The elephant in the room is that NIMBYs are powerless in Japan. In the US, people value individuality. In Japan, they have this saying: If a nail sticks out, h

The elephant in the room is that NIMBYs are powerless in Japan. In the US, people value individuality. In Japan, they have this saying: If a nail sticks out, hammer it flat. NIMBYs are ostracized for being a burden on society. No matter if the neighbors like it or not, houses regularly get bulldozed to build new high-rise apartment buildings instead. Replacing a single family home with a 20-floor skyscraper easily 50x-es number of available apartments on the market, thereby massively pushing prices down.