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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].
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.
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So long as you stay in main metropolises like Tokyo or Kyoto? Maybe. A big maybe.
Leave that and go into more rural areas, like this offer, and you're going to be introduced to actual Japanese culture, which functions on blood ties like most East Asian cultures do. You being a foreigner will always be a foreigner, because of your bloodline. Those are places where being even genetically half Japanese gets you severely discriminated against at every turn.
Outside the primary Western countries, "racist assholes" are what is known as "normal people".
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.
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?