Year: 2019
Type: article
Abstract: In Japan, the aging rate is expected to increase up to 33.4% and the rate of one-person households up to 37.2% in 2035. Since it is deemed that the current social system cannot afford such circumstances, interest is growing on local communities and resident welfare activities, both from local and political points of view. Local interest is also growing on the utilization of increasing vacant houses. According to the Housing and Land Survey 2013, the total number of vacant houses in Japan is 8.2 million which accounts for 13.5% of total houses in Japan. Among the vacant houses, besides holiday houses and houses for rent or sale, the rate of “other houses” including the problematic vacant houses is rapidly increasing from 32.1% in 2003 to 35.4% in 2008 and to 38.8% in 2013. Many are individually owned houses inherited from deceased parents to children who already owns their houses and left unsold or unoccupied due to the owners’ affection to their family homes or to matters of demolition costs. Therefore, such owners are assumed to hold the vacant houses until any compelling reasons occur to sell them.
DOI: 10.3130/aija.84.839
Language: English
Subfield: Urban Studies
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: bronze
OpenAlex ID: W2942583405