This is all conjecture from your gut. We are watching what rent control does to a city like SF in real time -- it is a disaster. The only way out of it is to ra

This is all conjecture from your gut. We are watching what rent control does to a city like SF in real time -- it is a disaster. The only way out of it is to ramp up supply. To whatever degree Tokyo has priced anyone out, it is significantly less than the likes of most US cities because it does not purposefully retard investment with zoning and rent control. "People across the wealth spectrum" do NOT enjoy rent control. It gets gamed and abused. The bulk of SF is rent controlled, resulting in more and more people cramming into places that don't get maintained and they're not able to move out of when situations like their job changes. This is a disaster, nobody can move to be closer to work. Only a tiny amount of market rate housing is available for new residents which is disproportionately high because the rest of the market is severely under-priced. You will never stop everyone from getting priced out. That is just the nature of things, but you can save a lot more people that pain than we do now due to foolish policies like rent control and awful zoning.