If you have a dedicated telephone line, you probably receive calls from sales people pitching new condominiums or single-family homes in your area. The pitch always starts the same way: "Do you rent? Do you pay more than 100,000 yen a month? If you were paying that much a month for a mortgage, you could own your own home. Now you're just throwing your money away."

This sales strategy is based on an accepted good thing -- home ownership -- that is in turn dependent on a myth which says home ownership is a sound investment. In Japan, however, it isn't and never has been. Only land has any real value, and since the end of the bubble economy and the onset of deflation, land prices throughout the country have fallen.

Right now, the price of a new house or condominium is said to drop by 10-20 percent as soon as you move into it, and the value continues to drop more or less to zero over time, whether you carry out improvements or not. Japanese housing is not built to last, on purpose.