Thanks for the links, Google Translate did enough :-)

I find this fascinating: "The rules around the market are different, too. For example, in California most houses are sold and bought as-is. In Japan, the seller is on the hook for up to an year for problems that weren't discovered at the point of sale."

In California there are many rules, permits, and processes that must be followed before building a new house. This comes from voters (residents) seeking to limit the rate of change in their neighborhood, and restrict change they would find objectionable (like multi-floor houses in a neighbor with all single floor houses). So buying an existing house is always "easier" than building a new one. Buyers are not responsible for any problems that were disclosed at the time of purchase and signed off on by the buyers. The buyer has the option (and should) to get a thorough home inspection prior to the purchase.

Contrast that to Las Vegas were my I spent my formative years where new houses were the norm and 'old' houses were depreciating because why buy an 'old' house when a 'new' one was the same price? This continued for a long time and pretty much covered the valley floor there with very similar looking houses. That has slowed some now that land to build on is quite far away from the rest of town. But I could see that tearing down houses on land closer to town and rebuilding them might improve the value of those houses.

The bottom line for me is that clearly municipal regulation has a lot more influence on home 'value' than a nominally open market would suggest. I always knew it had a some effect but it seems possible that it is perhaps the dominant effect.

No kidding about building a new house in California. I was quoted an estimate of $250k by a builder just for for permits to build a 2200 sq-ft. home.

Additionally the used home that I did buy would be illegal to build today (as the house is nearly double the size of what is allowed on the lot by current zoning).

Wait, what? 250k for building permits?

Wow - I read it as 250k for the build and was wondering why the complaints. Damn that's bad. I thought Auckland New Zealand was bad and our cost is about NZ$3000 per square metre for total cost on an average quality building. However the parent quotes over NZ$1000 per m2 just for permits. That's terrible.

Apparently a lot of that was due to the location. It is on a hill, and there is a lot more red-tape for hills around here since there are so many more rules. A fair chunk of that was to pay someone with a lot of experience dealing with the zoning board to show up to meetings for you. If you had no life, you could do it yourself. The majority was the actual costs of the permit though.

Having actually done an modification with a permit (installing a new furnace in the exact same place as the old one), I can see why every contracter I talked to said "don't bother with permits" It took about a dozen visits and they rechecked everything each time.

The cost of this particular permit was minimal ($500 US) but I spent so much time driving back-and-forth and waiting on inspectors &ct. that the hassle outweighed the dollar cost.

That's what I said. And last I checked, (2 years ago, 3 years after getting the quote) the lot was still undeveloped.

I'm an architect (of the building kind) who has worked across countries (though not Japan). I have to concur that one of the things which most frequently dictates what gets built is half-baked rules by mortgagers and financiers.

This article also conflates the 'average' and the 'architecture' (as seen on arch daily) which is very much atypical.Though even with the average there is a stronger actual interest in space than in the west (probably due to actual exposure of average people to different spaces). For instance, I remember looking at the website of a mass house-builder in Japan and the big item being advertised was a 1.5m (approx.) half-height 'nook' space in your living room. This would never happen in the west (most people would think 'whatever would I use that for?'.

I'm curious, what would that nook space be used for?

You might put a desk in there, similar to a desk-under-bed like this kind of thing http://www.ghoofie.com/bedroom/modern-and-cool-bedroom-desig...

A shrine to a dead relative or a place for similar artefacts such as arranged cut flowers.

Futon storage, maybe. Depends on the type of flooring.

seating, storage, spare bed, play area for kids, etc. and combinations thereof

Hi Kohsuke,

> In Japan, the seller is on the hook for up to an year for problems that weren't discovered at the point of sale.

Actually, it's 5 years in Japan now. My contractor just had to do a complete re-wallpapering of my house because the paper suddenly split.

Just to throw it in there. Accounting rules more or less matches repair rules. Especially for buildings, there is a defined schedule for the exterior and water/gas pipes maintenance, which is something like every 10 years for the exterior, and every 30 year for the pipes and other basic structures(a quick link in english [1]).

And after 50~60 years there is a major overhaul of most buildings that could cost the same amount as just scrapping and rebuilding everything (which is the prefered solution). It may seems short compared to other countries' building repair schedules, but earthquake resisting buildings are build with very different norms, like more "moving" or bending parts, possibly flexible pipes which won't last as long as other rigid materials, elevators which will cost a lot more to maintain that basic ones, etc.

Also as years go by architects are better at designing resisting buildings, and after 30 years there is a gap in the materials and technology used, which can justify a hefty premium on new buildings.

[1] http://japanpropertycentral.com/2013/08/large-scale-repairs-...

Thank you for the links, they were very informative. I also found the article a bit cursory. I was particularly surprised that they didn't mention Japan's construction industry. It makes up a much larger part of the economy than in countries like the United States or the United Kingdom, and it exerts a lot of political power. A large number of the laws promoting new construction over renovation or purchase of existing buildings benefit the construction industry more than property owners.

I recommend Alex Kerr's Dogs and Demons for a more detailed discussion of real estate and zoning laws in Japan.

To echo this, this guy [1] has a fantastic series on buying and refurbishing property in Japan and talks about what you're mentioning.

It's actually surprisingly fascinating. He also has some interesting videos on the recycling culture in Japan including videos of open air recycling centers full of perfectly working appliances.

1 - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UZfoMTPXZXE&list=SPE0D149A2A5...

Apologies if this is imposing but do you have any links or insight regarding Japanese estate tax or real estate transfer? A family member passed away recently and was the owner of land in Tokyo. I have visited multiple times but do not speak Japanese and cannot figure out if we need to report the transfer of ownership, pay tax for the transfer, etc... The land is currently used by other family members who own the house that was built on the land.

This sounds confusing even for someone who is fluent in Japanese. Perhaps seeking professional help would be wise. It sounds like the kind of thing this guy does: http://www.langleyesquire.com/

That doesn't surprise me. I hear automobiles also have short lives in Japan, for similar regulatory reasons.

"Old" Japanese cars can be shipped off to New Zealand, though -- the steering wheel is on the right side, and import tariffs are low because there isn't a local manufacturing economy to protect. They stay reliable and economical for a long time.

Unfortunately it isn't quite as easy to ship old Japanese houses overseas...

A lot of them also wind up in eastern Russia, even though the steering wheel is on the "wrong" side.

Samoa recently changed to driving on the left in large part to gain access to cheap Japanese cars being shipped over from families in NZ and Australia.

Same for South East Asia.

To be fair, Thailand and Indonesia do drive on the wrong side of the road, but both have fairly strong automotive lobbies that try and keep the cars out. Eastern Russia is not only close to Japan, it is (a) not Korea (who love Korean cars), and (b) it is really far away form Moscow's influence in getting them to buy more expensive cars of lesser quality made much further away.

I'd heard this specifically with regard to automobile engines: that regulations, fees, and/or taxes are such that relatively low-mileage engines are considered obsolete, and are frequently available outside of Japan as low-cost used or rebuilt engines, often in very good condition.

I found a few general-information sites which suggest this or similar reasons, but cannot find a definitive source.

It becomes prohibitively expensive to own cars for a long time here in Japan because the government mandates regular inspections, which can cost up to $1000 USD. The period of validity for the inspection depends on the type of vehicle, but in general an inspection on a new car is valid for two to three years and must be done every year or two after that.