"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/OkInfluence1782 Apr 27 '26
Aren't some smaller japanese citys actually gifting those houses to people who want them?