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Japan is Giving Away Free Houses (fastcompany.com)
There are some 8 million abandoned homes -- or akiya -- in Japanese suburbia, according to The Japan Times . And if you've got a visa allowing you to live in Japan, some of them can be yours for free or very low prices, and the government may give you a subsidy to renovate one. From a report: There are even databases devoted to helping people find these homes, known as "akiya banks." What's driving the government to give away homes? In part, it has to do with Japan's aging population: According to the World Bank, the country's population decreased by -0.2% in 2017 alone, while China and the U.S. slowly grew 0.6% and 0.7% respectively. There are simply fewer people in Japan than there once were -- roughly 1.3 million fewer people than in 2010 by one count [paywall].
So how do the Japanese feel about a bunch of foreigners as next door neighbors.
You mean they are not charging for the free houses? How unusual.
the question is are there jobs?
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the radiation away... the houses are safe :)
[($)]
Not like Iâ(TM)m gonna read the fucking article lol
As fun as it may be to visit, Japanese culture is still "uncomfortable" with foreigners moving to Japan. Japanese youth love American culture but it's more like how people in the US like Anime: it's a sliver of their culture and not really representative of anything. Depending on how they process applications, they may be trying to get expatriated Japanese to return to Japan. Essentially, the Japan majority is like those in the US who want to build a giant border wall but it's all just below the surface like the rampant racism in parts of the US.
Anons need not reply. Questions end with a question mark.
Sounds like a good place to retire!
#DeleteChrome
Japan is hit by earthquakes all the time. This has resulted on some very strict building codes and they are getting more and more strict. At the same time companies invent new ways of protecting the buildings from damage.
In 1995, Kobe was hit by a magnitude 7.2 quake. That went very bad, but it was a learning experience. It revealed a lot of flaws, which could be corrected. It turned out that the typhoon protection in the roofs of a lot of buildings made them deathtraps in case of major earthquakes and the design is now banned in new buildings.
In 2011 a magnitude 9.0 hit and lasted for an amazing 5 minutes. We have all seen the videos of cities being flooded by a tsunami. However most people missed the big news regarding the buildings. They were still standing. It was the most powerful quake ever measured in Japan and one of the most powerful ever recorded, yet the buildings survived. The reason is they replaced the buildings with modern ones, which fulfills the modern building codes. The Kobe quake era buildings would not have had a chance to survive.
Because of this, buildings in Japan lose value fast. People want new buildings with new safety. You can encounter houses with negative value meaning the plot would be worth more without houses. The thinking is that the old houses have to be torn down, meaning it's just an extra expense.
Now there are abandoned houses being offered for free. I think we can assume those houses aren't state of the art. In fact odds are they are pre 1995. Not only is that a safety issue, they might be uninsulated because traditionally Japan added temporal insulation during the winter because insulation would make houses too hot in the summer. On top of that the houses are in locations with de-population issues. If they were in good locations, the houses would be sold as building plots. This means poor job options in the areas of the free houses.
It's not a good offer. I don't think anybody will accept such houses, even for free. However if it's possible to get fast internet access, like optic fiber, then just maybe somebody will use this to start internet based businesses. It could create some upstarts, which can't afford to get enough storage space in the cities.
If the Japanese government would really do something to keep people in rural areas, they should look to the railroads. Right now they let people pay for railroads locally and if there aren't enough people, they will reduce the number of trains, close the line and use buses and then close the bus lines. So far every time a railroad dies, the community dies and it's a big topic in Japan because it makes it harder to keep people in farming communities, which in turn means less production of food for the cities. They know this and debate funding, but nothing happens. There are other issues like no daycare, meaning it's a problematic area if you want to have children. It looks like the government makes a move with free houses because it's free for them too (more or less), but as long as they aren't touching the reason why the houses have been abandoned and become unsellable, it will have a hard time being a success.
But tearing down homes is costly, and a decades-old tax break that promotes construction by setting property tax on vacant lots at six times the level of those with buildings discourages demolition.
Well maybe, just maybe they could adjust the tax to encourage people to at least tear them down.
I think, therefore you are.
What kind of dumbassery are you spewing?
From Merriam-Webster:
Definition of their
: his or her : HIS, HER, ITS —used with an indefinite third person singular antecedent
anyone in their senses
— W. H. Auden
Far less than rural America is. I lived there for 6 years, several areas. I never had a problem. They mostly have problems with stupid tourists who get drunk and pick fights and reputations evolve from there. Americans, Britons.
The usual. They tend to have an "american-esque" attitude towards people who don't bother to learn the language, because as a near monoculture it stands out. You wouldn't fear a racist attack like in the US, as Japanese do.
Crime is pretty uncommon there. Whether or not people mumble things under their breath or in private about gaijinn tourists I really can't say, but as far as outspoken racist nutters, you won't find many if any.
Try that in a red state and report back your findings, right?
So basically, you're confusing East Asian culture of politeness with "not being racist".
Funny part is, most East Asian languages now have a slur specifically for people like you, essentially describing that dumb foreigner that doesn't get the fact that politeness is culturally forced. Not genuine.
Not yet. The soil's contaminated. Need a tsunami.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
The word is 'doublethink'.
When The Party pushes two contradictory beliefs, and you happily accept both and manage so without ever feeling bothered by the contradiction.
45 5F E1 04 22 CA 29 C4 93 3F 95 05 2B 79 2A B2
Sure, rural Japan can be very racist. They will politely refuse you service, or simply ignore you. Unlike rural US, where American racist will simply kill or main you. That's is the difference between the rural Japanese racists and rural American racists.
I'm kinda serious...
Japan needs young people and families. Millions of young people and families need safe places to live and raise their children. There may be some synergy there.
This is why natural languages are horrible for communicating technical information.
The only downside that I see is that in order to get a free house you have to be Yoko's housemate. That girl is CRAAAZY.
For sure. America definitely made them invade and rape China.
The invasion part is shared between 7 members of the 8 nations alliance who thought it would be a good idea to invite 'freshly Westernized Japan' to a nice little punitive expedition in China following the Boxer rebellion... where Japan provided a third of the ships and 40% of the ground troops. America was indeed part of those seven countries, however Germany probably played a more active role in teaching them the rape part.
Oh, and attack the US. Definitely, all things, no matter what, are America's fault.
Japan was an isolationist country until America decided to use canons to force-open Japanese ports to US trade, ending 254 years of relative peace in Japan and triggering a civil war. Japan had neither the desire nor the means to interfere abroad until America went there. After America went there, the new Japanese government had to modernize the country or face having the same thing happen again.
There are small towns desperate to spread cost of upkeep where infrastructure deteriorated. Water pipes old need replacement. These towns are very rural and have limited income capacity. There are some factory jobs or farming jobs. Need at least an intermediate Japanese skill.
They are not - one must have special permission to even enter the inner zone. You may have a different definition of "near"?
You sound like a person so utterly naive and sheltered, that the very basics of human interaction are utterly shocking to you. To the point where you feel the need to attack the messenger for just stating the said basics of human interaction.
It usually refers to "white leftie", which is what Chinese variant of it literally translates to.
You think there are "full-blown out-in-the-open-lynchings" going on in "rural America"?
Ok. Good luck with the rest of your life.
Where the hell is that happening? It isn't here in the US.
"Unlike rural US, where American racist will simply kill or main you."
Who spreads this nonsense? There aren't people being killed or maimed in the US for racist nonsense.
There are certain political factions that will take anything they can spin into being related to racist or that involved a racist as a hate crime to drum up stats, They also count things like a school child carving a racist symbol into a locker/desk/the snow as hate crimes.
If you check the statistics almost every instance of actual racially motivated death comes back to gang activity, usually ex-cons. Prisons in the US are highly racially segregated, there are racially derived gangs and surviving in prison basically means joining one. You'll come out a monster because that's what prisons do with people of every other collar trying to shank and rape you on the daily. So if you are a white guy that means you inevitably walk out racist with a swastika tattoo. That ex-con robs a liquor store and shoots someone, tada they call it a hate crime because of the tattoo.
You are three times more likely to be killed by lightning strike in the US than in a race motivated crime.
Almost all of it is ex-cons and gang activity.
Even so you are three times more likely to die by lightning strike in the US than by racist.
It's even worse in South Korea with the recent feminist scandal they are having.
So you admit that you lied in your initial statement?
Defending the claim the US is responsible for Pearl Harbor by citing a breached trade embargo in a different century gets +4.
Slashdot, you have jumped the shark.
Is this place nothing but trolls and "Lol US BAD" memes?
Have you ever been to rural America? If you have, you haven't been to the same one I have been to.
Who spreads this nonsense? There aren't people being killed or maimed in the US for racist nonsense.
Really?
Really?!
High profile anecdotes mean nothing. There are over 325 million people in the US and no shortage of murders any given day, hour or even minute rare stops being rare with those kind of numbers.
But there are not known hate crime related deaths, even though they automatically count it as one if someone racist was involved, every minute or hour because they are rare. Again, since 2015, you are three times more like likely to be killed by lightning strike.
This is just a political drum that gets beaten hard, loud, and often to drive fear, uncertainly, and doubt.
always wanted a houseboat :)
[($)]
37 years ago, and resulted in convictions for everyone, including a death penalty. That's the time when Soviet Union was still the main threat to US.
Totally fits the narrative of "full-blown out-in-the-open lynchings" happening today.
A low rate does not mean zero, especially when it comes to human lives. A quick Google says an average of 400 people are injured by lightning a year in the US. So by your numbers 133 people are injured by a hate crime a year.
Your original statement of there not being people killed or maimed in the US by racists is false.
I'm not saying the GP wasn't being hyperbolic, but lets not fight it with more of the same.
"A low rate does not mean zero, especially when it comes to human lives."
A low rate can be effectively zero. If it were zero we'd have no concept of death. People day, every day, thousands and thousands of people die from all sorts of things.
"So by your numbers 133 people are injured by a hate crime a year."
Yes, while I don't have the statistics to back it up based on my conversations with ER nurses I'd put that number to be dramatically lower than the number of people who are injured due to shoving a light bulb up their rectum each year. 2.8 million people were hospitalized due to injuries in 2015. 14,800 died from opioid overdose. 325,000 children were injured from sports and recreational related activities. In other words, so low relative to almost any other cause as to be effectively zero. There are so few that there isn't enough work across the entire country of 325m+ people to dedicate 1 doctor and have him work full time. The cost of the comments from the news correspondents trying to create the impression this is a serious issue in a single day would pay that doctor for the medical treatment of everyone it happens to for the next 5-10 years.
"Your original statement of there not being people killed or maimed in the US by racists is false."
That is not a COMPLETE statement I've made. You've cherry picked a headliner statement and ignored the text below it where I myself indicate deaths. I also did not say "by a racist" I said FOR racist nonsense. Most of the people who are killed by racists are prison gang members killing other prison gang members... most frequently, they are killing people of the same race!
"Who spreads this nonsense?"
Check YouTube for "reactions to Trump winning" videos. Those people. I was as surprised as most that the dude won (didn't vote for him, nor would I), but there is a segment of the US population that lost their shit because dumb hillbillies, sub-human, racist yokels that don't live in NY or LA showed up to vote because those people consider them dumb hillbillies that are sub-human racists.
Ask the Koreans if the Japanese are racist. I have always been enthralled by Japanese culture, but it's really no secret that it's a pretty racist society.
It's literally been already cited by another AC in reply to this very post.
Not very literate, are you? Here's a link to said reply.
https://slashdot.org/comments....