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Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

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Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#331

Post by astura »

mettamage wrote: post #52

So wait, there are places where there are houses being given away (e.g. US, Japan and Italy as far as I know) and I'm a person that has the ability to work remotely. Am I missing something? Is this my ticket to cheap housing and a more stress free life? At what point am I going to be scammed and/or disappointed?

Not a house but if you're a remote employee Vermont will pay you $10,000 cash a year for two years for moving there.

https://www.businessinsider.com/move-to-vermont-remote-worke...

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#332

Post by Down_n_Out »

swombat wrote: post #269
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…

Based on my experience visiting Japan and talking to both expats and expat-friendly locals there, I think the issue is more cultural than political. If you live in Japan but don't look Japanese you never really feel welcomed as a Japanese. Contrast that to countries like most of the West, where at least a solid proportion of people consider it socially unacceptable to discriminate socially based on someone's looks or…

> If you live in Japan but don't look Japanese you never really feel welcomed as a Japanese.

That goes for a lot of countries, especially if your skin color is different as well as your accent, language and whatnot. Heck, even when you are born in a country where you are not the same skin color as the majority you can feel not welcome. So, it's kind of a generalization to say that only about Japan.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#333

Post by peter_retief »

iandanforth wrote: post #180

The more interesting thing about this is that it is part of a new type of economics, contraction economics. The global trend toward birth rates below replenishment means that first-world countries are maintaining their population growth through immigration. As some countries embrace restrictions on immigration, and ultimately all countries plateau in their population growth (projected to be around 2100) it means that…

It seems to be the opposite, Africa has positive population growth with low economic growth.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#335

Post by sambroner »

nihonde wrote: post #292
mrhappyunhappy wrote: post #290

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm in Kyushu. Seikisui houses cost 150-300k here on average. The house I personally want (saw at house demo place) is 750k. It's really nice!! In California that might buy a 3br in the outskirts of LA buy it won't be nice. The house I saw, in California would probably go for 1.5-3 mil in southern parts and much higher in SF.

$750k in Kyushu must be a mansion! Those home showcases are great aren’t they? Would you build wood or steel frame?

Could you explain one of the home showcases? Sounds like an interesting idea.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#336

Post by mantas »

skiller2 wrote: post #316
wokwokwok wrote: post #273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

But vast majority of migrants ain't highly paid nor highly skilled.

All countries drool after certain professions nowadays and those people are doing pretty well pretty much anywhere. Head hunt for those people is a tiny dent in demographic trends.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#337

Post by mantas »

mirimir wrote: post #270
colechristensen wrote: post #219

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Food and energy are not what defines scarcity any more. If you want to pay the mortgage, have a fulfilling job, have time to spend with your family, and give your child a good start in life, you can't have 8 kids in a middle class family. Sometimes 1 is the right number if you want your child to be successful and have enough free time to enjoy life yourself. That IS resource constraint, the resource just isn't food.…

It's pretty clear that the major driver is education and freedom of career choice for women. The UN has lots of data supporting that. Industrialization and changing attitudes toward children have also played a role. My paternal grandfather was a farmer. He had 20 children who survived to adulthood. By two wives, the second having been the nursemaid. As I understand it, all of the children worked. Basically as soon as…

Education comes with higher life standards. You want your kids to have their own rooms instead of whole family living in single-room shack, education for them etc.

"Freedom of career" for women is more like freedom to have to work. It's hard to raise a family on a single salary. Previously, a woman would work at home and husband would work outside. Now both of them have to work outside of the house to pay for appliances that do stuff back at home.

IMO one of the top issues is housing cost. Increasing specialisation, both parents having to work and urbanisation means people are crammed into more and more condensed cities. Space comes at expense. Children need space. Cheaper space out of the city means more transport costs and/or less job opportunities and likely lower wage. All in all, children is damn expensive.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#338

Post by elliekelly »

eloff wrote: post #299
chongli wrote: post #277

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The resource constraints now are time and location. It's affordable to buy houses in a lot of places, just not so many that have access to good jobs and schools. So people prioritize the latter and sacrifice their time by commuting for work. Since both parents now work, often with lengthy commutes, there isn't a whole lot of person-hours left to spend with the children. That means people have fewer of them. When the…

I think both parents (or especially the woman) working is probably the big part of it. But I don't think many people factor the cost of university degrees into their decision (whether they should is another matter)

> I think both parents (or especially the woman)

Why do you say especially the woman? Not trying to pick a fight, I'm genuinely curious.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#339

Post by philliphaydon »

jaredklewis wrote: post #279
swombat wrote: post #269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Based on my experience visiting Japan and talking to both expats and expat-friendly locals there, I think the issue is more cultural than political. If you live in Japan but don't look Japanese you never really feel welcomed as a Japanese. Contrast that to countries like most of the West, where at least a solid proportion of people consider it socially unacceptable to discriminate socially based on someone's looks or…

> Contrast that to countries like most of the West, where at least a solid proportion of people consider it socially unacceptable to discriminate socially based on someone's looks or origins.. Those things are also socially unacceptable in Japan. My experience is that the often discussed "micro-agressions" against foreigners happen about as often in Japan as they do in my own country (US, grew up in Texas). Of course…

It must be hard working on the border when people bring children that are not their own to fast tack their way through into the country. Or when families lie about their child’s age to loophole the system. But it’s easier for us to focus on the separation rather than the reason the separation exists to begin with.

And let’s not forget tear gas being used for crowds of people throwing stones at border patrol. No lets focus on tear gas issue and less of the people doing their job being assulted.

Re: Japan Is Giving Away 8M Abandoned Houses

#340

Post by Someone »

snowwrestler wrote: post #227
iandanforth wrote: post #180

The more interesting thing about this is that it is part of a new type of economics, contraction economics. The global trend toward birth rates below replenishment means that first-world countries are maintaining their population growth through immigration. As some countries embrace restrictions on immigration, and ultimately all countries plateau in their population growth (projected to be around 2100) it means that…

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…

”If we really believe this is true, then a shrinking population is what we want, to "soak up" those destroyed jobs”

The number of jobs is highway correlated with the number of people (most jobs exist to serve the population). So, population decline won’t help keep (relative) unemployment numbers down.

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