

A Sprawl of Ghost Homes in Aging Tokyo Suburbs - pm24601
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/08/24/world/a-sprawl-of-abandoned-homes-in-tokyo-suburbs.html?_r=0

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rjsw
Duplicate of
[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10107632](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10107632)

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mc32
Japanese houses and buildings were typically built with 25 to 30 year useful
lives. It should come as little surprise that once unoccupied the structures,
unmaintained, begin to deteriorate rapidly --and just as well.

Life is impermanent, so should buildings.

What they should institute, barring the messiness of property rights, etc. Is,
given japan's family registries, etc. is identify owners figure out if they'll
fix it, if not, demolish. Instead of spending billions concretizing the coasts
and building roads to nowhere use those resources to cull crumbling buildings.

The one about the neighbor keeping up the property next door is very
stereotypical --wish more of the world were that way. Yes, it's to no effect
other than sensibilities, but without them there is no society.

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oh_sigh
> Life is impermanent, so should buildings.

That seems to be some very silly reasoning. Should we build our roads and
bridges to be impermanent, because life is? I'm not arguing with your first
sentence, about it not being surprising that unmaintained structures tend to
deteriorate.

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stcredzero
_That seems to be some very silly reasoning._

It's not so silly when your culture is situated right on the Pacific "Ring of
Fire" as is the case for Japan. In times past, you wanted to make your houses
light, so that if there is an earthquake, less stuff falls on you and your
family.

Imagine what it would be like if the entire culture was constantly
metaphorically whispering to you from the moment of your birth about the
temporary nature of life? Sorry, but while you can tell yourself you're doing
it, you can't actually do it -- your imagination isn't that good! (Otherwise,
there would be far fewer systemic social problems.)

In Japan, there is no distinction between high and low art. (This is
absolutely related to the rest of this comment!)

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oh_sigh
> Imagine what it would be like if the entire culture was constantly
> metaphorically whispering to you from the moment of your birth about the
> temporary nature of life?

Are you implying that people think the world ends when they die? If I'm going
to do useful work, why not do useful work that will help out people even after
I'm dead? Right now I'm living in a building that was built in the 1880s. I'm
happy that they built it to last.

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stcredzero
_Are you implying that people think the world ends when they die?_

Non-sequitur!

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oh_sigh
Then what were you trying to say? How or why have the Japanese built temples,
shrines, and castles that that have lasted thousands of years if they are
constantly told how transient life is?

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stcredzero
There's different messages for the common folk and the ruling elites.

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oh_sigh
It sounds like you're just making up facts to fit your theory.

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stcredzero
How about a program where foreign artists and craftsmen are allowed to sped a
summer (or a quarter) in a suburban Japanese house in exchange for fixing it
up?

Perhaps airfares could be subsidized or discounted through government or
corporate programs?

Or, how about something akin to AirBNB for municipalities around the world to
offer quarterly or half-year leases in exchange for maintenance and light
renovation?

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notahacker
Aren't the homes likely to be even less attractive to foreigners [normally
eligible for Japanese visas] than to the Japanese people that have abandoned
them?

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stcredzero
_Aren 't the homes likely to be even less attractive to foreigners_

Hence the proposal to market them to non-mainstream foreigners, like artists
looking for inexpensive retreats.

