Housing and Social Transition in Japan In the post-war period Japan has experienced radical social and economic transformations, asserting itself as the world’s second largest economy by 1968. Housing and construction have been at the heart of this revitalization, a key socio- economic policy, and a stabilizing factor during rapid modernization. Housing and Social Transition in Japan explores the nature of the Japanese housing system, focusing on how it has been embedded in wider structures of social and economic change. While Japan demonstrates many of the characteristics of western housing and social systems, including mass home ownership and consumption-based lifestyles, economic growth and modernization have been achieved in balance with indigenous social values and practices. This book presents a number of perspectives on the Japanese housing system, outlining a comprehensive account of its dynamic role during a period of unprecedented social and economic change. Leading Japan-based specialists address a range of topical issues, questioning prevailing assumptions formed in western societies concerning the role of housing and dwelling in processes of social change. This book generates an original consideration of the way housing structures and practices have contributed to the evolution of modern Japan and its twenty-fi rst century reorientation. As well as providing challenges and insights for the academic community at large, this book will also supply a good introduction to the study of Japan and its housing, economic, social and welfare systems generally. Yosuke Hirayama is Professor of Housing and Urban Studies at Kobe University in Japan. He is the author of several books on housing and urban transformations in Japanese, and has also published widely in international housing and urban research journals. He is a founding member of the Asia-Pacifi c Network for Housing Research. Richard Ronald is a Research Fellow at the Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and was formerly a Research Fellow at Kobe University in Japan. He is a former recipient of the Japan Foundation Doctoral Fellowship and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowship. Housing and society series Edited by Ray Forrest School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol This series aims to situate housing within its wider social, political and economic context at both national and international level; in doing so it will draw on the full range of social science disciplines and on mainstream debate on the nature of contemporary social change. The books are intended to appeal to an international academic audience as well as to practitioners and policymakers – to be theoretically informed and policy relevant. Housing and Social Transition in Japan Edited by Yosuke Hirayama and Richard Ronald Housing Transformations Shaping the space of 21st century living Bridget Franklin Housing and Social Policy Contemporary themes and critical perspectives Edited by Peter Somerville with Nigel Sprigings Housing and Social Change East–West perspectives Edited by Ray Forrest and James Lee Urban Poverty, Housing and Social Change in China Ya Ping Wang Gentrifi cation in a Global Context Edited by Rowland Atkinson and Gary Bridge Forthcoming: Sustainable Development A new perspective for housing analysis Rebecca Chiu Housing, Care and Inheritance Intergenerational transfer in Britain and Japan Misa Izuhara Housing and Social Transition in Japan Edited by Yosuke Hirayama and Richard Ronald I~ ~?io~!!;n~~~up LONDON AND NEW YORK First published 2007 by Routledge Published 2017 by Routledge 2 Park Square, Milton Park, Abingdon, Oxon OX14 4RN 711 Third Avenue, New York, NY 10017, USA Routledge is an imprint of the Taylor & Francis Group, an informa business Copyright © 2007 Yosuke Hirayama and Richard Ronald for selection and editorial matter; individual chapters, the contributors Typeset in Times and Frutiger by HWA Text and Data Management, Tunbridge Wells The Open Access version of this book, available at www.tandfebooks.com, has been made available under a Creative Commons Attribution-Non Commercial-No Derivatives 4.0 license. British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Housing and social transition in Japan / edited by Yosuke Hirayama and Richard Ronald. p. cm. – (Housing and society series) Includes bibliographical references and index. 1. Housing–Japan. 2. Housing policy–Japan. I. Hirayama, Yosuke II. Ronald, Richard. HD7367.A3H68 2007 333.33’80952–dc22 2006019796 ISBN13: 978–0–415–38361–5 (hbk) ISBN13: 978–0–415–65506–4 (pbk) Contents List of fi gures vi List of tables vii List of contributors viii Preface x 1 Introduction: does the housing system matter? 1 Yosuke Hirayama and Richard Ronald 2 Reshaping the housing system: home ownership as a catalyst for social transformation 15 Yosuke Hirayama 3 Transformations in housing construction and fi nance 47 Eiji Oizumi 4 Welfare regime theories and the Japanese housing system 73 Iwao Sato 5 Turning stock into cash fl ow: strategies using housing assets in an ageing society 94 Misa Izuhara 6 Housing, family and gender 114 Mieko Hinokidani 7 Social exclusion and homelessness 140 Masami Iwata 8 The Japanese home in transition: housing, consumption and modernization 165 Richard Ronald 9 Situating the Japanese housing system 193 Richard Ronald and Yosuke Hirayama Index 212 v Figures 2.1 Self ranking of social class in Japan 1958–2004 22 2.2 Nominal housing prices of homes with GHLC loans within a 70 km radius of Tokyo city 25 2.3 Capital loss on typical condominium unit of 70 square metres within a 70 km radius of Tokyo city 25 2.4 Outstanding mortgage debt as a percentage of GDP 27 2.5 Ratio of households with debts on residential property 27 2.6 Home ownership rate by age 29 2.7 Household moves and tenure change 32 2.8 Completions and projected completions of tower condominiums, Tokyo 35 2.9 Floor area, price per square metre and a price of a unit, Aoyama Park Tower 37 2.10 Price per square metre, by fl oor number of condominium units among the 22 case-study tower developments in Tokyo 37 3.1 Newly advanced housing loans 1989–2004 51 3.2 Housing construction starts 1968–2004 56 4.1 Company provision costs related to housing (monthly amount per employee) 83 4.2 Ratio of number of companies that reduced housing services 1997–2002 85 4.3 Construction of public housing 1995–2004 86 5.1 Value of assets per household by age group of household 99 6.1 Average fl oor space per dwelling by housing tenure 121 6.2 The share of households below minimum housing standard by number of household members 122 6.3 Ratios of employment of women between 1975 and 2000 in Japan 124 6.4 Distribution of housing tenure, lone-mother families, 2003 128 7.1 Welfare programmes for the homeless and the number of users in Tokyo 157 vi Tables 2.1 Housing tenure 19 2.2 Home ownership rate by age cohort between 1988 and 1993 30 3.1 Housing construction and ‘scrap and build’ ratio 57 3.2 Performance of major house-building companies as of March 2003 60 3.3 Differences in the composition of housing construction between the three metropolitan areas and the other local areas in 2004 63 3.4 Elimination and concentration of small house-builders 64 4.1 Comparison of housing tenure 77 4.2 Share of construction of social rental housing to total new housing construction 78 5.1 Estimated value of assets per household by age group of household head 99 6.1 Selected indicators of women’s socio-economic conditions in Japan and EU countries 125 6.2 Household by family type 127 7.1 Demographic characteristics of homelessness 146 7.2 Occupations and employment status prior to homelessness 147 7.3 Type of housing prior to homelessness 149 7.4 Demographic characteristics of homelessness by homeless type 150 7.5 Reported period of rough sleeping of shelter residents and street homeless in Tokyo 151 vii Contributors Mieko Hinokidani is Associate Professor at the Graduate School of Human Life Sciences at Osaka City University. She specialized in comparative housing policy studies and received her Ph.D. in housing and built environment studies at Osaka City University. She has worked in cross-disciplinary fi elds in France, Canada and Japan. Her recent articles deal with issues of housing vulnerability from the viewpoint of social exclusion, housing for the elderly, and managerial questions concerning public housing estates in Japan and France. She is a directorate committee member of the Association of Urban Housing Sciences in Japan. She also belonged to the commission of the academy at the City Planning Institute of Japan and the editorial committee on research transactions at the Architectural Institute of Japan. Yosuke Hirayama is Professor of Housing and Urban Studies at the Faculty of Human Development, Kobe University. He is a specialist in housing and urban change, home ownership and social inequalities, as well as comparative housing policy. His work has appeared in numerous Japanese and international academic journals. He has also received academic prizes from the City Planning Institute of Japan, the Architectural Institute of Japan and Tokyo Institute of Municipal Research. His current research focuses on the differentiation of housing pathways and the restructuring of the urban home ownership system. He is a founding member of the Asia-Pacifi c Network for Housing Research and chaired its 2005 international conference on Housing and Globalization. Masami Iwata is Professor of Social Welfare at Japan Women’s University in Tokyo and a member of the Social Security Council in the government ministry. She is the foremost researcher in the fi eld of poverty and social exclusion in Japan and has been awarded academic prizes by the Society for the Study of Social Policy and has also been awarded the Professor Fukutake Prize.