There are not fewer houses, but fewer people in a country in population decline. “Akiya” – abandoned houses – already exist in large cities. there are nine million – as many as, roughly, the number of Portuguese people aged 15 or over.
The number of vacant homes in Japan has reached a record nine million – more than enough for every person in New York City [ou uma casa por cada português com mais de 15 anos] – as the East Asian country continues to struggle with its steadily declining population.
Abandoned houses are known in Japan as “akiya” – a term that typically refers to abandoned residential houses hidden in rural areas.
But there are more and more akiya in large cities, such as Tokyo and Kyoto, which constitutes a problem for a government that is already grappling with an aging population and an alarming drop in the number of children born per year.
“This is a symptom of Japan’s declining population,” says Jeffrey Hall, a professor at Kanda University of International Studies in Chiba. “It’s not really a problem of building too many houses,” but rather “a problem of not enough people,” he said.
According to figures compiled by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, 14% of all residential properties in Japan are empty.
The figures include second homes and those left empty for other reasons, including properties temporarily unoccupied while their owners work abroad.
Not all are left to ruin, like the traditional akiya, whose growing number presents a series of other problems for the government and communities, experts told CNN.
These problems include trying to rejuvenate decaying cities, becoming potential hazards due to lack of maintenance and increasing the risks for rescuers in the event of a disaster in a country prone to earthquakes and tsunamis.
The problem of too many houses
Akiya are often passed down from generation to generation. But, with the drop in the fertility rate in Japan, many are left without heirs or are inherited by younger generations who moved to cities and see no interest in returning to rural areas, experts explain to CNN.
Some houses are also left in administrative limbo because local authorities do not know who the owners are due to poor record keeping, they add.
This makes it difficult for the government to rejuvenate rapidly aging rural communities, hampering efforts to attract young people interested in an alternative lifestyle or investors looking for a bargain.
Following the stimulus of Japanese fiscal policies, some owners often find it cheaper to maintain the house than to demolish it for remodeling.
And even if owners want to sell, they may have difficulty finding buyers, says Kanda University’s Hall.
“Many of these homes are isolated from access to public transport, healthcare and even convenience stores,” he says.
A vacant house in the Yato area, in the city of Yokosuka, Kanagawa Prefecture, Japan, surrounded by vegetation, on August 21, 2013. Akio Kon/Bloomberg/Getty Images/File
In recent years, trending videos showing people – especially foreigners – buying cheap Japanese houses and turning them into stylish guesthouses and cafes have gained a large following on social media, but Hall warns that this is not as easy as it seems.
“The truth is that most of these houses are not going to be sold to foreigners, or that the amount of administrative work and the underlying rules are not easy for someone who doesn’t speak Japanese and doesn’t read Japanese very well,” he explains.
“They won’t be able to buy these houses at a low price.”
Very few people
Japan’s population has been in decline for several years – at the last count in 2022, the population had declined by more than 800,000 from the previous year, to 125.4 million.
In 2023, the number of new births declined for the eighth year in a row, reaching an all-time low, according to official data.
Japan’s birth rate has hovered around 1.3 for years, far from the 2.1 needed to maintain a stable population, and just last week Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said the number of children with less than 15 years ago it had fallen for the 43rd consecutive year to a record low of about 14 million.
An abandoned, partially collapsed wooden house in Tambasasayama, Japan, on April 5, 2023 Buddhika Weerasinghe/Getty Images
All of this means that the problem of too many houses and not enough people is likely to persist for some time.
Yuki Akiyama, professor at the faculty of architecture and urban design at Tokyo City University, says that empty houses have caused problems in the past, for example after the 7.5 magnitude earthquake that hit the Noto Peninsula in the central prefecture of Tokyo. Ishikawa, in January.
The area where the earthquake occurred was full of akiya, he says, which posed a danger to residents during the disaster and challenges to reconstruction after the earthquake.
“When an earthquake or tsunami occurs, it is possible for empty houses to block evacuation routes as they become damaged and destroyed,” he says.
After the earthquake, authorities had difficulty deciding which damaged properties they could clean up due to a lack of clarity regarding ownership, which was “an obstacle to reconstruction”, says Akiyama.
In other rural areas with a high concentration of vacant houses, the akiya prevented development, adds the professor.
If these properties remain untouched, the value of the area will be reduced because it is a place where you cannot buy and sell properly and cannot do large-scale development.
“People will think this place has no value and the real estate value of the entire area will gradually decrease.”
Akiyama designed an AI program [inteligência atificial] to predict the areas most vulnerable to akiya, but emphasizes that the problem is not exclusive to Japan – it has been observed in the USA and some European countries.
However, he says Japan’s history and architectural culture made the situation particularly serious.
In Japan, houses are not valued for their longevity and, contrary to what happens in the West, people value living in historic buildings.
“In Japan, the newer the house, the higher the sale price,” he says.
Top photo: Weeds and vines grow around an abandoned house in Okuma, Japan. Yuichi Yamazaki/Getty Images
