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

Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

travelandleisure.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

311–320 of 410 posts

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#311

Post by ShorsHammer »

hudibras wrote: post #268
samstave wrote: post #178

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Mind sharing what you had to spend? This would be fascinating to do, but would be great to know the actual costs involved. Also, would you share, more in depth, the experience as a whole: Do you speak Japanese, married to a Japanese citizen/are one? What was the biggest unexpected etc... Basically, a blog post about such an endeavor would be great reading... THanks

Here's a blog from somebody who built a new house in Tokyo; you might find it interesting.[0] [0] http://lundman.net/wiki/index.php/Tokyo_house

> Simulated pee splashback test

The attention to detail in Japanese engineering always amazes me.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#312

Post by rangibaby »

innocentoldguy wrote: post #241
zik wrote: post #185

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Earthquakes are commonplace in Japan. You don't want an older house which may be structurally compromised.

I lived in an old wooden house in Sanjo, in Niigata prefecture, for a while back in the 80s. It was a pre World War 2 house and didn't have any indoor plumbing, though it did have a nice smelling campground-style toilet on the first floor. You could stand outside and shake the corner of the house and hear all the windows rattling. It seemed pretty junky, but it withstood at least eight decades of earthquakes without…

old code (pre-1980s) houses have poor resistance to MAJOR earthquakes. Their heavy roof tiles make them liable to collapse in major earthquakes (Kobe), which is a pretty nasty way to die

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#313

Post by refurb »

ska wrote: post #263
refurb wrote: post #212

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I live in a 120 year old house. I would agree they are well built if you’re only measure is “they are still standing”. If it comes down to materials or build quality, no i would not say that 100+ year old homes are better built than newer homes.

“they are still standing”. Will you be able to say that of a lot of the new builds in 100 years?

Honestly I don’t know, but I assume so? Especially in SF where the weather is good, it’s pretty much termites that are the biggest threat!!

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#314

Post by ghaff »

Ibethewalrus wrote: post #295
yourapostasy wrote: post #142

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Look at a map of US MSAs [1]: nearly anywhere outside of an MSA will be cheaper than within the MSA. Anywhere that is outside an MSA, has very poor soil, no exploitable oil and/or mineral (and most mineral and oil rights are separate from the land anyways), not by a body of water, and has no electric/water/sewage service is going to be very cheap, like $100-500 per acre cheap. Of course, the catch is that standing up…

Thanks, and something a little bit better? Have heard about Dayton OH

In addition to the sibling comment, you can also find relatively cheap housing in some of the Sunbelt although I understand that the real housing crash in Las Vegas has largely recovered.

If you're serious about it, you really need to think about your non-negotiables, your strong preferences, and how high you're willing to go for "cheap" housing. For some people the answer might be a condo in a smaller city that isn't in demand. For others, it might be a house that's out in the sticks someplace. There's also a huge difference between cheap as in $100K and cheap as in $300K.

Contra another post, you probably don't want land that isn't already engineered. Of course, also consider Internet. I know tech people who manage with satellite but there are a lot of compromises.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#315

Post by innocentoldguy »

NovaS1X wrote: post #287
innocentoldguy wrote: post #229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. I'm an American, I'm fluent in Japanese, and I'm married to a Japanese citizen. However, I think it would be easy enough to find an English-speaking guide to go around with you and look at houses. I could suggest some people, if you're interested. Regarding the houses, there were different requirements depending on the city we looked at. For example, in Sadogashima the cost was about $20,000 for a house, but th…

Thanks for this. I'm Canadian and married to a Japanese. We're starting to think long term about something like this, as I really want the life experience living in Japan and she's not super comfortable where we are now. Do deals like this happen often? What do you do for work? I'm a sysadmin so I'm worried about work options, but that's a different conversation.

I’m a writer and software engineer. I’ve never seen deals like this before and I find it sad that their population is shrinking so much the these deals exist.

You should be able to find a job in one of the big cities. You’d have to commute, but the trains make that easy enough, I think.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#316

Post by skiller2 »

wokwokwok wrote: post #273
laurieg wrote: post #261

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"Japan has strict immigration policies" is often repeated, but I don't think this is tells the whole story. Some of the policies are very permissive: * If you graduated university and have a 'skilled' job in Japan, you are likely to get a visa. There is no cap on the number of these. There is no language requirement. * If you live in Japan for over 5 years continuously you can apply for citizenship, though you must r…

This is misrepresentative. You can apply , but actually getting both permanent residency and citizenship isn’t nearly that trivial. “Working in japan” and “becoming Japanese” are different things, and the latter is very much more difficult. Japan is very happy to have foreign workers who will politely leave once they lose their jobs / get old, but the immigration figures, in absolute terms, are tiny.

But they seem to have dramatically lowered the bar for highly paid workers to stay in the country. That 1 year PR eligibility is technically open to just about anyone earning over ~$100k. I know people who went over with nothing but a Bachelors, a few years in tech, and zero Japanese, but keeping their high incomes meant they could at least apply after only a year. I don't know how easy they would actually get it, so you may be right.

Even with the work visas themselves, I know someone at a small R&D company in a small city desperate for people, earning kinda low. He got a 1 year visa, then after a decent raise, a 3 year visa. I make more money in a big city, and got 5 years right off the bat, with poor Japanese. PR eligibility once it expires. I still hear about English teachers bouncing between 1 year visas after 10+ years in the country and near fluency.

I think a lot of what you hear about Japan comes from the English teacher side of things. Those guys are a dime a dozen, and have to hustle a lot. But there is a sense that Japan is desperate for skilled workers, and is trying to attract more of them. I've mentioned working in software to old dudes in bars and been instantly treated like an anticipated special guest, and told how good my opportunities are, that I should find a local girl and stay etc. Even if they'd rather not have foreigners in general, they are kinda rolling out the red carpet for a selection of them. All over the place companies advertise in English, promote their foreign working styles, and offer overseas relocation. They'll never be seen as Japanese, but welcomed to stay as if the country depends on them, which it just might

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#317

Post by Ibethewalrus »

sudosteph wrote: post #304
Ibethewalrus wrote: post #295

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks, and something a little bit better? Have heard about Dayton OH

I'm a big fan of western/piedmont of NC for remote workers. It's not the absolute cheapest compared to the midwest, but the weather is better if you don't love snow, and it's still extremely cheap if you're in some non-hip parts (Greensboro, High Point, Winston Salem are very affordable small cities that have universities, and other less-connected mountain towns like Morganton/Wilkesboro/Marion/Hickory are even cheap…

Awesome! A million thanks

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#318

Post by notafraudster »

adventured wrote: post #280
snowwrestler wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree that there is a significant correlation between expanding population and an expanding economy. In fact there are plenty of examples of countries whose economy expanded way faster than their population, which implies that factors other than population dominate economic growth. (If population was the dominant factor in economic growth, we would see a consistent correlation between the two.) Every day we read…

One prominent recent example that destroys the myth that economic expansion is very tightly bound to population expansion, is the US. 2008 pop: 304m people. 2018 pop: ~327m people. A 7.5% increase in population across a decade. 2008 GDP: $14.72t ($17.64t inflation adjusted). 2018 GDP: $20.5t. Approximately a 17% real increase in GDP. The US added an economy close to the size of Germany in just ten years while only ad…

The fact that the slope of the growth line is not 1 does not imply that economic expansion is not tightly bound to population expansion, or that economic expansion could continue under population contraction. Consider the simplest possible linear model Y = beta * X + noise where beta != 1; to say nothing of nonlinear models or interaction effects between population growth and other factors. Surely output per capita matters, and the true data generating process is far more complex, but you have not come close to demonstrating population growth and economic growth are decoupled through this example.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#319

Post by freetime2 »

usaphp wrote: post #215

These houses look incredibly depressing and pretty old [1]. Not sure anyone would want to live in the middle of anything in a house that looks even worse than some places in Detroit. 1 - https://inakanoseikatsu.com/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/sagis...

Not free, but I ran a search for nearby used homes and this is the cheapest one that came up:

https://www.rakusumu.com/sale/detail/00088-200291

That's about $7000 USD, and while I am sure there are many issues, it looks livable at least. It's also a decent enough location, close to the beach, shopping, a train station, schools, etc. It's not for me, but for someone looking to eliminate rent/mortgage payments from their life it could be an option.

Or if you're willing to step up considerably you could do something like this:

https://www.rakusumu.com/sale/detail/00007-200159

That's about $95k USD... and with no down payment and a 35 year fixed loan at 2.05% [1], your mortgage payments would be about $320/mo. Much cheaper than I suspect many HN readers pay in rent and you would own a fairly large and newly renovated house. Note however that to get a loan as a foreigner in Japan you would probably need to be a permanent resident. Also... I cringe a bit to think of how cold that house must be in winter.

Anyway - my point is not to disagree with you because I think you're right about probably not wanting to live in any house you can get for free. Rather just to point out that if anyone is really interested in moving to Japan, there are lots of affordable housing options to be found at number of different price points.

[1] https://www.shinseibank.com/english/housing/loan_kinri.pdf

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#320

Post by brownbat »

adventured wrote: post #280
snowwrestler wrote: post #227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I disagree that there is a significant correlation between expanding population and an expanding economy. In fact there are plenty of examples of countries whose economy expanded way faster than their population, which implies that factors other than population dominate economic growth. (If population was the dominant factor in economic growth, we would see a consistent correlation between the two.) Every day we read…

One prominent recent example that destroys the myth that economic expansion is very tightly bound to population expansion, is the US. 2008 pop: 304m people. 2018 pop: ~327m people. A 7.5% increase in population across a decade. 2008 GDP: $14.72t ($17.64t inflation adjusted). 2018 GDP: $20.5t. Approximately a 17% real increase in GDP. The US added an economy close to the size of Germany in just ten years while only ad…

They can be correlated without being a tight linear relationship.

If every two people in a group have exactly one transaction, then adding 20 people to a group of 100 will create more new transactions than you'll find in a group with just 20 people.

To be fair, when I google for research on correlations between economic growth and population growth, I get a jumble of papers on opposite sides - some pro-natalist and some anti-natalist and some agnostic. (Maybe one camp is considered far more authoritative than the others?)

Maybe it's a nontrivial relationship if it exists, though I'm not convinced anyone knows definitively how the relationship plays out.

Post reply on HN