2 ms·

Maybe, maybe not. https://www.japantimes.co.jp/community/2014/03/31/how-tos/japans-30-year-building-shelf-life-is-not-quite-true/ https://www.japantimes.co.jp/c

• bobthepanda 4y ago
  One major thing to consider is that the last major revisions to Japan’s earthquake codes were in 1981, so until the last decade or so, buying a house over 30 years old meant that the house had a significantly higher likelihood of collapsing during a quake.
• makeitdouble 4y ago
  What a lot of these articles are missing is the additional building and maintenance costs. Sure a building can be made to last a lot more than 30 years, provided you plan for it upfront with additional materials and architecture costs, and execute regular maintenance including on plumbing and potentially windows/door framing, which also have significant costs. All in all, considering Japan’s building constraints, the total budget for the house lasting 100 years will cost more than a standard house you scrap down and rebuild every 30 years. Basically it’s the ship of Theseus’ paradigm: do you rebuilt a house piece by piece over time, or do full reboots at specific moments. An illustration of this issue when looking at long term ownership of older houses: https://cheaphousesjapan.com/buying-a-house-in-japan-advice/ https://cheaphousesjapan.com/buying-a-house-in-japan-advice/ > So why did I buy a newer house? > I realized that an older, traditional house would be much more work and also more expensive and time consuming to maintain.