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This scrap-and-build approach is a quirk of the Japanese housing market that can be explained variously by low-quality construction to quickly meet demand after
by tpmx 5y ago
This scrap-and-build approach is a quirk of the Japanese housing market that can be explained variously by low-quality construction to quickly meet demand after the second world war, repeated building code revisions to improve earthquake resilience and a cycle of poor maintenance due to the lack of any incentive to make homes marketable for resale.
- masklinn 5y agoAlso high summer humidity which basically gives the choice between extensive maintenance requirements (which requires that the house was built to allow for it) or… just tearing down the house before it's gotten to rot. I also expect the situation is different in Hokkaido: it's drier with lots of winter precipitation (spring is the driest season in sapporo versus winter for tokyo), and the more extreme winter weather probably leads to higher quality construction (for instance central heating and extensive insulation is common in hokkaido while it's quite rare on honshu which tends to go by "tactical heating" and quite drafty houses).