Foreign residents can now receive a Japanese old-age pension if they have paid in for a total of at least 10 years, rather than 25 years, as was the case.

The fire that killed at least 80 people in London's Grenfell Tower in June, as well as similar apartment building blazes that recently occured in Dubai and Hawaii, has brought the world's attention to the issue of safety in high-rise residences. Grenfell Tower was relatively ...

As everyone knows, Japan has an unmanageable surplus of vacant housing. According to the latest government surveys there are more than 8 million unoccupied houses and apartment units in Japan and that number will increase to the point where one in four or five ...

A reader writes to Lifelines about Japan's recently introduced inheritance tax law, which he calls "one of the most punitive in the world."

A reader writes in about the possibility of coming to Japan as a house sitter.

If the U.S. had Ann Landers and Dear Abby, and Britain had Marge Proops, then Japan had Jean Pearce — someone who transcended the title of "columnist" and became a media icon for generations of readers.

Until the postwar growth period, the majority of Japanese rented rather than owned the places where they lived, but renters in Japan have never had much in the way of rights. Still, it is difficult to evict someone from a home they rent, even ...

This week's topic comes courtesy of M.J., who contacted Lifelines after her uncomfortable experience at a Tokyo hotel with her family.

A reader wrote to Lifelines recently about the subject of dividing property upon divorce.

In the 1990s when we rented an old house in Saitama Prefecture, we needed a parking space since we had a car at the time. There was none on the property and so we talked the landlord into tearing down a decrepit prefabricated storage ...