Tag - housing

 
 

HOUSING

Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Feb 6, 2016
The ups and downs of apartment elevators
In the 2014 American movie, "5 Flights Up," Morgan Freeman and Diane Keaton play an elderly couple who think about selling their two-bedroom Brooklyn apartment. Since they have lived in the unit all their married life, the decision is a difficult one, and the premise of the plot hinges on the reason...
JAPAN
Jan 13, 2016
Tilting-condo companies slapped with malpractice penalties
Contractors of a tilting condominium in Yokohama are given business suspension orders for malpractices, according to the land ministry.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Jan 2, 2016
Getting a high rise out of dodging taxes
About a year ago, we talked about using real estate purchases to lower inheritance and gift taxes. Obviously, people who are able to take advantage of these schemes are already well off — the average person doesn't have to worry about paying inheritance taxes when his or her parents die because...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / Issues / THE FOREIGN ELEMENT
Dec 16, 2015
Airbnb: Will Japan kill the golden goose?
Time will tell whether new legislation kills or culls the golden-egg-laying goose that Airbnb has become for hosts and travelers.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / YEN FOR LIVING
Dec 12, 2015
Investors see big returns as Airbnb takes off in Japan
While many see Airbnb as a possible fix for two seious problems in Japan — the shortage of hotel rooms and a steady increase in vacant buildings — others see an investment opportunity.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Dec 7, 2015
City land grab sowing seeds of China's next property boom
In the Chaoyang district of northeast Beijing, a nondescript wall covered in patriotic posters protects one of the city's most valuable treasures: a dirt field containing nothing but a few scattered trees.
COMMENTARY / Japan
Dec 6, 2015
It should be home sweet home, but not in Japan
The destructive nexus between construction companies, bureaucracy and politicians is largely responsible for Japan's glut of rapidly depreciating houses.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Dec 5, 2015
Aota-uri: 'green' condominiums to be wary of
Each year between 1990, when Japan's asset bubble burst, and the 2007 recession, about 200,000 new condominium units were added to Japan's housing stock. After 2007, the number dropped to about 100,000, but, depending on the year, anywhere from 50,000 to 70,000 of these units were built in the Tokyo...
JAPAN
Nov 30, 2015
70% of residents at tilting condo complex want entire site rebuilt
Nearly 70 percent of condo owners in the Yokohama complex with a tilting building want the entire site rebuilt, according to a survey conducted by the management association.
Japan Times
WORLD
Nov 23, 2015
The reason American landlords love to rent properties to refugees: reliability
One week a refugee family is fleeing the brutality of civil war and living in a shipping container near the Syrian border, and the next they might be moving into a furnished apartment in Cleveland.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 17, 2015
Japan piling probe to expand to entire industry as data falsification fears grow
The infrastructure ministry says it will expand its probe into data management for piling work to the entire industry, as fears of manipulation involving building foundation piles continue to grow.
Japan Times
ASIA PACIFIC
Nov 16, 2015
Philippines' Aquino pushes infrastructure projects as term in office ends
With seven months left in office, Philippine President Benigno Aquino III is taking measures to strengthen his infrastructure legacy and boost the resilience of one of Asia's fastest-growing economies.
JAPAN
Nov 13, 2015
Asahi Kasei piling scandal grows to at least 50 workers, 266 sites
The company at the center of Yokohama's tilting condominium reveals that over 50 employees falsified data on at least 266 piling projects over the past decade.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Nov 12, 2015
Prime contractor for tilting Yokohama condo makes first public apology
The vice president of Sumitomo Mitsui Construction, the prime contractor for the tilting condominium building in Yokohama, has apologized over the incident — the first such acknowledgment of regret by the company since the scandal broke mid-October.
BUSINESS / Companies
Nov 11, 2015
Sumitomo Mitsui Construction says it cannot estimate earnings impact of scandal
Sumitomo Mitsui Construction Co. said Wednesday it cannot estimate the impact on future earnings of a scandal that began with falsified data for pilings of a now-tilting condominium building.
EDITORIALS
Nov 11, 2015
Piling scandal needs deep probe
The probe into the piling data scandal mustn't end with individual companies and workers; instead it should dig deep into the very foundation of the construction industry and get at the real root of the problem.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Oct 31, 2015
Not-so-friendly neighborhood associations
When the U.S. military took charge following Japan's surrender in 1945, one of the first things it did was ban jichikai, or community associations. The thinking was that these organizations had carried out the work of the military government at the neighborhood level and their continued existence might...
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 22, 2015
Kuroda effect seen as homebuyers choose fixed-rate mortgages
Homebuyers are starting to bet that the unprecedented monetary easing of Bank of Japan Gov. Haruhiko Kuroda will cause interest rates to rise, even as inflation stagnates well below the official 2 percent inflation target.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 20, 2015
Reaching consensus among residents will be difficult at tilting Yokohama condo
Even though Mitsui Fudosan Residential, the seller of the condominium building in Yokohama that is tilting due to substandard construction, has offered to demolish and rebuild all four structures in the complex, residents may struggle to reach a consensus.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Oct 10, 2015
Rich Chinese facing backlash over property prices in Vancouver, North America's costliest city
James Hankle, a software engineer in his 50s who was sporting blue jeans and a Green Party T-shirt, was trying to explain to a reporter his fix for Vancouver's runaway property prices when he was interrupted by an eavesdropping passerby: "Stop allowing people from China to buy our houses and leave them...

Longform

Things may look perfect to the outside world, but today's mom is fine with some imperfection at home.
How 'Reiwa moms' are reshaping motherhood in Japan