in Japan were built to last only about 30 years, when they were then expected to be torn down and rebuilt. Building quality is improving, but the market for secondhand homes remains tiny. Developers are still building more than 800,000 new homes and condominiums a year, despite the glut of vacancies.
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Note:
(a) Yokosuka 横須賀市 is a city, and Yokohama 横浜市 capital, of Kanagawa Prefecture 神奈川県, Tokyo's southern neighbor.
(b) Japanese surname
* Haneda  羽田
* Onishi  小西
* Utagawa  歌川

(c) “ 'Tokyo could end up being surrounded by Detroits,' said Tomohiko MAKINO 巻野 友彦, a real estate expert"

Note the plural form of Detroit, which is also plagued with empty and seedy houses.

(d) "There is even a sprawling art project, the Echigo-Tsumari Art Field, which has taken unoccupied buildings in a cluster of towns northwest of Tokyo and turned them into contemporary artworks. Visitors can spend the night in a 'Dream House' designed by the performance artist Marina Abramovic, with coffin-like beds and tinted lights designed to elicit dreams * * * the project’s founder, Fram Kitagawa 北川 フラム [ja.wikipedia.org: Fram is his real, birth name, which in Norwegian means 前進]"
(i) Echigo-Tsumari Art Field 大地の芸術祭 has an official website that says:
(A) in Japanese: 「大地の芸術祭 越後妻有アートトリエンナーレ」は、過疎高齢化の進む日本有数の豪雪地・越後妻有（新潟県十日町市、津南町）を舞台に、2000年から3年に1度開催されている世界最大級の国際芸術祭です。"

translation: "大地の芸術祭 Echigo-Tsumari Art Triennale" is staged in one of Japan's leading snowy place that also has depopulation 過疎 and aging in progress: Echigo-Tsumari 越後妻有([a region] composed 新潟県十日町市、津南町); held every three years [hence triennale] since 2000 and among the leargest international art festival.
(B) in simplified Chinese: "越后妻有是包括日本新潟县南部的十日町市和津南町在内的760 平方公里的土地，比东京23 区还要广阔，距离东京大约2 小时的车程，是日本少有的大雪地带。这里人口稀少，高龄化现象严重。
(ii) fram
https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/fram

(e) There is no need to read the rest of the report. I wonder whether owners in Japan have to pay for property tax, as in US.