Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Housing in Tokyo is cheaper and more spacious than people think

konichivalue.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

181–190 of 237 posts

Re: Housing in Tokyo is cheaper and more spacious than people think

#181

Post by no_time »

rippercushions wrote: post #121
JohnJamesRambo wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you post examples of this ugliness? I’ve never been to Japan and am curious. I had never heard of this.

Pick a random spot in any suburb of Tokyo in Google Maps Street View and start exploring. Here's one: 亀戸中央通り商店街 https://maps.app.goo.gl/9yY4Ncb5oM3hXqLY6 It's not particularly hideous by Tokyo (or world) standards, it's just exactly what was described earlier, a random mishmash of houses and shops in various states of repair.

Having the powerlines underground would improve it a lot. Other than that I wouldn't call it particularly ugly.

Re: Housing in Tokyo is cheaper and more spacious than people think

#182

Post by rgmerk »

jonpurdy wrote: post #153
rippercushions wrote: post #121

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Pick a random spot in any suburb of Tokyo in Google Maps Street View and start exploring. Here's one: 亀戸中央通り商店街 https://maps.app.goo.gl/9yY4Ncb5oM3hXqLY6 It's not particularly hideous by Tokyo (or world) standards, it's just exactly what was described earlier, a random mishmash of houses and shops in various states of repair.

You've just linked to a small, walkable street with slow traffic that has multiple food and shopping options mixed with medium density residential. Zooming out it looks like a quick walk to a metro station and multiple parks nearby. Not to mention how safe these areas are. The random mishmash of houses and shops is exactly the type of place that makes walking viable negating the need for a car (and the expense and wa…

Not disagreeing with any of that but it’s still incredibly ugly.

Just a planter box or two would be a massive improvement!

Re: Housing in Tokyo is cheaper and more spacious than people think

#184

Post by rfreytag »

coryrc wrote: post #78
assbuttbuttass wrote: post #68

When did paying 30% of your paycheck in rent become "very affordable?"

What else do you need to spend lots of money on?

In the US you might need to plan for health care expenses and higher-education.

Re: Housing in Tokyo is cheaper and more spacious than people think

#185

Post by jstrong »

rdsubhas wrote: post #87
jstrong wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> A family with two young kids living in 100m^2 is pretty spacious. depends on your perspective, I guess! that sounds horribly cramped to me.

It's not about perspective. Both average to 25m2 per person, but they are vastly, unambiguously different. In a 100m2 home: 3x15m2 bedrooms, 25m2 living room, 10m2 kitchen and you still got 20m2 left. It's no comparison to a single 25m2 apartment where all these functions have to fit.

In that sense, I guess a 100cm2 apartment is "pretty spacious" compared to a 25cm2 one. My point was that a family of four living in a 100m2 apartment is going to feel cramped.

Re: Housing in Tokyo is cheaper and more spacious than people think

#186

Post by donw »

Firmwarrior wrote: post #160
franciscop wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you know numbers about how much housing is sponsored by the companies in Japan? Maybe that's what is making the difference since it's not counted neither as salary, nor as the price of the house? I know some large companies sponsor partially or totally the housing of thousands of their employees, again skewing prices greatly. For example if Tanaka's salary is $500 lower because the company is partially paying for…

In Tokyo, you can work as a part time janitor and make enough to live in a 500 square foot place within a 30 minute commute by train

No, you can’t.

50sqm is a large apartment for a single person. Without checking, I’d guess somewhere in the neighborhood of 20 man per month.

A part time janitor would gross half that.

Re: Housing in Tokyo is cheaper and more spacious than people think

#187

Post by donw »

franciscop wrote: post #137
wst_ wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They aren't from my experience working in two major Japanese companies. Sometimes they'll pay your network bill if WFH is allowed, but that's basically it. Not sure about smaller companies, but honestly, I'd be surprised.

They definitely do, I was paid for it working at a Japanese company, and I know multiple personal cases where that happened as well (one was a dormitory, another full housing, and another partial housing). The internet is full of evidence that it happens , so my question is "how often?". e.g. https://www.gtalent.jp/blog/japanwork-en/social-insurance-we... or https://www.reddit.com/r/japanlife/comments/54fjgf/how_much…

One of the apartments that I used to rent was owned by a large Japanese firm, specifically for the purpose of renting out at a substantial discount to its employees.

Re: Housing in Tokyo is cheaper and more spacious than people think

#189

Post by TedShiller »

diceduckmonk wrote: post #79
davidkuennen wrote: post #12

As someone being in Tokyo right now chatting with locals about this topic it's just not generally true or comparable to other cities. Sure there are parts of Tokyo that are cheaper, but Tokyo is gigantic. All the places that "matter" with reasonably fast commute are very expensive and small.

> locals about this topic Are the locals foreigners or Japanese? The set of housing options are different between the two. There's an implicit price premium and threshold on the units with landlords receptive to foreigners. The cheaper accommodations are not going to be available especially if tenant isn't fluent in the language. > All the places that "matter" with reasonably fast commute are very expensive and small…

Then why doesn't everyone just live in Tokyo? You just got your answer.

Re: Housing in Tokyo is cheaper and more spacious than people think

#190

Post by seanmcdirmid »

goostavos wrote: post #152
F35Machinist wrote: post #130

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you actually think the comment you replied to was complaining about requirements like central heat or bathrooms? NIMBYs will trot out every excuse and misdirection to avoid addressing the dire shortage of housing. This anti-growth mindset is a philosophy of death. I suspect that deep down, many want the world to end with them and are actually sabotaging efforts to solve societal issues out of some sort of Freudian…

What in the -- Freudian death drive? I'd wager it's far more simple: run of the mill selfishness. NIMBYs want to keep the gravy train flowing while they're here. Increased housing stock threatens the currently astronomical prices and returns. NIMBYs are "anti-growth" because their pocketbook demands it.

This isn't it. On the one hand, people acknowledge that transit resources, clean environment, water, electricity, don't grow on trees (and that trees are also nice). On the other hand, anyone who wants to control development at all is labelled as a NIMBY. Some of that is accurate, some of that is not. But I get it: you want your cake and you want to eat it also.

Tokyo definitely has places without (a) toilets in your apartment (you have access to one in the same building though) and (b) places without showers in building (you'll have to use a bathhouse). The lack of heat might be annoying to some people, and the insulation isn't going to be good enough to let your electric space heater work very well (so get used to using a kotatsu). Now, using a kotatsu isn't bad, but it isn't super convenient.

Post reply on HN