Zoning, building codes, and land use / value capture are all policies from which your observations stem. Housing itself is never the investment. It’s the land

Zoning, building codes, and land use / value capture are all policies from which your observations stem. Housing itself is never the investment. It’s the land upon which the home sits, and I’d be willing to bet that land in Tokyo is expensive (though not as much as the infamous bubble highs) and probably increasingly so with improving amenities.