Why are'nt people in Japan not buying houses

 The secret behind the Japanese not owning a house

In most countries around the world, real estate is always at the top of business. Especially in Asian Countries, the house is also considered a yardstick to assess a person's stability. That is also why buying a home is always on the list of goals to strive for. Yet in Japan, people tend to rent a house more than buy one on their own. What is the reason behind this? You may ask, well read the full article to find out.

1) Can't afford to buy a house 

Why are young Japanese people not in a hurry to buy a house? Many people often think that Japanese people like to live in small houses. However, In reality, they are not willing to buy but unable to buy it in the first place.

Japan has experienced a real estate investment crisis. Between 1985 and 1990 house prices in some Japanese cities went from low to high by about 200% but then the bubble deflated and Japan entered "two lost decades". After the collapse of Japanese real estate decreased insignificantly and remained unchanged. 

Until 2012, housing demand began to increase, and housing prices in these places also began to increase. However, the demand for real estate fell sharply in small cities and rural areas far from urban areas. People moved to big cities, so the demand to buy houses in the countryside also dropped sharply.

According to reports, in recent years, middle-aged and elderly people over the age of 50 in Japan have sold their houses and cars in the suburbs to move to the city center. This has also pushed up housing prices in Japan's urban areas.

According to wagayajapan.com, 2019 figures for Tokyo's medium annual salary by age group show that Japan's richest group of people are office workers in their 50s with 8,829 million yen. And office workers in their 20s and 30s are the lowest income group with salaries ranging from 3,352 to 5,884 yen.

Meanwhile, housing prices in central Japan are always expensive. Real estate in Tokyo is always at the top of the most expensive real estate in the world and fluctuates greatly from year to year. 

According to data from resources realestate.co.jp, the average selling price for a new apartment sold in the Tokyo metropolitan area is 61 million yen ( about $423,000). Therefore, it can be seen that it is not that young people in Japan do not want to buy but they do not yet have the ability to do so.

In addition, Japanese people don't worry about housing because they don't put much emphasis on buying a house when getting married. In the land of cherry blossoms, when young people get married, they don't consider their ownership of real estate or the ability to buy property as important criteria like in India.

According to Japanese survey data, the homeownership rate of people aged 20 to 29 is 6.4%, and people aged 30 to 39 at 35.7% and that of people aged 40 to 49 is 57.6%. In other words, the percentage of Japanese buying houses at a young age is very low.

2) Renting a house is more Economical

The Japanese believe that renting a house is more cost-effective than buying a house. In recent years, the quality of rental housing in Japan has been getting better and better. Whether for singles or couples, a growing number of high-quality rental properties are available. People who do not have enough money to buy a house can also have an ideal life like this.

Moreover, In Japan buying a house is not necessarily cheaper than renting a house. The Japanese youngsters figured it out that Buying a house with a loan of 35 million yen is not worth it and renting a house for 120,000 yen per month will save more money. After reviewing and calculating the management fee, repair fee, and loan interest rate...the results show that the rental option is actually cheaper. That is also the reason that most young Japanese do not choose to buy a house but continue to rent a house.

3) Renting a house in Japan is very safe and convenient

In Japan, rental houses and homes for sale are essentially separate. Most rental homes are managed by official intermediaries. Therefore, houses that are decades old are still very clean and tidy. Moreover, all signing and leasing procedures have been carefully agreed upon in Japan.

In Japan, landlords cannot cancel contracts or evict guests as this is considered a violation of the law. There will not be a situation of being forced to move, so guests can rest assured to rent for a long time.

In addition, the Japanese government has preferential policies for guests, not allowing landlords to arbitrarily increase rental prices to protect vulnerable groups. Therefore, many people, even if they have money, do not want to buy a house but accept to rent because their interests are guaranteed in this scenario.

Another reason is that the working class in Japan often does not have a fixed job but changes places of work. Therefore, buying a fixed house will cause a lot of inconvenience for them. When renting, they will be able to freely choose a location close to the workplace to make it more convenient for them to work. 

Lastly, Japanese people often think of investing in spiritual life instead of material. Therefore, they often spend money on trips with family and friends or care about beauty and health care rather than collecting every penny to buy a house.

Teachers in Japan aren't happy at all

Japanese Teachers are suffering from Depression

A Survey released by the Japanese Ministry of Education on December 26 showed a sad reality that up to 10,944 public school teachers in this country had to apply for a long-term leave of one month or more due to illness, or mental illness in just 1 year. 

Japan is one of the most advanced educational countries in the world. This is a country with a scarcity of natural resources and often faces countless natural disasters, perhaps that's why the Japanese always think of people as the country's labor source, wanting the country to develop without a choice, no choice but to train a quality workforce. To achieve success on the human side, Japan has invented heavily in education.

Behind this remarkable development in terms of education, It is impossible not to mention the dedication and devotion of teachers in the country of the "rising sun". Accordingly, most of the teachers here had to work hard from morning to night, even having to shoulder the burden of supervising students to clean up after school. Under oppressive pressure, many teachers have fallen into very painful tragedies such as depression or even death. 

More than 10,000 Japanese teachers suffer from depression

According to statistics released on December 26 by the Japanese Ministry of Education, in the 2021 school year alone, up to 10, 944 public school teachers have applied for a long-term leave of one month or more. Mental illness including depression. This has increased to 15.2 % from the previous school year and represents a record high of 1.19% of the total number of teachers in Japan. Witnessing this huge number, many authorities believe that one of the reasons for this situation too long working hours which is a serious problem in Japanese schools when the workload is high, increasing work for young teachers. of the 10,944 teachers taking long-term leave for the 2021 school year, up to 5000 teachers took more than 90 days off the general limit of the number of sick days a teacher is allowed to take. , Continuing to set a new record. This number accounts for 0.64% of the highest percentage recorded. Since the 2007 school year, the number of mentally ill teachers who have had to leave their jobs has hovered around 5,000.

According to another study by the Japanese Ministry of Education conducted in 2016, about 30% of teachers at public elementary schools and about 60% at public junior high schools work an average of 6 hours per day, per month exceeding the government regulation of 80 hours.

The survey also showed the percentage of teachers taking sick leave and mental illness leave by age group: 1.87% in their 20s, 1.36% in their 30s, 1.27% in their 40s, and 0.92% for those 50 years of age or older. There is a trend towards more leave of young teachers and all age groups have increased compared to the previous school year. The group of teachers in their 20s had the highest increase with 0.43%. It can be said that a reform of teachers working time is an urgent matter in Japanese education at the moment.

The survey also examined whether 5,897 teachers who took leave for mental illness during the 2021 school year would return to work before April 2022. As a result, 2,473 teachers have returned to work. 2,283 teachers continue to take leave and the remaining 1,141 people directly quit.

The human resources representative of the education board in a large city believes that the problem lies in the shortage of teachers, which is difficult to make up for when employees quit in the middle of the school year due to childbirth or parenting. This leads to extra responsibilities for other teachers and makes them unable to take care of their health. After returning to the workforce, "they need to get back to their jobs right away, but many teachers have difficulty communicating with children and parents" the representative said.

Additionally, in a study conducted in November and December by the Hiroshima-based non-profit organization Kyouiku no Mori, professor emeritus Masahito Ogawa of the University of Tokyo and others examined the response of about 80 education boards for teachers with mental illness. As a result, work overload and a lack of people in management positions are the cause of depression.

Share this article-