The article's thesis is contradicted by the evidence cited by the article itself: Japan's cities are not "affordable" to the people who live there. Arguing tha

The article's thesis is contradicted by the evidence cited by the article itself: Japan's cities are not "affordable" to the people who live there. Arguing that Japanese cities are "more affordable" than other, less-affordable cities is a truism; by definition, every city that is less expensive than another city is doing something that makes it cheaper. This fact alone provides no useful information. But some people really want to believe that Japan's building habits are the answer, and not, say, their 30-year recession, or sprawl, or any of dozens of other factors. Perhaps "buried the lede" is not the right phrase for this kind of thing, but it's still nonsense.