Housing in Japan

Housing in Japan includes modern and traditional styles. Two patterns of residences are predominant in contemporary Japan: the single-family detached house and the multiple-unit building, either owned by an individual or corporation and rented as apartments to tenants, or owned by occupants. Additional kinds of housing, especially for unmarried people, include boarding houses (which are popular among college students), dormitories (common in companies), and barracks (for members of the Japan Self-Defense Forces, police and some other public employees).

An unusual feature of Japanese housing is that houses are presumed to have a limited lifespan, and are often torn down and rebuilt after a few decades, generally twenty years for wooden buildings and thirty years for concrete buildings – see regulations for details. Renovating houses, rather than rebuilding them, is a relatively uncommon practice in Japan, though its prevalence is increasing, indicating that attitudes towards the use of older houses may be changing.

Japan is located in a seismically active region, and earthquake resistance is a major consideration in housing. The Building Standards Act sets minimum standards for building safety, and seismic design requirements have been strengthened over time, including a major revision in 1981. Post-disaster surveys after the 1995 Great Hanshin–Awaji Earthquake found that buildings constructed to older seismic standards generally suffered greater damage than those built to the 1981 standards. Many detached houses are wood-frame construction, in which seismic performance depends on factors such as the amount and layout of shear walls and bracing.