Japan is a special case where housing is largely a depreciating asset and small-time landlording isn’t a very profitable business. Small-time landlords in Japan

Japan is a special case where housing is largely a depreciating asset and small-time landlording isn’t a very profitable business. Small-time landlords in Japan couldn’t collude to screw over renters like they did in the US with RealPage even if they wanted to. There are also strong renter protections relative to the US, including fairly limited ability (by law) to raise rents on existing tenants without justification.