> if housing is so affordable in Japan, why are there still people who don't own homes? You literally have it the wrong way around. There's less incentive to o

> if housing is so affordable in Japan, why are there still people who don't own homes? You literally have it the wrong way around. There's less incentive to own homes in countries where housing prices fall. Owning a home actually costs you money, it isn't a good investment in the absence of artificial scarcity. In Japan a house is a consumer good like a car, in fact on average the value of most houses drops to about zero in 30-40 years. Some of the richest countries in the world have the lowest rates of personal home ownership, Switzerland, Germany, Japan among them because it isn't an investment vehicle and rent protections are good. This narrative of being desperate to own a home just doesn't make any sense.