Over 50 percent of people in Japan have considered living with or near their parents

Over 50 percent of people in Japan have considered living with or close to their parents — nearly double the share of parents who have had similar thoughts regarding their children — a private-sector survey has revealed.

According to the survey, which was focused on matters related to inheritance of parents’ homes and was conducted by Asahi Kasei Homes Corp., 51.1 percent of children had examined the possibility of living with their parents or in houses adjacent to their parents.

For parents, the share of those who have thought about living with their children and their families or having them reside nearby stood at only 28.7 percent. Many others, however, expressed a willingness to consider such arrangements if asked to do so by their children.

The survey also found that 71.2 percent of parents want to talk about the future of their homes with their children and that 63.2 percent of children hope to discuss what to do with their parents’ homes with their parents, as well as with brothers and sisters.

The results indicate that the issues of home inheritance, sale and remodeling attract a high degree of interest from both generations. But actually discussing such matters may not be easy, as is suggested by another survey that found the proportion of parents who had discussed the future of their homes with their children was fairly low, at 42.5 percent.

The Asahi Kasei Homes survey, conducted primarily in urban areas for three days from July 24, covered 600 parents in their 50s to 70s and 1,600 children in their 30s to 60s with families of their own.

Asahi Kasei said it carried out the survey against a backdrop of vacant homes becoming a key housing policy challenge in the country as the population declines and jobs concentrate in big cities. It cited an 2013 internal affairs ministry report showing the number of such homes had risen 1.8-fold to 8.2 million in 20 years.