Discussion Akiya Houses

[Tabula Rasa]

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/05/07/asia/akiya-homes-problem-japan-intl-hnk/index.html
https://edition.cnn.com/2018/12/05/asia/japan-vacant-akiya-ghost-homes/index.html

A free house may sound like a scam. But Japan faces an unusual property problem: it has more homes than people to live in them.

In 2013, there were 61 million houses and 52 million households, according to the Japan Policy Forum. And the situation is poised to get worse.

Japan’s population is expected to decline from 127 million to about 88 million by 2065, according to the National Institute of Population and Social Security, meaning even fewer people will need houses. As young people leave rural areas for city jobs, Japan’s countryside has become haunted by deserted “ghost” houses, known as “akiya.”

It’s predicted that by 2040, nearly 900 towns and villages across Japan will face a risk of extinction, according to a 2014 report entitled ‘Local Extinctions’ published by Hiroya Masuda. And Okutama is one of them. In that context, giving away property is a bid for survival.

“In 2014, we discovered that Okutama was one of three Tokyo (prefecture) towns expected to vanish by 2040,” says Kazutaka Niijima, an official with the Okutama Youth Revitalization (OYR) department, a government body set up to repopulate the town.

Akiya are houses outside of Japan's cities which are free or selling for very cheap. They can be a relatively economically inexpensive option for foreigners to relocate to, especially for those seeking a more laidback lifestyle in the countryside.

What are your thoughts on the subject, and is it something you will ever consider?

 

[lunin7]

idk maybe but I’m not familiar with the people so I’ll have to learn Japanese to start things off