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They don't, house prices in Tokyo are anything but affordable. "The price of new apartments in Tokyo toppled a 30-year-old record in 2021 as rising demand from

They don't, house prices in Tokyo are anything but affordable. "The price of new apartments in Tokyo toppled a 30-year-old record in 2021 as rising demand from dual-income households and increasing construction costs boosted the Japanese capital’s once-moribund housing market." https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-25/apartment-prices-in-tokyo-are-set-to-exceed-bubble-era-high https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-01-25/apartment... "Tokyo is one of the most expensive cities in the world, so there is no doubt that Tokyo house prices are also very costly." https://questionjapan.com/blog/location-guides/tokyo-house-prices/ https://questionjapan.com/blog/location-guides/tokyo-house-p...

midoridensha 4y ago
This is basically BS; housing in Tokyo is only expensive from an American point-of-view because Americans only look at $/square foot, and don't realize not everyone wants or needs a palatial home. 25m^2 apartments are very common in Tokyo and generally affordable by normal people, but such a compact place would probably be downright illegal in America because of housing codes. Try getting a nice, safe, comfortable, and modern apartment in NYC on USD$1000/month; I don't think it's possible. In Tokyo, it's common. Also, Tokyo being one of the most expensive cities to live in is a myth, so any source that makes that claim is, to me, immediately disqualified as having truthful information. Going out to eat here costs a fraction of what it does almost anywhere in the US.
- NhanH 4y ago
  25m^2 is way way too small for a comfortable life though. For single, you want around 50-60 m2 and 80m2 for a family of 3.
  - innocenat 4y ago
    Strongly disagree as someone who live in 20m^2 for the past 5 years. Public space like parks and the walkability of the neighborhood are very important factor for comfortable living in small space. Both of which Japan do very well.
    - fakethenews2022 4y ago
      I visited Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hiroshima. I found Tokyo unpleasant. There is very little greenery and many of the so called rivers are actually lined in concrete. Commercial districts are packed with people. Hiroshima was much more pleasant. There are walking paths, greenery, and even restaurants along the river. Kyoto was closer to Hiroshima, with areas with wide set back streets, not to mention forests. There are a few parks in Tokyo but I had to travel to them but also pay to enter them! The unspoken trade off people who advocate for dense urban development fail to mention is the elimination of private green spaces for most people.
      - bryanlarsen 4y ago
        When I lived in Tokyo I'd alternate weekends. One weekend was spent in an urban area and the next was spent in the mountains, which are incredibly accessible from downtown as they're on the city transit network -- no need to take an inter-city. Best of both worlds in many ways.
  - prmoustache 4y ago
    I have 85m2 for a family of 4 and we are kind of privileged here. as many people have one generation more living under the same roof and less space. We have one bedroom, a kitchen that also serve as dining room, I have a separate office, living room, bedroom, my 2 daughters share the same room (by choice, the "office" used to be destined to be one of my daughter's bedroom). We could easily cram office, living room and parents bedroom into one room without really compromising in term of quality of life. Sure if you are a kitchen appliances hoarder, you need a 80m2 kitchen already so there is very little room for anything else. If you know how to cook and use your hands everything is much simpler.
  - _0w8t 4y ago
    In Oslo, Norway there is a lot of demand for aparments below 40m2 for young couples. 60m2 is considered OK for a family with 2 kids as long as floor plan is reasonable.
  - SapporoChris 4y ago
    Really depends on the person, I lived in 31m² 1DK for two years. I felt I had plenty of room. I especially loved how quickly I could clean up the place and find misplaced items. Finding a lost item was frustrated as I thought how stupid it was to lose an item in a tiny apartment, but it always resolved in about five minutes.
  - sanxiyn 4y ago
    I am living in 25m^2 now for 5 years. It is comfortable.
  - jaclaz 4y ago
    Only as a data point, in Italy the minimal size a house can legally be called a house is 28 sqm, intended for a single, then you add 10 sqm for each additional adult (this is national law, since 1975). Local laws may increase these mimimum sizes, the tendency is to set the minimum to around 40-45 sqm in many places.
- AussieWog93 4y ago
  I say this in complete ignorance, but how do Japanese people live comfortably in a 25sqm apartment? Are there communal cooking/bathroom areas? Do they use "hacks" like fold-out sofa beds to maximise space? Would that apartment house single people, and couples get a 2br or larger? It's just hard to imagine, coming from Australia.
  - ETH_start 4y ago
    It's managed by people having more compound housing implements, fewer appliances, and spending more time outside of the house.
  - chrisdirkis 4y ago
    As an Australian, I wish I could pay less money and get less floorspace. Pretty much the only way to get that tradeoff is student accomodation, and the kitchens there aren't built to be particularly functional (and the locals are probably not the neighbours I really want). I'd also like to be able to trade off on size while moving further away from the CBD, or at least I historically would have been, but there's no apartments near train stations in most suburban areas in the places I looked. I love the idea of a living space that's optimised and cozy. I don't need an entire room for some machines for laundry, I don't need two rooms for bed and for computer, and heck, I hardly need walls at all. Not many studios here either, sadly. One thing I'll note: Many Australians talk ill of apartment quality here. Both I've lived in had double glazed windows, well insulated walls, and modern and reasonable-quality fittings. Maybe I've rolled high a couple of times? But signs currently point to no, and I think the "Australian apartments are crappy dogboxes" is more of a media talking point than reflective of reality
    - AussieWog93 4y ago
      Interesting. I'm in Melbourne, and there's usually apartment blocks within a few hundred m from every station I can think of.
      - chrisdirkis 4y ago

midoridensha 4y ago

This is basically BS; housing in Tokyo is only expensive from an American point-of-view because Americans only look at $/square foot, and don't realize not everyone wants or needs a palatial home. 25m^2 apartments are very common in Tokyo and generally affordable by normal people, but such a compact place would probably be downright illegal in America because of housing codes. Try getting a nice, safe, comfortable, and modern apartment in NYC on USD$1000/month; I don't think it's possible. In Tokyo, it's common. Also, Tokyo being one of the most expensive cities to live in is a myth, so any source that makes that claim is, to me, immediately disqualified as having truthful information. Going out to eat here costs a fraction of what it does almost anywhere in the US.

NhanH 4y ago
25m^2 is way way too small for a comfortable life though. For single, you want around 50-60 m2 and 80m2 for a family of 3.
- innocenat 4y ago
  Strongly disagree as someone who live in 20m^2 for the past 5 years. Public space like parks and the walkability of the neighborhood are very important factor for comfortable living in small space. Both of which Japan do very well.
  - fakethenews2022 4y ago
    I visited Tokyo, Kyoto, and Hiroshima. I found Tokyo unpleasant. There is very little greenery and many of the so called rivers are actually lined in concrete. Commercial districts are packed with people. Hiroshima was much more pleasant. There are walking paths, greenery, and even restaurants along the river. Kyoto was closer to Hiroshima, with areas with wide set back streets, not to mention forests. There are a few parks in Tokyo but I had to travel to them but also pay to enter them! The unspoken trade off people who advocate for dense urban development fail to mention is the elimination of private green spaces for most people.
    - bryanlarsen 4y ago
      When I lived in Tokyo I'd alternate weekends. One weekend was spent in an urban area and the next was spent in the mountains, which are incredibly accessible from downtown as they're on the city transit network -- no need to take an inter-city. Best of both worlds in many ways.
- prmoustache 4y ago
  I have 85m2 for a family of 4 and we are kind of privileged here. as many people have one generation more living under the same roof and less space. We have one bedroom, a kitchen that also serve as dining room, I have a separate office, living room, bedroom, my 2 daughters share the same room (by choice, the "office" used to be destined to be one of my daughter's bedroom). We could easily cram office, living room and parents bedroom into one room without really compromising in term of quality of life. Sure if you are a kitchen appliances hoarder, you need a 80m2 kitchen already so there is very little room for anything else. If you know how to cook and use your hands everything is much simpler.
- _0w8t 4y ago
  In Oslo, Norway there is a lot of demand for aparments below 40m2 for young couples. 60m2 is considered OK for a family with 2 kids as long as floor plan is reasonable.
- SapporoChris 4y ago
  Really depends on the person, I lived in 31m² 1DK for two years. I felt I had plenty of room. I especially loved how quickly I could clean up the place and find misplaced items. Finding a lost item was frustrated as I thought how stupid it was to lose an item in a tiny apartment, but it always resolved in about five minutes.
- sanxiyn 4y ago
  I am living in 25m^2 now for 5 years. It is comfortable.
- jaclaz 4y ago
  Only as a data point, in Italy the minimal size a house can legally be called a house is 28 sqm, intended for a single, then you add 10 sqm for each additional adult (this is national law, since 1975). Local laws may increase these mimimum sizes, the tendency is to set the minimum to around 40-45 sqm in many places.
AussieWog93 4y ago
I say this in complete ignorance, but how do Japanese people live comfortably in a 25sqm apartment? Are there communal cooking/bathroom areas? Do they use "hacks" like fold-out sofa beds to maximise space? Would that apartment house single people, and couples get a 2br or larger? It's just hard to imagine, coming from Australia.
- ETH_start 4y ago
  It's managed by people having more compound housing implements, fewer appliances, and spending more time outside of the house.
- chrisdirkis 4y ago
  As an Australian, I wish I could pay less money and get less floorspace. Pretty much the only way to get that tradeoff is student accomodation, and the kitchens there aren't built to be particularly functional (and the locals are probably not the neighbours I really want). I'd also like to be able to trade off on size while moving further away from the CBD, or at least I historically would have been, but there's no apartments near train stations in most suburban areas in the places I looked. I love the idea of a living space that's optimised and cozy. I don't need an entire room for some machines for laundry, I don't need two rooms for bed and for computer, and heck, I hardly need walls at all. Not many studios here either, sadly. One thing I'll note: Many Australians talk ill of apartment quality here. Both I've lived in had double glazed windows, well insulated walls, and modern and reasonable-quality fittings. Maybe I've rolled high a couple of times? But signs currently point to no, and I think the "Australian apartments are crappy dogboxes" is more of a media talking point than reflective of reality
  - AussieWog93 4y ago
    Interesting. I'm in Melbourne, and there's usually apartment blocks within a few hundred m from every station I can think of.
    - chrisdirkis 4y ago