To simply put it -but there are a whole a lot of other factors and details-, they have a centralized government control over housing, zoning, permits and everyt

To simply put it -but there are a whole a lot of other factors and details-, they have a centralized government control over housing, zoning, permits and everything to maintain a flat price, so a landlord in Tokyo would rather demolish his house to build a building with X numbers of units instead, resulting in more supply, and lower prices, additionally, the government allow more permits to the population ratio," In 2014, Tokyo issued permits for 142,417 new housing units. In contrast, the entire state of California — which has three times the population of Tokyo — issued permits for only 83,657 new housing units." (1), as a result, housing in Japan generally speaking, are a depreciated value, compared to north America for example, where landlords live almost completely from collecting tenants' rent. these articles probably explained better than I do too. - https://www.sightline.org/2021/03/25/yes-other-countries-do-housing-better-case-1-japan/ https://www.sightline.org/2021/03/25/yes-other-countries-do-... - https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/nov/16/japan-reusable-housing-revolution https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/nov/16/japan-reusabl... (1) https://www.vox.com/2016/8/8/12390048/san-francisco-housing-costs-tokyo https://www.vox.com/2016/8/8/12390048/san-francisco-housing-...