The house stood out among its neighbors: not because of its box shape or the tall ham-radio tower planted in the parking space, but because of its bold two-tone exterior of wine red interrupted by sections of gray. The company that built it keeps costs down by not erecting model homes, so the salesman brought us to the recently finished building in central Chiba Prefecture, which was already occupied. The young couple were happy to show off their new purchase, and while the all-wood interior was the construction's main selling point, it was the outside that made the biggest impression. Looking closer, we discovered it was corrugated metal.

"It's called galvanium," the salesman told us. It felt like plastic thanks to the coating, which he said was similar to the finish of an automobile, but it reminded us more of lacquer. He said it was inexpensive but long-lasting. Even the roof was made of galvanium. It would never rust, he explained, nor would it need re-coating.

It sounded too good to be true, and maybe it was. We later called a carpenter and asked him about galvanium — galvanized aluminum-zinc alloy used as siding, a surfacing material for outside walls — and he said it was "cost-effective, but cheap is cheap."