Tag - housing

 
 

HOUSING

Japan Times
WORLD / Politics
Nov 23, 2014
'White van' man tweet hits a nerve in class-obsessed Britain
Posting a picture on Twitter of a two-story house, displaying three English flags of St. George and a white tradesman's van outside, might seem innocuous to a foreign eye.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Oct 31, 2014
Homeowners resume debate on renewables
In September, Kyushu Electric Power announced it would stop buying energy from solar-power suppliers due to over-supply and a lack of transmission capacity, setting off a debate about Japan's dedication to renewable energy. While the decision to halt purchases of solar energy from any supplier whose...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Oct 7, 2014
Firms target share houses to boost business
Many companies are turning to shared housing as a place to promote products or offer services like job-hunting support.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Oct 3, 2014
Inheritance tax in Japan may not be the burden you imagined
With the government cutting corporate tax, it needs even more revenue to make up for its already alarming fiscal shortfall. So far the media has fixated on consumption tax, which tends to be more punishingly felt by the average person than any other sort of tax.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Sep 29, 2014
Billionaire Mikitani builds new Tokyo house as luxury prices gain
Billionaire Hiroshi Mikitani, Japan's fourth-richest man, is building a house in central Tokyo that is estimated to cost at least ¥2.3 billion, underscoring a shortage in the city's luxury housing market.
WORLD
Sep 17, 2014
San Francisco puts earthquake warning signs on buildings
The city of San Francisco stepped up the pressure on property owners who fail to comply with seismic retrofitting regulations this week, posting large red-and-white warning signs on the buildings to make the violations public.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Sep 5, 2014
Can Japan level its problem with vacant buildings?
On July 29, the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications released the results of its latest survey on Japanese housing, which it completed last fall and conducts every five years. The statistic that caught the media's attention was the one for akiya, or vacant homes. As of the end of October 2013,...
Japan Times
JAPAN
Aug 28, 2014
Hiroshima evacuees start moving into temporary housing
Residents of Hiroshima city who evacuated their homes after last week's deadly mudslides began moving into temporary housing on Thursday, with the municipal government scrambling to provide necessary support amid concern the relocation may be prolonged.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / LIFELINES
Aug 24, 2014
New buildings can take the sunshine out of life
As residents of Japan, most of us probably expect that our right to sunlight is protected by law. However, as reader Y found, that isn't really the case.
EDITORIALS
Aug 15, 2014
A glut of unoccupied houses
Roughly one in every seven houses throughout Japan is unoccupied, and the number keeps growing. Blame the graying of society, the depopulation of rural areas and the 'fixed-property' tax break.
Japan Times
BUSINESS / Markets
Aug 13, 2014
Homebuyers in Japan seen at risk on floating-rate loan rush
Homebuyers are piling into floating-rate mortgages, stirring debate over whether they are too complacent as Bank of Japan stimulus revives inflation.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Aug 1, 2014
Ticking the right tax boxes
In most places in the world, property taxes, which are levied on buildings and land, are administered and collected by local governments for the benefit of local governments. This is also true in Japan, but it's useful to keep in mind that property tax rules and regulations are determined by the central government.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Jul 4, 2014
When should we make noise about loud neighbors?
In August 1974, a 46-year-old man living on the fourth floor of a public apartment building in Hiratsuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, forced his way into the unit below him and killed two little girls and their mother. After attempting suicide he was arrested, and he told police he had been driven to murder...
WORLD
Jul 1, 2014
Whole town up for sale in South Dakota
Prospective buyers who want to be masters of their own domains could turn to southwestern South Dakota, where an entire town can be purchased for $399,000.
Japan Times
JAPAN
Jun 19, 2014
Fukushima evacuees seek end to limbo
Japan's economy may be picking up, but the outlook remains bleak for an often forgotten group of people: the roughly 150,000 evacuees from Fukushima Prefecture.
Japan Times
WORLD
Jun 11, 2014
U.S. pioneer living high life on retired jetliner
Deep in the woods and rolling hills outside Portland, Oregon, where orchards dot the landscape, a Boeing 727 sits at the top of a steep dirt driveway encircled by towering pines. For Bruce Campbell, it is home.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Jun 2, 2014
Generation gaps filled by brick and mortar
Though their numbers have dwindled in the developed world over the past century, multi-generation households are still common, and in fact may become even more common in countries where income gaps are increasing. In Japan, multi-generation households have social relevance owing to cultural norms, the...
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
May 5, 2014
Money that must go down the pan
In almost all of Japan's major cities, close to 100 percent of the population are connected to public sewerage systems, but the farther away from cities you get the more the number drops. Tokushima Prefecture is the lowest, at 16.3 percent.
Japan Times
BUSINESS
Apr 26, 2014
Chinese gobble up U.S. real estate
For the first time, the Chinese have become the biggest foreign buyers of apartments in Manhattan, real estate brokers estimate, taking the mantle from the Russians — whose activity has dropped off since the unrest in Ukraine and the imposition of sanctions against Russia by the United States.
Japan Times
COMMUNITY / How-tos / HOME TRUTHS
Mar 31, 2014
Japan's 30-year building shelf-life is not quite true
In the past decade or so, certain claims about Japan's housing market have come to be accepted as facts. One is that Japanese houses are only meant to last 30 years.

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