In Japan, houses were treated as capital expenses. Other countries treat housing as capital assets. Things may have changed in Japan in the past two decades, bu

In Japan, houses were treated as capital expenses. Other countries treat housing as capital assets. Things may have changed in Japan in the past two decades, but that's how things worked up into the late 90s/early 00s when I stopped studying all things Japanese. This financial treatment was why so many smaller/rural communities were turning into ghost towns.