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Japan has a fundamentally different take on housing due to several reasons.

Essentially, the way society view housing is different - buildings are more akin to consumer goods like cars. Housing value is tied to the standards of the steucture and the cost of maintenance in addition to its location, etc. As building codes improve and new buildings become more robust to earthquakes and other natural disasters, older buildings drop in value. In some cases the house would have no value beyond the value of the land.

In large population centres like Tokyo, the effect is not as drastic but it's still evident as housing prices in Tokyo is pretty affordable for an Alpha+ global city.




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