Tokyo, for many of its inhabitants, is a faceless concrete jungle lacking any sense of community, unlike the days when close-knit row-house neighborhoods were the norm before the capital exploded into a soaring, postwar urban sprawl.

But in Arakawa Ward, in one of Tokyo's countless nondescript high-rises, an experiment is afoot by a select group of people endeavoring to regain, on two of the building's 12 floors, a sense of community lost.

For the experiment to work at Kankan Mori, as the two floors are known, however, all of the residents know they must pitch in and share with the chores.

On a recent afternoon in Kankan Mori's communal kitchen, women chatted around an industrial-use oven as they prepared dinner for 20.

"Are the potatoes in the oven still hard?" asked Hiroko Kimura, who is on the day's cooking shift.

"They can use another 10 minutes," replied Hatsuko Hiraga, another resident, as she checked vegetables in a large pan.

The thrice weekly "common meal" at Kankan Mori is a typical scene, as residents dine together and take turns cooking. After the 7 p.m. meal is served in a large dining room, many of the residents lingered on to continue chatting.

Residents of the "collective house" share chores, such as cooking in and cleaning common rooms, while maintaining their own private apartments.

Communal living is nothing new, but the collective house concept, which traces its roots to Sweden, has been attracting the attention of people seeking a sense of community, something that is becoming increasingly rare as society becomes more individual-oriented.

Kazuo Hayakawa, a professor at Nagasaki Institute of Applied Science who specializes in welfare housing, said Hyogo Prefecture introduced semicollective housing as one type of government-funded residence in the aftermath of the 1995 Great Hanshin Earthquake.

The Kobe Municipal and Hyogo Prefectural governments created such public housing, complete with common rooms, especially for elderly quake survivors, but sharing chores was not a requirement, Hayakawa said.

According to Ikuko Koyabe, a professor at Japan Women's University and a housing expert, Kankan Mori is Japan's first true collective house.

Professional women in Sweden started up collective houses in the 1970s, seeking to cooperate with chores, reduce the burden of the daily routine, promote sexual equality and create a home where parents and children live comfortably, Koyabe said.

Local governments originally built such housing as public projects, and they gradually came into their own as one more dwelling option, she added.

Kankan Mori was jointly launched by a firm that manages homes and services for the elderly, and the nonprofit organization Collective Housing Co., which Koyabe heads.

Since June, Kankan Mori has boasted 22 households, taking up the second and third floors.

The rest of the 12-story building houses elderly people and facilities for the aged.

Kankan Mori's roughly 30 residents range in age from 3 to 78 and include singles, couples and one family.

Mariko Miyamae of Collective Housing said the group worked to find potential residents and coordinated meetings where residents discussed designs for the common spaces, house rules and how to share chores.

By actively participating in Kankan Mori's management, residents can save money and time and still have their own space, she explained.

Kimura, who lives alone in a rented apartment, acknowledged that it takes time for the residents' union, which manages Kankan Mori's communal life, to lay down the rules.

But she enjoys the process and the fact that she can decide how much interaction she has with her neighbors.

"When I want to be alone, I can (stay in my apartment)," Kimura said.

"But if not, I go to the common room and have dinner with the other residents. It's fun."

Koji Kinoshita, who lives with his wife and 3-year-old son in one of the apartments, said he is attracted by the solidarity brought about through the sharing of chores. Life in the collective house also has advantages in raising children, he added.

"Neighbors play with my son, and sometimes I leave him in their care," he said. "It reduces the stress of child-rearing."

Although the Kankan Mori-style collective house may be new to Japan, housing in which people formed a