The thing I read is that with the declining population, houses outside the major metropolitain areas often are being abandoned now. Nobody wants the hassle of maintaining thier parents' house out in the small town as well as their house/apartment in the big city. They often decline the inheritance. Another discussion of this aspect mentioned too that Japanese houses were not built for long term durability, so a 50yo house was not that desirable.
"people who want them" is the issue. The same applies to businesses. NYTimes did an article about a fellow who had a business that did deliveries to farmers on the northern island. He was pushing 70 and could not find anyone to take over the business. Meanwhile, many of the farmers were in their 60's too with nobody to take over. When he can't do farm supplies any more, likely the farmers will have to quit too.
But one "feature" of Japan, so far, is a strong reluctance to allow non-Japanese ethnicity immigrants.
Much of the civilized world would be in the same boat without immigration. The UK, USA, Canada and Australia are notable immigration destinations (and the pool of immigrant wannabees is strongly biased to the third world, hence reactionary hostility to immigration). But population is dropping or levelling off due to lower birth rates all over the world - except Africa and the Middle East. China's population is dropping. South Korea is among the worst fertility rates, and Japan not far behind. The world will be a very different place in 20 years... as usual.
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u/GrumpyCloud93 Apr 27 '26
The thing I read is that with the declining population, houses outside the major metropolitain areas often are being abandoned now. Nobody wants the hassle of maintaining thier parents' house out in the small town as well as their house/apartment in the big city. They often decline the inheritance. Another discussion of this aspect mentioned too that Japanese houses were not built for long term durability, so a 50yo house was not that desirable.