> Also similar to American houses, they now are all built around wooden frames. That's cheap and easy (the frames are made in a factory and just screwed togethe

> Also similar to American houses, they now are all built around wooden frames. That's cheap and easy (the frames are made in a factory and just screwed together on site), but in a wet and windy island it's a very bad idea. Any significant roofing leak which isn't fixed immediately will destroy the house, and helpfully these wooden framed houses are dressed in fake brick and plastic cladding which cover up evidence of leaks. Nearly every one of these criticisms is a desirable feature of traditional Japanese architecture. Houses are assembled from standardized materials produced off-site and fitted together without nails (wood joinery). Many interior walls and some exterior walls are literally made of paper, in sliding wooden frames (exterior shoji almost always have sliding wooden covers that are deployed at night). Special attention is paid to the thatched or tiled roof. Japan is a very wet place. In summer there are typhoons at least every week and it's miserably hot and humid. Traditional houses are perfectly adapted for this: when you need to you can slide open most of the walls and take advantage of every breeze. I believe that most of the wood is cedar, which is resistant to rot, and most of the structure is left visible (i.e. no plaster) so any problems are readily apparent. Houses seem less adapted to winter, but people adapt by using deep baths, kotatsu, and quilted clothing to heat their bodies rather than the entire inside of the house. Earthquakes are pretty common in Japan, one of the reason lighter materials are used. Traditional buildings are typically built on stone foundations. Structural posts are fitted with stone "feet" that are free to slide around on the foundation during earthquakes. Japanese don't value permanence in architecture the way Europeans do -- even the Ise Jungu (shrine), a national monument, is rebuilt every N years -- yet in the area I lived (Nara prefecture) there were many traditional houses over a hundred years old. There is at least one wooden building at Horyuji (temple) that is ~1200 years old. [Thanks to Dr. Lloyd Fulton for that class in traditional Japanese architecture at Waseda U. Miss you, sensei.]