Masako Tsubuku

For Masako Tsubuku's latest contributions to The Japan Times, see below:

Building your home can come at quite a cost

| Feb 4, 2013

Building your home can come at quite a cost

People in the market for new single-family houses usually don’t worry as much about the land those houses occupy because they tend to work with developers, who purchase huge tracts and then subdivide them. The customer buys the land and the house as a ...

Checking out the <em>real</em> estate agents

| Jan 1, 2013

Checking out the real estate agents

Several months ago we looked at a house that had been bought at auction by a housing company, fixed up and then put on the market. We found it among the listings on the home page of a realtor we’ve dealt with in the ...

<em>Danchi</em> housing lets you think outside the usual box

| Nov 6, 2012

Danchi housing lets you think outside the usual box

Japanese housing experts have a list of casual terms to describe the layouts of apartments and condominiums: kamaboko (fish paste), yokan-giri (sliced bean jelly), ta no ji (rice paddy ideograph) and chocolate bars. What these terms have in common is geometrical utility. All are ...

The size of your dog could depend on your landlord

| Aug 7, 2012

The size of your dog could depend on your landlord

A 53-year-old woman was recently arrested after she moved out of a 50-sq.-meter rental apartment in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, leaving behind 26 dogs. She hadn’t paid her rent for some time and went missing in early June. By the time someone entered her apartment ...

Dip into the history of the Japanese ‘system bath’

| Jul 3, 2012

Dip into the history of the Japanese ‘system bath’

Japanese people love their evening bath, but tubs in private residences are a relatively recent development. By 1963, only 60 percent of Japanese homes had them. The small amount of living space necessitated by economic reality, not to mention the paucity of indoor plumbing, ...