Yup, Rack, Pack and Stack People why not rats do it. Don’t you want to live in a cubicle on the 30th floor to raise your family.lol. Comparing the US to an island is ridiculous.
The purpose of zoning laws is to keep poor people out. I remember when me and the wife were searching for a home. After touring a house we drove by an apartment complex and the real estate agent said to us, "you don't want to live in this neighborhood. It's next to the riff raff."
And don't forget for low bridge overpasses build deliberately this way to prevent busses from enering certain eareas. The funny thing is that modern low floor busses have no problem getting under them, but people living in that areas have to pay twice or even trice as much for the custom fire apparatus to fit under them, if compared to European commercial cab over chassis ones.
Yup how things have been zoned has created an entirely new caste that politicians can use to divide the working class and you see it in the voting. There is a big difference between who those in the suburbs vote for and those who live in cities, and also those who live rural.
I like to think of Japanese zoning as "nested zoning". At the base is small unit housing, plus shops, schools, clinics and whatever else the families need for their daily lives. Next is the medium density housing, plus what's in the first zone. Then bigger housing, shops and retail, commercial areas, and so on. Each including everything that's in the previous zones. So the zones all nest together like those Russian dolls. Each step up the ladder includes everything in the lower rungs.
That's how we supposed to live, everything is within 1-3 minute of walk, you can buy everything from food, medicine, to grocery in one single go no need to drive 30 minute to the nearest walmart to resuply everything.
Hey everyone wants a piece of that Premium Cake... they want to be their land to be more Value XD Its the bad side of capitalism.... Thats why HSR or whatever big Prj never gets build cause *JOB* *FOR* *EVERYONE* When the first stept is paying the whole dang upper echelon for that city...
The same goes for schools and kindergartens. I grew up in the suburbs of Japan. Kindergarten was a 10-minute walk from my house. Elementary school was a 3-minute walk, and junior high school was a 10-minute walk. I had to take the train to get to high school and university.
As an American living in Tokyo, this video is really clear and accurate. There's only one thing I'd add about the Japanese housing market that might explain partly why NIMBY isn't a thing here... Japanese don't consider houses an investment or asset nearly the same way Americans do. Houses aren't built to last and old ones are usually demolished as building codes get updated (because of earthquakes) since renovation is too expensive. They basically have a working life of 30-40 years before they're basically worthless. A lot of the new housing units being built are also likely replacing older ones.
A couple things: First, the unit numbers being presented in the video take into account unit teardowns and rebuilds. These are all new units strictly. I accounted for that. Second, Japan USED to have speculative real estate behaviors just like the US did, but housing became so plentiful due to increased building in the Tokyo metro that housing as an investment ceased to be much of a thing. You could maybe argue this is a little bit of a chicken and egg problem, but I would argue that the culture followed the market forces, rather than cultural forces shaping the market.
This video was just fantastic. My friends and I in NYC are constantly talking about our rents and comparing burdens. If you can find a one bedroom for $1,600 a month, even if it's an hour subway ride away from the city, that's not bad.
It's such a shame, I'm sure tons of talented people would love to live there but just can't afford to make the move. I saw that Eric Adams included "zoning reform" vaguely in his housing plan, but I'm pretty skeptical that anything transformative like true upzoning would come out of it.
@@CriticalDispatch The average salary of Japanese are very2 low compared to Americans. A fresh graduate in Tokyo makes on average $1500 in Tokyo. In New York people making $5000 is kinda normal. So at the end of the day, rent is determined by the income of the people at any place. I always hear Americans say that South East Asia is so affordable to live in. Yeah for you as an expatriate making US Dollar wages it is so cheap. For the local people it isn't affordable at all. If the average wage in a city is low, the rent is low. Average is high, rent goes up.
@@secrets.295 It works in the opposite way too you know. What if the average person in new York is rich because only rich people can live there??? Just a thought.
A big problem with New York City is their public transit needs to be more safe, reliable and cover more of the easily-connected boroughs of the city. I'd like to see the entire New York City region covered by just one common commuter pass for rail and buses, which would make commuting way less of a hassle.
I can't find even a word to express irony about "unique" mixed zoning in Japan as it's normal for the most countries. USA, Canada and Australia are three unique countries that have hard zoning laws.
And I could not imagine living any other way, I live in a town and have cafés and Parks, and even a small supermarket at every corner, I walk everywhere. The American way is just stupid.
This video is great. I appreciate the details that went into it. Recently there is a trend of foreign millionaires buying up property in Tokyo, so prices are a little bit on the rise these last few years. Also, about the point you mentioned that Tokyo is building more, there is one more contributing factor to that. In 1981 there was a law that was past about requirement for building earthquake resistence. It is called Kyu-Taishin. Any building built after 1981 will have a "shin-taishin" certificate that certifies it is earthquake resistent. so what happens is, people looking to buy property will always look for something that has the shin-taishin certificate, this in turn forces alot of old building owners to demolish and rebuild. there is construction within Tokyo all the time for things that are being demolished and rebuilt. Great content.
Thanks for the comment, glad you enjoyed it! Funny enough, I actually recorded a line about earthquake proofing and rebuilding that I ended up cutting for some reason (probably just didn't flow well). I read a figure that said Tokyo in some years had demolished and started reconstruction on up to 7% of it's housing stock, which is wild.
Hey everyone wants a piece of that Premium Cake... they want to be their land to be more Value XD Its the bad side of capitalism.... Thats why HSR or whatever big Prj never gets build cause *JOB* *FOR* *EVERYONE* When the first stept is paying the whole dang upper echelon for that city...
Canada is encouraging its municipalities to ditch or significantly revamp their zoning laws across the country in order to build more housing right now. There are a still a lot of whiners and complainers in these cities, sometimes within the city councils themselves, but hopefully more and more people watch videos like this one and come to realize that *this* is exactly what's needed at this point.
“whiners and complainers” tell me about it! In the Canadian city I’m in, a neighbourhood is up in arms that a new apartment building is 1 metre higher than the developers planned and technically goes against zoning laws.
ALWAYS within the city councils themselves. City councils are mainly made up of wealthy property owners, often retirees, with lots of time on their hands. That's why this is such a big problem.
Really makes me glad to see BC taking a step in the right direction in this regard. The former provincial housing minister, now premier (that's equivalent to a governor for any Americans reading this), warned municipalities that he would start stripping their powers away if they don't fix their shit. Well, they didn't, and now he's carrying out his promise. If the new legislation is ratified, it won't quite end the housing crisis (more measures will have to be taken to achieve that), but it will be a SIGNIFICANT step in the right direction. The province has already begun cracking down on short-term rentals, so I have some hope.
As someone who has lived in Japan for 10 years, this video is spot on. One thing that was missed, though, is that houses are depreciating assets, like cars. A lot of the issues with making housing more affordable is that people who have most of their assets in their house, don’t want their house to go down in value. In Japan, houses go down in value anyway. People are not so attached to their homes.
When housing is plentiful, it ceases to be an investment or an asset that appreciates value over time. Housing in western countries is only an investment because housing in general is more scarce! You're definitely correct, but the ideas are linked.
That was my impression on vacation in Tokyo. The neighbourhoods were all really nice, but a lot of the houses appeared to have been constructed and maintained on the cheap. Many with various haphazard modifications. The guest house we were staying at felt a little flimsy, the walls seemed rather under insulated, and half the windows were fitted with air handling devices. Plenty of exposed piping, squeaky door hinges and creaky floors. Still though, it was a comfortable, spacious place to stay in a pleasant neighbourhood, at a shockingly friendly price. We kept expecting there to be some horrible catch, but there never was any. Well, unless you count having to ride the train for at least half an hour to get anywhere, just like everyone else. It gave of the same vibe as my dad's old car. It was a tired, beat up rattle trap. But it ran fine, and that was all that mattered. He just kept that thing running as long as possible without spending any real money on it, before unceremoniously discarding it when it when the rust got too bad to pass inspection.
@@andyasbestos A big part actually for that is because due to being a very seismically active country. Due to constant earthquakes you cannot expect houses to last hence they are built with the expected lifetime from the get-go, often times renovating and inspecting for structural damage after 30 years or even updating them to newer earthquake regulation is much more expensive than just building a new one from the ground up.
I would argue that it's not that they're less attached, but they are less financially invested. A big problem in the US is that people see housing not as a basic human right, as Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs states, but rather as a vehicle for investment that they expect to appreciate over time. Personally, I think the Japanese have this right.
In the past, wooden construction was the norm for homes in Japan, and there was a major fire in Tokyo that claimed the lives of 100,000 people. As a result, homes were demolished to prevent the fire from spreading, but there were ample wood stockpiles, and they were able to be rebuilt the day after the fire. In other words, homes were purposely built with simple structures that were easy to dismantle.
Thank you for producing this video. Many people are nostalgic for the small town where they can walk or bicycle to stores, restaurants, a movie theater, etc. They also want it to be clean and safe. In many ways, Tokyo has essentially created many “small towns” joined together, both vertically and horizontally, to form a larger city in an organic way. It is only things such as airports and heavy/medium industry that need to be zoned to create specific separation. Public parks and mass transit help connect and enhance these “small towns”.
My first internship I was put in charge of reading the zoning laws for new developments and it has installed a hatred for American zoning in my soul. Its pointlessly byzantine because of fricking NIMBY’s.
Japanese towns are centered around the train station. This means while returning home from work, one can easily pop into the grocery to buy the day's fresh. Everyday. Other services / businesses are also close by and not a special trip to the mall. Don't feel like cooking? Tons of restaurants clustered around the train station taking advantage of the foot traffic! This means most things are in a 20 minute walking radius ! Yep WALKING not driving. No car payments, insurance, gas to waste money on! $$avings! In Tokyo, there is on average at least 1 public transport access point within 30 minutes walking time from any dwelling. (either a train station or a bus stop)
One great thing is that train stations are also mixed use! Many stations have regular commuter trains, Shinkansen, and subway/ light rail lines running through stations. They also have hotels, offices, shopping malls, restaurants, and conference centers built on top, beside, and under the stations. They are known as "eki-naka".
that's a huge problem I find with the NYC metro system. it is entirely designed to funnel people into and out of manhattan, specifically. but once you leave manhattan, the train situation becomes pretty dire, and starts feeling almost randomly plotted
Housing in Portland, Ore. is going in the opposite direction of Tokyo. Small amount of structures built, even compared to Seattle, WA. Vast areas of single-family zoning, multiple or mixed-use is the rare exception. Rentals have risen in price considerably in the last decade, with less being able to afford a house, rentals will stay that way. The newer structures are built for some earthquake resistance, but many of the older buildings are not - many will collapse in a major earthquake. Some residential buildings are unreinforced masonry (URM) and the city allows for the owner/landlord not to disclose this fact.
A point not raised here is the Japanese attitude to housing in general; a house is a consumable to be used, not an investment asset. Most likely because of the natural disasters Japan is prone to due to its geography. Why on earth would you put the majority of all the money you will ever earn into something that could be washed away, shaken into matchsticks or burned to the ground tomorrow? Have a look here on RUclips for vids on people buying either an incredibly cheap or even free home in Japan. It's a cultural attitude that simply wouldn't fly in the West.
It's often cited that the majority of American wealth is in their homes, which is why supply is purposely limited. However, if present-value of pensions is calulated, even more wealth is held in private pensions for mostly government employees. Unless you own multiple houses and have a pension, you're just working to support the upper classes.
Great video! So glad I found it. I think Tokyo’s model has a lot of value and can immensely improve North American approach to urban planning. Wrote a few paragraphs and posting on LinkedIn tomorrow morning. This needs all the views it can get. Thanks for your work!
So glad you liked the video! I couldn't agree more. The speed at which North American cities are upzoning is alarmingly slow, but I'm hopeful that innovations like this could help make American cities affordable again. I appreciate the support, let me know what people on Linkedin think!
The Kantō region has to cram in _38 million people_ into its metropolitan area. That's why space usage in Tokyo must be extremely efficient and Tokyo needs to have its massive commuter rail and subway system (Shinjuku Station in northwest central Tokyo is easily the busiest railroad station in the world)_.
It’s the same story as NYC in Australian cities. We also have skyrocketing rents and a housing shortage as a result. It will be a long time before a majority of people understand that localised planning control destroys cities - it’s offensive to most people.
Exactly. I’ve lived in Tokyo for 5 years. Right after I came back to Australia I realized how pathetic the Australian government is doing with urban planning in capital cities. A lot of problems can be solved by a reform of zoning planning. But people who have the authority refuse to do so.
I reside in one of America's NIMBY capitals (northern Virginia) and this hits home. Your video is well done and clearly explains one of the core issues we have in US cities, and I will be sharing it. Thank you.
it used to be common for people to work out of a business attached to their house, or rent apartments above the shop. where i grew up we had a lot of such historical buildings and you could still rent apartments above shops, we had a guy who ran a small grocery attached to his house, nice guy, would always greet people with "hi neighbor" having people running businesses out of their homes makes better use of their equity, allows businesses within easy walking distance and serves a local community.
True. Shop-houses are more efficient, reduce traffic jams, and just make sense in every way. The U.S. is stupid not to have millions of shop-houses. Blame it on the little tyrant fiefdom city councils and their "zoning" racket (for their own family and friends). By the way, Hugh Hefner lived in his high-rise office for the first few years.
I bought a house in 2021 in Tokyo since our company was going mostly remote, if you are working you can usually get a fixed 35 year flat loan, you get inheritance tax deductions if your parents decide to chip in to buy the house, it would have been cheaper than renting and I am a new house owner, I got 3 super markets 4 convinience stores and 3 drug stores in walking distance, never owned a car and don't really plan to either.
Thank you for making this important video on the scourge of draconian "zoning" that is the root cause of America's housing crisis. Keep up the great work!
Also the numbers of building codes in the United States are over 20,000 where as Japan has less than 20 determined by their government. Looks like it's the United States that needs to overhaul the system.
I think the biggest difference between Japan and the US specifically is the culture and way people treat each other. After moving to the US from Japan I realized how poorly everyday people treat each other here, and how the ruling class extracts as much as possible out of the average person at every opportunity possible. It does not help that the US government is a tool of US corporations either. When in Japan, we got over 2000$ in one year from the CITY GOVERNMENT, not even country, to make up for lost wages due to covid, and were encouraged to spend it within the community to keep local businesses alive. Good luck finding something like that in the US ever.
"Free" money from government helps nobody. That is communism (until the communist elites take ALL of your property rights from you, like in CCP China).
US citizens got a thousand or two in stimulus checks as well during COVID. I remember clearly as it was talked about heavily and I also got the money in my account. We are paying for it now as those stimulus and massive money printing schemes were a major contributor to our current inflation woes. Japan deals with a very different inflationary environment than the US.
The UK and so many other parts of the world could benefit from this. I wince when I think of London house prices and to think it could be so much better is maddening.
Unfortunately, I doubt Americans will learn their lesson. "The American Dream" of a detached SFO suburban home is practically a religion to many Americans. The UK and former colonies tend to have these views of personal land ownership and suburbia. Canada, Ireland, the UK, The US, and Australia all have these problems of a lack of housing supply, refusal to build, and NIMBYism.
In Japan, they planned cities in a way that transport and housing ALWAYS go hand in hand. They never built housing without adequate transport networks.
Interesting that America, Australia, New Zealand they all have this terrible urban planning with single houses suburbs and absolutely awful or nonexisting public transport. (Don't know about UK haven't lived there) So that's basically whole Anglosphere. Whereas Asia or Continental Europe they all pretty much use the same system as Japan - how come?(although nimbys growing now even in Europe).
I would define a NIMBY with regards to development issues, as someone who puts there personal interests above the community as a whole and/or unfairly targets vulnerable segments of the population, often using undemocratic means, wealth, and/or social status. It also refers to individuals or groups that unfairly inhibit reasonable self expression. I am open to, and would welcome, a better definition. Unfortunately, terms can get co-opted, especially if they are easily misunderstood.
You're pretty spot on. Though, to be fair, A LOT of NIMBYs are not from a high or even middle social status. Many fear gentrification or displacement (justifiably, even if they are not always right).
@@Norfirio Yes, that is why I put “often” and “and/or”. Some people call someone a NIMBY just because they disagree with them. If someone doesn’t want a toxic dump in their backyard, I wouldn’t consider them a NIMBY unless they just want it moved to someone else’s backyard.
Great point, I found it strange that the only examples shown of nimbyism where for very small cities or towns while the rest of the video discussed New York and Tokyo.
A channel I watch in Japan seems to indicate it's actually just as cheap to buy as rent but people prefer to rent because you don't have to pay for maintenance & you can move easier & be more centrally located in cities & not out in a suburb. Although it seems much more difficult to do either if your a foreigner.
I saw that, too. In fact, for 10 days I lived in a cardboard box in Yoyogi Park in 1998. That demographic was like less that 1% of the population, though...completely incomparable to our situation in the West. I think there was something else going on with the handful who still worked as salarymen. Even now there are some hellllllla cheap places in Tokyo, they're just tiny.
Tokyo is NOT affordable for most Japanese people and that's why people live in prefectures around Tokyo. You guys think it's affordable because you're North American or European. Everything is cheaper in Japan. We are much poorer than you think.
Japan: collective mentality where citizens think of others and what is best for society American: individual mentality where citizens think of themselves and their individual interests That is the problem.
Nope you cannot apply the same tactic in Japan to fix the housing crisis. Japan is a largely homogenous society. Western societies are mixed Therefore we're culturally different. People have other needs and desires. America is driven by personal freedoms and liberties. Japan is driven by fitting into society. This is the biggest problem i see with most RUclipsrs thinking "hey it works in one country why can't it work here?" It mostly will not due to cultural differences.
If we’re all about freedom and liberty shouldn’t the zoning regulations be more relaxed? Shouldn’t people be more free to build what they want on their property? And why does valuing personal freedom mean you can’t have mixed use zoning?
@@I_HATE_THE_TOS Thank you for challenging these nonsense concepts. People think "because homogeneous" is a good explanation for every difference. How is letting the market decide instead of zoning laws going to take away people's choices? We have LESS choices now because zoning regulations restrict development and chokes supply.
Seriously, the "homogeneous card"? Which is played every time, no matter the topic, to dismiss things that work in Japan and their potential applicability to other countries. As for freedom, Japanese have far more freedom to do with their property than Americans do.
How about Houston? Our city is the least regulated in Zoning in the U.S. we are the first other than NYC if not top 5 in building new homes/apartments/condos. There are multiple mix use projects going on like Hanover Autry park, East River, Regent Square Houston, ect. Rents are still increasing and buying houses are now becoming unaffordable. What worries me are big rental corporations are controlling those rent prices for these massive developments instead of individuals. Furthermore, the Japanese zoning system also allows pedestrian walkways in the middle instead of a road in the middle which greatly densities the area. Many zoning laws don’t allow this to happen and require a motorized vehicle road.
Houston doesn't have zoning explicitly but they basically do via land use regulations that function the same. The land use regulations still limit density, lot size, and increase buffers between buildings, etc.
Houston has the problem of zoning via homeowners associations. The local government basically outsourced this regulatory power to even smaller and less accountable local governments literally run by homeowners with the most to lose from more housing. Furthermore, Houston destroyed the inner city (forcing it to be paved over into parking lots, making before and after pictures of the city looking as though the city has been bombed) by making a regulation that any commercial real estate needs a certain amount of parking space whenever it goes above a certain threshold of floor space.
@@evannibbe9375 on your second point, that was back in the 1950’s-70’s during the American removal of “poverty”. A lot of cities destroyed buildings and built parking. Not just Houston. Also there are areas of Houston that have removed the mandatory parking paces like in Downtown,midtown, and East Downtown.
@@evannibbe9375 Cities need parking and lots of it. Who wants more parking meters and not knowing if you'll even find street parking? Requiring parking spaces seems a reasonable idea to me.
I enjoyed the video, super clean and concise. One point of constructive criticism: watch out for repetition in your script. All of the "look at this..."'s became noticeable after the third occurrence. Maybe consider using a "here is" or "this is"? But thank you again for the video
The problem with Toronto is it makes poverty ghettos by putting safe injection centres, methadone clinics, homeless shelters and homeless community health clinics all in one area. Then the parks in all the surrounding areas of course become tent cities. The city then sends people to these areas to access resources. Politicians concentrate these services outside their areas and designated “good areas”. Homeless shelters should not be massive. It is not mentally healthy for people to be crammed in like sardines. Instead focus on building lots of supportive housing connecting people directly to an apartment that is transitional or permanent with supports on site while they have a choice to move into private separate apartments when ready if they choose. There simply isn’t enough housing to intake all the people here and wealthier new residents to the city slowly gentrify people out. Mixed income housing is important, but not with massive concentration of substance user services and shelters that consume areas. Smaller pockets allow for areas to not be overwealmed. People can say things discriminatory, but I argue those people have never lived in such areas. A central place to send all homeless people just concentrates a social issue which stems from poor housing policy and a lack of affordable housing and addiction resources. There is an assumption that all poor people have something in common and want to be housed together and that is not true.
I have no idea what this rant is directed at. Did you mean to comment this on another video? Toronto is not remotely discussed, nor is the idea of "a central place to send all homeless people"...
I think the Americans with power wouldn't accept Japanese-style zoning because it doesn't benefit them. It would strike down their artificially-created shortages, perceived value for property, and result in financial losses. The general American "me, me , me" attitude also won't help with wealthy NIMBYs surely going to lobby to keep their property values. Also, housing in the US are seen as assets and investments instead of being just housing - a human right - first. Japan doesn't have this problem since housing (the homes, not the land the homes are on) depreciates and becomes eventually worthless and obsolete, negating the notion that it's something that gains value in time.
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It's a very Western thing. People here are very hyper-individualistic these days.
Don’t forget about “supply and demand”, the US cities have a lot of foreigner land owners who seek the US land as investments that are safe from their own governments grasp. That means foreign demand is hurting US home seekers too.
Especially in California, where there are millions of houses bought up by aliens, including communist Chinese of over a million green cards alone. 300,000 Thais. Etc. There are no reciprocal rights for an American in THEIR countries, as an expat. All of this has priced American working families out of affordable housing in Cali.
@@diemes5463 Sigh.. it be like that, bro. When you say New York, do you mean New York City or the state?? If you mean the state, where at? Just curious. I’m in Dutchess County, NY, right on the Putnam County border!
I think this plays a lot into the fact that housing is viewed as an investment in the US. Here in Japan, it's actually viewed similarly to cars, it depreciates from the moment you buy it and will have no value by 30 years. This discourages foreigners buying up houses as a stable investment.
There's a part of the story that your'e missing here. In the 1980's Tokyo real estate was the most expensive in the world. I don't know much about the history of that boom and subsequent bust, but I suspect there may be more at play here than just sensible urban zoning.
Tokyo may have had more people move into its city limits than NYC or London, but Tokyo is also nearly twice the size at 14.5 million people. NYC and London both sit at just 8.8 million. So, while it's true that Tokyo saw 200k more inhabitants than NYC the actual impact on the city of Tokyo was roughly half that of what NYC has experienced. Meaning that Tokyo saw a population growth of roughly 7% whilst NYC saw a population growth of closer to 11% So contrary to what you stated in the video the amount of growth that Tokyo saw does in fact play a role in why houses are more affordable there. However, the other points in the video were right on the mark. Hope this doesn't upset you, I'm just trying to help. Best wishes
My city is against anything that isn't a single family home. No apartments allowed. It's one of the dumbest policies that continues to fail people's need.
Keeps everybody out that can't afford a SFH. Multifamily residences are not allowed. Keeps their property values high. That's what they want. When housing gets short, property values and rents skyrocket. That's what they want!!!
Most of the tyrant-run towns have already "zoned" against tiny houses, which is what millions of Americans need, in whole multi-acre developments of them. A hundred single or childless couples could live on barely more than one acre, work, and build wealth from there. But, NO. The tyrants oppose it because they won't profit from it.
Great video! I would like to hear more about what is allowed in Tokyo's most restrictive residential zoning category other than sf homes and schools (if anything), since the vast majority of US cities are zoned sf residential only. Like, can someone open a store in the first floor of their house? Can they subdivide their lot and sell half of it? This would be a great follow up video.
Awesome insights, I had no idea how unique the Japanese zoning system was. Although I can’t help but wonder what the situation would be like if Tokyo was constructing New York-sized homes and had the some protections for old construction, like heritage designations. I feel like Japanese consumer preferences definitely skew to the newer and smaller side of things.
You know what's funny is I went into this video thinking there was a significant difference in apartment sizes, especially based on my experience living in Tokyo, but it's actually not much. The average apartment in Tokyo is approx. 710 square feet and the average apartment in NYC is anywhere from 750-850, many are smaller.
@@Zilero Yeah, it's a bit surprising for sure. Tokyo does have a lot of small apartments... but considering how awful the situation is in New York, Toronto, etc. these days, you can get the same size apartment in Tokyo for cheaper. Not to mention it's so much safer, cleaner, accessible and just looks so beautiful.
Tokeo is the capital city, and just like NYC, the center for economy. NYC development continues even if it isn’t as plentiful as Tokeo despite restrictions of being mostly islands and the anti-development air rights scheme. Apples to apples
In the west, we don't build anymore. Housing is an asset, not a need. But I don't follow the opposition, rental yield is what should be the main source of returns, not land appreciation. The Japanese are ahead on this one. This video is so good
So you know how the highway system in most places, but specifically talking about america, is pretty bad for almost all parts of society, i’d like to hear your take on how japanese urban highways have impacted cities in japan (specifically talking about tokyo here but they exist in other cities as well), because i see a lot of content bashing highways in north america and such, but i never hear people talking about them in japan
Hrm, interesting question. I think people don't talk much about the impact on the highway system in Japan because the country is just so well covered by public transportation. Speaking from my experience there, you can absolutely travel the country by bus and train without any issue. As far as I'm aware, the train system in Tokyo developed quickly in the post war period and grew as the city grew.
@@CriticalDispatch appreciate the answer. It's interesting to note that japan has pretty much as many roads as in american countries, on a per capita basis, considering they're completely different sizes it's not fair, but i still find it interesting how much better japan seems to have their infrastructure built.
The highways in Tokyo can be pretty bad. I'm generally of the opinion that you need some amount of highway infrastructure, but the size and location is very important. In Japan, they do one thing right in that most, if not all, highways are 3 lanes wide per direction or less. The main issue i see is that the locations can be terrible. Okinawa famously has a highway right along the waterfront where a beautiful beach should be. Tokyo built a ton of highways right over the rivers (though some are being removed/buried).
@@nanjing78654building is one thing, Japan has a culture of maintenance unlike most other places. Any immaculately built infrastructure will eventually fail without proper maintenance.
One thing you overlook is the cultural conceptual value of homes in Japan. Housing is seen as a tool, they depreciate with time. It is often cheaper to teardown old homes to build new ones. Generational wealth is built through family savings, not properties, at least not for the average person. The conceptual idea of home is more attached to the feel of the neighborhood and to the people than a singular static structure.
Housing in the US became a major investment for regular people _because_ zoning keeps prices high, and apartments expensive. Now the two form a feedback cycle, but zoning came first (excluding farms, but there the land is the business, not just a place to live).
However back in 1990s it was not that way Japanese brought investment homes everywhere. It was after the crash in the mid 1990s that it brought it to an end
This just raises an obvious question: why can some countries or cities pass smart, forward-thinking laws which shape their societies wisely, while others can't seem to even understand these concepts? My hypothesis: it's all rooted in the education level of your citizenry. It's no coincidence that Asian countries with tough education standards and a cultural emphasis on educational achievement, make people who can, at least, comprehend the concept of "we need to do this smart thing, to reshape our cities for the benefit of future generations". 3rd world countries with poor education standards struggle to even have these conversations and when they do, the outcomes reflect selfish, short-term desires. The US is trending rapidly in this direction.
In the US it's most often rooted in racism and/or classism, even if the person arguing isn't explicitly stating so. "Neighborhood character", "those people", all these phrases thrown around by NIMBYs are them saying they are afraid to have poor or minority folks living near them.
the ONLY and I MEAN *THE ONLY* real purpose of zoning should be to prevent highly polluting industrial buildings(like many factories, mines, quarries, and treatment plants) from mixing with where people live. the purpose of zoning is to promote people's health not any of the shxt we try to use zoning for in the US. now you can add things on top of that to help plan and organize your city layout and maybe promote certain activities over others in certain areas, but people will build to suit either way if you let them. keeping industrial zones from contaminating people's living spaces is the ONLY real essential. it was the only problem created by the industrial revolution that zoning was meant to fix. you accomplish that your zoning laws are effectively complete, everything else is fluff and more art than science.
I find it amazing how a country can do what is beneficial for the people of the land. In America the opposite happens things are done to benefit one class of people. Why? We all pay taxes and we all have to work. Why can't we do the same thing that the country of Japan did... fix their problems? We allow the wealthy to rule our lives by electing them into positions of power which only furthers the situation. The laws and rules are changed to further benefit them and make it harder for us to do anything.
Your answer as to why we can’t lies at racism and classism as the root cause. The two are the very foundation of most of Americas problems. America is a business. It’s always about making a profit, not the benefit of the people as a whole 😢
@joykennedy3478 if you think classism and racism don’t exist in Japan, where this problem is fixed, you are completely ignorant. I mean, that’s already clear, from your assessment of America’s current issues. You don’t want to fix anything, you want to mope around in conspiracy theories that make you feel righteous. Pipe down with all that.
Not everyone works, not everyone pays taxes. Not everyone wants to live in a city. Not everyone is of the "won't you be my neighbor" attitude, and it is likely for the better. Urbanizing the suburbs like the Japanese have done is not going to work in the US not because of NIMBYism but because when NIMBYism fails, the moving truck and the realtor agent win. A perfect example of this is the proposal to build a new city in the California delta area right now; the movers and shakers of society have declared that the existing cities cannot be saved and must be abandoned to the undesirable members of society, while a new utopian city for those who want it must be built. Racist? Hell yes. Classist? You bet. Correct? Yes. Because cities are not going to fix themselves, and adding housing is not going to solve the issue.
Up until the 1960's before the U.S. began centralizing around it's larger cities, they had a much more disbursed economy spread out thru many small towns & cities. That would include a Main Street with retail and restaurants on the ground level and apartments or offices above. Perhaps a train station. Surrounding suburbs and light industry sites beyond that. But the completion of the Interstate Highway System and the rise of the regional shopping center or mall changed all that, not just zoning. And now globalization has caused more concentration around mega cities with cheap air travel and unlimited channels for freight transport.
Light rail is about the only major building project that completely flips Nimbys on their head. In Sydney, houses that were near where light rail routes have been built went UP in value, and suddenly, everyone justifiably wants light rail in Sydney.
Amazing video! I loved it. I saw it recommended by another channel, and I'm so happy I clicked. Question, are there any limitations on property and housing being used as real state assets? In the US, companies and magnates can own 30, 50, 100+ properties and rent them out as landlorda or just let them set and grow in value, even though such practices affect.housing supply as well. Is there anything in Tokyo preventing them from speculate on housing?
I'm not aware of any law in Japan that restricts real estate speculation like you're describing. In fact, Japan had an asset price bubble in the late 90s that was pretty bad for the economy. Interestingly though, they continued building massive amounts of housing during that period and I can't find anything to indicate that it had a huge impact on rents. Good question to look more into though!
@@CriticalDispatch I think this comes from competition between landlords where the way to make more money is to build more units of housing than your competitors.
Japanese homes generally don't appreciate in value because old homes are seen as less desirable than new ones. There are a lot of reasons for this from superstitions of haunted houses to earthquake safety. Ultimately, this means treating housing as an investment in Japan is a bad idea that will lose money, so Japanese housing is seen as a consumer product, not an investment vehicle.
There are other factors as well which are equally important: 1. Controlled immigration. Remember that Japan is nearly 100% homogenous and doesn’t have large scale infusion of capital from international sources. Thus the demand for housing doesn’t skyrocket and thus growth in rental rates are steadily low. Places like Vancouver, Canada went through a massive increase in valuations due to large scale capital infusion from Asian countries like China. You don’t see this happening in Japan. 2. The labor force is a product of their upbringing. Teamwork is paramount. This shows itself in Japanese unions. In comparison to unions in the US, Japanese union members are far more efficient and thus provide better cost effective solutions in the construction of new housing inventory. 3. Zoning was not designed to keep poor people out. Zoning rules and ridiculous entitlement processes (here is looking at you San fransicko) keep poor people out. Not in my back yard (NIMBY) as community sentiment is what kills projects. Here is looking at you democrat millionaires of California.
Exactly. Millions of aliens (non-citizens) outright own homes in California. You can bet that no country in Asia allows that. This hugely increased, ARTIFICIAL demand has created in California a shortage of affordable housing for working American families, as well as driven up prices.
A suburb isn't a city and shouldn't be compared to a city. Suburbs are where people go to live when they don't want to live in a city. A suburb is the outer fringes of a city - the place between the city and the rural countryside. I'd rather give up every amenity provided by cities and live in a suburb or the rural countryside than to EVER live in a city.
Cities do purpose affordable housing but NIMBYs are saying no to it and that’s why we “are not allowed” to have this solution. Nimbys want their property value to keep going at the expense of society and the city opportunity expense. Even though there are other ways of having assets like gold, stocks, art etc they don’t buy houses for their needs they buy houses for wealth. And who’s gonna buy these houses when they sell because we have a younger population that cannot afford not even half of the asking prices and that is to large corporations that will overpay for it on purpose so that means the end game is corporate dominance in the housing ownership which means real estate is mostly an old people game that will turn into a corporate game. Basically we are excluded from participating in the game and get denied if we try to do something about it. It’s like drowning in a crowded swimming pool and no one cares
there is a concern for the "not in my backyard movement" changing quickly. What would happen to property value. we can say boo hoo the millionaires property goes down but what about middle class Americans? I think the reason why it doesnt change in america is because of the middle class not wanting to lose their personal wealth and what they invested into their home. The question is, can property values stay the same or even go up with changing zoning laws.
I haven't visited Tokyo, but from what I'm told the city planning there is admirable. Additionally, I think the US has done itself a great disservice with how it's zoned, disincentivizing or outright prohibiting mixed-used development. All that being said, I am weary of a single-variable explanation. It is true that the population of Tokyo has increased in recent decades, as opposed to the general population of Japan, implying increased demand. This seems, however, to suppose that the Tokyo housing market is independent of the national housing market. This doesn't seem to be the case in the US, so I'm skeptical it is the case there. Additionally, it is important to note structure and trends in the Japanese economy are different than the American economy: Japan's economy has grown much less; Japan's economy is much more equal; etc. Finally, I would like to note the work done by Clayton Aldern and Gregg Colburn. In their work Homelessness is a Housing Problem, they do in fact find the lack of housing supply to be a critical factor in homelessness to a degree that is statistically significant. This analysis though, by their own admission, only reveals part of the problem as many of the regressions comparing housing supply with homelessness only yield a R^2 near 0.3, significant but not enough to assign it as the sole cause.
Japan had no inflation or salary increase from 1990~2021. This is the most important factor. Why do you only show economic growth till 1990 and not show that it went flat after 1990? Don't get me wrong I lived in Tokyo for 30+ years but it is great but leaving out that there was no inflation from 1990~2021 makes the rest of the reasoning irrelevant.
This is a fantastic video, the zoning and planning practices in Japan are probably the best in the world for creating housing abundance and affordability and you do an excellent job of boiling it down. Another factor is how Japan embraces factory built homes, which are just as nice as houses built on site, but without the delays of permitting, inspection construction and high labour costs.
Great video. What are your thoughts on developers who keep units off-market? The US currently has 16 million vacant homes compared to Japans 8-11 million depending on source. Does vacancy truly equate to affordability? How does Japan's non-market housing compare to US?
The location of the vacant units is what matters most. People like to use vacancy stats but they never talk about the location. Tokyo has surplus housing because the vacant units are located in places where people actually want to live, which keeps prices low. This isn't the case in the US, which was highlighted briefly here. Cities like LA and NYC actually have a housing deficit. Sure, the country as a whole has a lot of vacant housing, but a homeless person in NYC doesn't care about a vacant apartment in Kansas.
@Critical Dispatch I see what you're saying, but even in places where people want to live if the deficit is being created by nearly half of the units being withheld, then is it really an issue with the amount of units that are able to be built per the zoning ordinance? I'm not saying that Euclidean zoning isn't part of the problem, just that it isn't the extent of it.
@@lizsaavedra5319 I'm not aware of any place where lack of vacancy is being caused by units being "withheld". That's not a category in vacancy statistics. Basically if a unit is empty, it's empty. There are statistical categories for units that are changing hands and sit vacant for a month or for units being renovated though.
@@CriticalDispatch While yes, we do need better data on vacancies to equitably monitor these changes and further analyze the disparities, they are categorized to an extent into market and non-market vacancies, and then subcategorized further. While yes, non-market vacancies aren't categorized by being "withheld". They are closely monitored in relation to housing market. The argument is that if there is a surplus, rent will go down, and you use LA as an example. Over 46,000 units are held in a state of non-market vacancy in LA -more than one for every unhoused person in Los Angeles. Many thousands more units are withheld from the housing system by landlords listing them at high rents that keep them vacant long-term. Many of these units are kept vacant by owners seeking to profit by speculating on the increase in property value, returning properties to the market only when rents are sufficiently high enough for them to yield their desired profit. (ACCE Vacancy Report 2020)
I think you miss a big piece here. Flipping homes for gains and massive speculation by average people is uncommon in Japan. There is a mentality that housing is a utility in Japan as opposed to seeing housing as an investment or a nest egg.
Speculation is uncommon because housing is plentiful. When an asset is less scarce, it ceases to be a good investment. Japan USED to have speculative behavior in their housing market, but they don't anymore, Policy is the answer.
@@CriticalDispatchHousing is plentiful because of Japan’s population decline. In fact japan has the opposite problem now. Many homes sit empty thanks to their population having shrunk by millions from their peak. Their housing stock is designed for a larger population than now and is expected to shrink at an accelerating pace for decades
I don’t know too much of everything that you addressed. But I am very optimistic on behalf of our country (America) we can learn a lot from other countries! ✅ Great video.
If they are serious about potential renters gaining equity in their apartment while they rent, I like that idea a lot. I'm generally skeptical of the whole affair though, given Newman's history and how he seemingly ran Wework into the ground.
I personally think Neumann doesn't give a rat's ass about contributing to the financial foundation of his customers and is just riding the current revival of untenable far left collectivist ideas brought back by social media and its insidious ability to viralize simplistic fuzzy sounding ideas amongst young people. There is no way in hell he is going to offer fractional ownership - he's been very vague about the entire concept of ownership and has, on more than one occasion, used the phrase "perceived ownership".
I would love to see a video about housing on large cities like in China Korea with absurd housing prices comparing to the salaries. Those cities don’t have American zoning
Also NYC and San Francisco are mixed use cities and are zoned very differently compared to the rest of the country and we know how housing market in those cities are
I like the Tokyo zoning a lot, but I'm not sure they should allow homes in industrial zones. Although my previous understanding of Tokyo zoning was that you could go one up or down from your current zone (so like a residential area can go up to commercial and have vending machines or shops on it), so I'm kind of surprised to hear in this video saying they can have housing in every zone (including industrial)?
Industrial today is cleaner than ever before and meets all city codes during the daytime. I actually lived in an industrial zone in Idaho that was a grandfathered residence. Nothing wrong with it. It should all be mixed. The Japanese are right. For that matter, why not abolish all the zoning and let liberty and the free market decide?
![Stromae, Pomme - “Ma Meilleure Ennemie” (from Arcane Season 2) [Official Visualizer]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/1F3OGIFnW1k/mqdefault.jpg)
the amount of urbanist content creators is rising at an incredible rate
Yup, Rack, Pack and Stack People why not rats do it. Don’t you want to live in a cubicle on the 30th floor to raise your family.lol. Comparing the US to an island is ridiculous.
I think its because housing has gotten so bad in US cities people are looking for solutions
@@elfunny1212Well, they will get a lesson in how bad American city politics are, and they will get it hard.
Too bad most of the content is trash.
Either that or the videos recommended to me are more and more urban planning related. Either way I'm happy
The purpose of zoning laws is to keep poor people out. I remember when me and the wife were searching for a home. After touring a house we drove by an apartment complex and the real estate agent said to us, "you don't want to live in this neighborhood. It's next to the riff raff."
And at the time we were the riff raff!
Too true. Euclidean zoning, redlining, it's all coming from the same place really.
And don't forget for low bridge overpasses build deliberately this way to prevent busses from enering certain eareas. The funny thing is that modern low floor busses have no problem getting under them, but people living in that areas have to pay twice or even trice as much for the custom fire apparatus to fit under them, if compared to European commercial cab over chassis ones.
Classism and systemic racism are built into the foundation of America’s laws. They’re so baked in we don’t even think about them.
Yup how things have been zoned has created an entirely new caste that politicians can use to divide the working class and you see it in the voting. There is a big difference between who those in the suburbs vote for and those who live in cities, and also those who live rural.
Tokyo was built incredibly, American policies and attitudes are the reason we’re so behind
I like to think of Japanese zoning as "nested zoning". At the base is small unit housing, plus shops, schools, clinics and whatever else the families need for their daily lives.
Next is the medium density housing, plus what's in the first zone.
Then bigger housing, shops and retail, commercial areas, and so on. Each including everything that's in the previous zones. So the zones all nest together like those Russian dolls. Each step up the ladder includes everything in the lower rungs.
That's how we supposed to live, everything is within 1-3 minute of walk,
you can buy everything from food, medicine, to grocery in one single go
no need to drive 30 minute to the nearest walmart to resuply everything.
That's also how it works in many other countries too
Hey everyone wants a piece of that Premium Cake... they want to be their land to be more Value XD
Its the bad side of capitalism.... Thats why HSR or whatever big Prj never gets build cause *JOB* *FOR* *EVERYONE*
When the first stept is paying the whole dang upper echelon for that city...
The same goes for schools and kindergartens. I grew up in the suburbs of Japan. Kindergarten was a 10-minute walk from my house. Elementary school was a 3-minute walk, and junior high school was a 10-minute walk. I had to take the train to get to high school and university.
As an American living in Tokyo, this video is really clear and accurate.
There's only one thing I'd add about the Japanese housing market that might explain partly why NIMBY isn't a thing here...
Japanese don't consider houses an investment or asset nearly the same way Americans do. Houses aren't built to last and old ones are usually demolished as building codes get updated (because of earthquakes) since renovation is too expensive. They basically have a working life of 30-40 years before they're basically worthless.
A lot of the new housing units being built are also likely replacing older ones.
And the Japanese culture is more collectivist in nature.
@@stevedavenport1202 and the vast majority of people in japan are Japanese!
A couple things:
First, the unit numbers being presented in the video take into account unit teardowns and rebuilds. These are all new units strictly. I accounted for that.
Second, Japan USED to have speculative real estate behaviors just like the US did, but housing became so plentiful due to increased building in the Tokyo metro that housing as an investment ceased to be much of a thing. You could maybe argue this is a little bit of a chicken and egg problem, but I would argue that the culture followed the market forces, rather than cultural forces shaping the market.
@@CriticalDispatch thanks for the reply and clarification. I appreciate the video and all the research you put into it
@CriticalDispatch Do builders build new building/housing only when a client requests one?
This video was just fantastic. My friends and I in NYC are constantly talking about our rents and comparing burdens. If you can find a one bedroom for $1,600 a month, even if it's an hour subway ride away from the city, that's not bad.
It's such a shame, I'm sure tons of talented people would love to live there but just can't afford to make the move.
I saw that Eric Adams included "zoning reform" vaguely in his housing plan, but I'm pretty skeptical that anything transformative like true upzoning would come out of it.
@@CriticalDispatch The average salary of Japanese are very2 low compared to Americans. A fresh graduate in Tokyo makes on average $1500 in Tokyo. In New York people making $5000 is kinda normal. So at the end of the day, rent is determined by the income of the people at any place. I always hear Americans say that South East Asia is so affordable to live in. Yeah for you as an expatriate making US Dollar wages it is so cheap. For the local people it isn't affordable at all. If the average wage in a city is low, the rent is low. Average is high, rent goes up.
@@secrets.295not always. There are plenty of cities where the rent is disproportionately high compared to the average wage
@@secrets.295 It works in the opposite way too you know. What if the average person in new York is rich because only rich people can live there??? Just a thought.
A big problem with New York City is their public transit needs to be more safe, reliable and cover more of the easily-connected boroughs of the city. I'd like to see the entire New York City region covered by just one common commuter pass for rail and buses, which would make commuting way less of a hassle.
I can't find even a word to express irony about "unique" mixed zoning in Japan as it's normal for the most countries. USA, Canada and Australia are three unique countries that have hard zoning laws.
And I could not imagine living any other way, I live in a town and have cafés and Parks, and even a small supermarket at every corner, I walk everywhere. The American way is just stupid.
Brazil is the same thing we have all types of things in the same building
Actually no, Japan's zoning is simply laxer than most of developed countries (European included). It is unique
Mixed-use exists in all western countries. The zoning isn't the real problem.
@@stevenkothenbeutel448what’s the real problem then?
This video is great. I appreciate the details that went into it.
Recently there is a trend of foreign millionaires buying up property in Tokyo, so prices are a little bit on the rise these last few years.
Also, about the point you mentioned that Tokyo is building more, there is one more contributing factor to that. In 1981 there was a law that was past about requirement for building earthquake resistence. It is called Kyu-Taishin. Any building built after 1981 will have a "shin-taishin" certificate that certifies it is earthquake resistent.
so what happens is, people looking to buy property will always look for something that has the shin-taishin certificate, this in turn forces alot of old building owners to demolish and rebuild. there is construction within Tokyo all the time for things that are being demolished and rebuilt.
Great content.
Thanks for the comment, glad you enjoyed it!
Funny enough, I actually recorded a line about earthquake proofing and rebuilding that I ended up cutting for some reason (probably just didn't flow well). I read a figure that said Tokyo in some years had demolished and started reconstruction on up to 7% of it's housing stock, which is wild.
Hey everyone wants a piece of that Premium Cake... they want to be their land to be more Value XD
Its the bad side of capitalism.... Thats why HSR or whatever big Prj never gets build cause *JOB* *FOR* *EVERYONE*
When the first stept is paying the whole dang upper echelon for that city...
@@tiefblau2780japan is also a capitalist nation and doesn't have the same problems
I don’t know anyone IJ their right minds buying property in Japan.
You’re channel speaks the truth brother, please don’t ever sell out once you get big.
Canada is encouraging its municipalities to ditch or significantly revamp their zoning laws across the country in order to build more housing right now. There are a still a lot of whiners and complainers in these cities, sometimes within the city councils themselves, but hopefully more and more people watch videos like this one and come to realize that *this* is exactly what's needed at this point.
“whiners and complainers” tell me about it! In the Canadian city I’m in, a neighbourhood is up in arms that a new apartment building is 1 metre higher than the developers planned and technically goes against zoning laws.
ALWAYS within the city councils themselves. City councils are mainly made up of wealthy property owners, often retirees, with lots of time on their hands. That's why this is such a big problem.
Really makes me glad to see BC taking a step in the right direction in this regard. The former provincial housing minister, now premier (that's equivalent to a governor for any Americans reading this), warned municipalities that he would start stripping their powers away if they don't fix their shit. Well, they didn't, and now he's carrying out his promise. If the new legislation is ratified, it won't quite end the housing crisis (more measures will have to be taken to achieve that), but it will be a SIGNIFICANT step in the right direction. The province has already begun cracking down on short-term rentals, so I have some hope.
@@generalsociety9607 sorry what specific legislation are you talking about this is interesting
@@campyouisthatway4099 Bill 44, 46, and 47. I didn't know their exact name at the time when I made that comment.
As someone who has lived in Japan for 10 years, this video is spot on.
One thing that was missed, though, is that houses are depreciating assets, like cars.
A lot of the issues with making housing more affordable is that people who have most of their assets in their house, don’t want their house to go down in value.
In Japan, houses go down in value anyway. People are not so attached to their homes.
When housing is plentiful, it ceases to be an investment or an asset that appreciates value over time. Housing in western countries is only an investment because housing in general is more scarce!
You're definitely correct, but the ideas are linked.
That was my impression on vacation in Tokyo. The neighbourhoods were all really nice, but a lot of the houses appeared to have been constructed and maintained on the cheap. Many with various haphazard modifications. The guest house we were staying at felt a little flimsy, the walls seemed rather under insulated, and half the windows were fitted with air handling devices. Plenty of exposed piping, squeaky door hinges and creaky floors. Still though, it was a comfortable, spacious place to stay in a pleasant neighbourhood, at a shockingly friendly price. We kept expecting there to be some horrible catch, but there never was any. Well, unless you count having to ride the train for at least half an hour to get anywhere, just like everyone else.
It gave of the same vibe as my dad's old car. It was a tired, beat up rattle trap. But it ran fine, and that was all that mattered. He just kept that thing running as long as possible without spending any real money on it, before unceremoniously discarding it when it when the rust got too bad to pass inspection.
@@andyasbestos A big part actually for that is because due to being a very seismically active country. Due to constant earthquakes you cannot expect houses to last hence they are built with the expected lifetime from the get-go, often times renovating and inspecting for structural damage after 30 years or even updating them to newer earthquake regulation is much more expensive than just building a new one from the ground up.
I would argue that it's not that they're less attached, but they are less financially invested.
A big problem in the US is that people see housing not as a basic human right, as Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs states, but rather as a vehicle for investment that they expect to appreciate over time. Personally, I think the Japanese have this right.
In the past, wooden construction was the norm for homes in Japan, and there was a major fire in Tokyo that claimed the lives of 100,000 people.
As a result, homes were demolished to prevent the fire from spreading, but there were ample wood stockpiles, and they were able to be rebuilt the day after the fire. In other words, homes were purposely built with simple structures that were easy to dismantle.
I have a friend who lives in an 1K apartment of about 20m² big in Osaka and his rent is only $300 per month.
I live half an hour from Shibuya/Shinjuku. My 2-bedroom 40sqm apartment is $350 a month! Crazy.
Thank you for producing this video.
Many people are nostalgic for the small town where they can walk or bicycle to stores, restaurants, a movie theater, etc. They also want it to be clean and safe.
In many ways, Tokyo has essentially created many “small towns” joined together, both vertically and horizontally, to form a larger city in an organic way. It is only things such as airports and heavy/medium industry that need to be zoned to create specific separation. Public parks and mass transit help connect and enhance these “small towns”.
Awesome, really helpful context to add to the Life Where I'm From video on the same topic.
Your production quality is amazing!
Ya oughtta get in on Nebula Boii.
Combination script/editing have that Second Thought flare.
I think they probably want people with a larger audience than I have just yet, but I appreciate the nice compliment! We'll get there some day, haha.
@@CriticalDispatch just saw this on reddit and yesssss I agree w/ the person above, you got a new subscriber friend! keep it up!
@@TimandSarah Thanks friend, I appreciate your support!
My first internship I was put in charge of reading the zoning laws for new developments and it has installed a hatred for American zoning in my soul. Its pointlessly byzantine because of fricking NIMBY’s.
Japanese towns are centered around the train station. This means while returning home from work, one can easily pop into the grocery to buy the day's fresh. Everyday. Other services / businesses are also close by and not a special trip to the mall. Don't feel like cooking? Tons of restaurants clustered around the train station taking advantage of the foot traffic! This means most things are in a 20 minute walking radius ! Yep WALKING not driving. No car payments, insurance, gas to waste money on! $$avings!
In Tokyo, there is on average at least 1 public transport access point within 30 minutes walking time from any dwelling. (either a train station or a bus stop)
People who designed Tokyo/Japan are insanely smart designers
One great thing is that train stations are also mixed use!
Many stations have regular commuter trains, Shinkansen, and subway/ light rail lines running through stations. They also have hotels, offices, shopping malls, restaurants, and conference centers built on top, beside, and under the stations. They are known as "eki-naka".
that's a huge problem I find with the NYC metro system. it is entirely designed to funnel people into and out of manhattan, specifically. but once you leave manhattan, the train situation becomes pretty dire, and starts feeling almost randomly plotted
@@FlameG102 which is why projects like the IBX have been proposed for decades now.
Housing in Portland, Ore. is going in the opposite direction of Tokyo. Small amount of structures built, even compared to Seattle, WA. Vast areas of single-family zoning, multiple or mixed-use is the rare exception. Rentals have risen in price considerably in the last decade, with less being able to afford a house, rentals will stay that way.
The newer structures are built for some earthquake resistance, but many of the older buildings are not - many will collapse in a major earthquake. Some residential buildings are unreinforced masonry (URM) and the city allows for the owner/landlord not to disclose this fact.
I’m so impressed ,How policy half century ago formed cities of today .
Great video! A lot of info I was not aware of.
I went to Tokyo, and the urban planning was incredible
A point not raised here is the Japanese attitude to housing in general; a house is a consumable to be used, not an investment asset.
Most likely because of the natural disasters Japan is prone to due to its geography.
Why on earth would you put the majority of all the money you will ever earn into something that could be washed away, shaken into matchsticks or burned to the ground tomorrow?
Have a look here on RUclips for vids on people buying either an incredibly cheap or even free home in Japan.
It's a cultural attitude that simply wouldn't fly in the West.
Also Japanese are risk averse. Their housing prices were insane leading up to the 1990s before they crashed and it hasn’t been the same then
It's often cited that the majority of American wealth is in their homes, which is why supply is purposely limited. However, if present-value of pensions is calulated, even more wealth is held in private pensions for mostly government employees. Unless you own multiple houses and have a pension, you're just working to support the upper classes.
Great video! So glad I found it. I think Tokyo’s model has a lot of value and can immensely improve North American approach to urban planning. Wrote a few paragraphs and posting on LinkedIn tomorrow morning. This needs all the views it can get. Thanks for your work!
So glad you liked the video! I couldn't agree more. The speed at which North American cities are upzoning is alarmingly slow, but I'm hopeful that innovations like this could help make American cities affordable again.
I appreciate the support, let me know what people on Linkedin think!
The Kantō region has to cram in _38 million people_ into its metropolitan area. That's why space usage in Tokyo must be extremely efficient and Tokyo needs to have its massive commuter rail and subway system (Shinjuku Station in northwest central Tokyo is easily the busiest railroad station in the world)_.
It’s the same story as NYC in Australian cities. We also have skyrocketing rents and a housing shortage as a result. It will be a long time before a majority of people understand that localised planning control destroys cities - it’s offensive to most people.
Yes the only thing I could possibly imagine causing change would be an oil crisis or revolution.
Exactly. I’ve lived in Tokyo for 5 years. Right after I came back to Australia I realized how pathetic the Australian government is doing with urban planning in capital cities. A lot of problems can be solved by a reform of zoning planning. But people who have the authority refuse to do so.
Always seemed ironic that a country with the population of the LA metro spread over a continent the size of all of America has crazy home prices
Abolish and defund local zoning areas you can keep your zoning BUT NO FED FUNDS
Local planning control should be banned it’s anti human
I reside in one of America's NIMBY capitals (northern Virginia) and this hits home. Your video is well done and clearly explains one of the core issues we have in US cities, and I will be sharing it. Thank you.
Good video, mate! I will be following your channel with great interest!
it used to be common for people to work out of a business attached to their house, or rent apartments above the shop. where i grew up we had a lot of such historical buildings and you could still rent apartments above shops, we had a guy who ran a small grocery attached to his house, nice guy, would always greet people with "hi neighbor"
having people running businesses out of their homes makes better use of their equity, allows businesses within easy walking distance and serves a local community.
True. Shop-houses are more efficient, reduce traffic jams, and just make sense in every way. The U.S. is stupid not to have millions of shop-houses.
Blame it on the little tyrant fiefdom city councils and their "zoning" racket (for their own family and friends). By the way, Hugh Hefner lived in his high-rise office for the first few years.
I bought a house in 2021 in Tokyo since our company was going mostly remote, if you are working you can usually get a fixed 35 year flat loan, you get inheritance tax deductions if your parents decide to chip in to buy the house, it would have been cheaper than renting and I am a new house owner, I got 3 super markets 4 convinience stores and 3 drug stores in walking distance, never owned a car and don't really plan to either.
Thank you for making this important video on the scourge of draconian "zoning" that is the root cause of America's housing crisis. Keep up the great work!
Also the numbers of building codes in the United States are over 20,000 where as Japan has less than 20 determined by their government. Looks like it's the United States that needs to overhaul the system.
You can (mostly) thank leftists for that.
Came here from hoog’s post
I think the biggest difference between Japan and the US specifically is the culture and way people treat each other.
After moving to the US from Japan I realized how poorly everyday people treat each other here, and how the ruling class extracts as much as possible out of the average person at every opportunity possible.
It does not help that the US government is a tool of US corporations either.
When in Japan, we got over 2000$ in one year from the CITY GOVERNMENT, not even country, to make up for lost wages due to covid, and were encouraged to spend it within the community to keep local businesses alive.
Good luck finding something like that in the US ever.
"Free" money from government helps nobody. That is communism (until the communist elites take ALL of your property rights from you, like in CCP China).
US citizens got a thousand or two in stimulus checks as well during COVID. I remember clearly as it was talked about heavily and I also got the money in my account.
We are paying for it now as those stimulus and massive money printing schemes were a major contributor to our current inflation woes. Japan deals with a very different inflationary environment than the US.
The UK and so many other parts of the world could benefit from this. I wince when I think of London house prices and to think it could be so much better is maddening.
Unfortunately, I doubt Americans will learn their lesson. "The American Dream" of a detached SFO suburban home is practically a religion to many Americans. The UK and former colonies tend to have these views of personal land ownership and suburbia. Canada, Ireland, the UK, The US, and Australia all have these problems of a lack of housing supply, refusal to build, and NIMBYism.
Fantastic Fantastic video so many urban planning activists are too focused on transport and not nearly enough talk about the bigger crisis housing.
In Japan, they planned cities in a way that transport and housing ALWAYS go hand in hand. They never built housing without adequate transport networks.
Interesting that America, Australia, New Zealand they all have this terrible urban planning with single houses suburbs and absolutely awful or nonexisting public transport. (Don't know about UK haven't lived there) So that's basically whole Anglosphere. Whereas Asia or Continental Europe they all pretty much use the same system as Japan - how come?(although nimbys growing now even in Europe).
I would define a NIMBY with regards to development issues, as someone who puts there personal interests above the community as a whole and/or unfairly targets vulnerable segments of the population, often using undemocratic means, wealth, and/or social status. It also refers to individuals or groups that unfairly inhibit reasonable self expression.
I am open to, and would welcome, a better definition. Unfortunately, terms can get co-opted, especially if they are easily misunderstood.
You're pretty spot on. Though, to be fair, A LOT of NIMBYs are not from a high or even middle social status. Many fear gentrification or displacement (justifiably, even if they are not always right).
@@Norfirio Yes, that is why I put “often” and “and/or”. Some people call someone a NIMBY just because they disagree with them. If someone doesn’t want a toxic dump in their backyard, I wouldn’t consider them a NIMBY unless they just want it moved to someone else’s backyard.
Great point, I found it strange that the only examples shown of nimbyism where for very small cities or towns while the rest of the video discussed New York and Tokyo.
A channel I watch in Japan seems to indicate it's actually just as cheap to buy as rent but people prefer to rent because you don't have to pay for maintenance & you can move easier & be more centrally located in cities & not out in a suburb. Although it seems much more difficult to do either if your a foreigner.
Based Japan
In the 90s I remember people in Tokyo living in cardboard boxes who went to work in suits during the day. It had its time of unaffordable housing
I saw that, too. In fact, for 10 days I lived in a cardboard box in Yoyogi Park in 1998. That demographic was like less that 1% of the population, though...completely incomparable to our situation in the West. I think there was something else going on with the handful who still worked as salarymen. Even now there are some hellllllla cheap places in Tokyo, they're just tiny.
Tokyo is NOT affordable for most Japanese people and that's why people live in prefectures around Tokyo. You guys think it's affordable because you're North American or European. Everything is cheaper in Japan. We are much poorer than you think.
Japan: collective mentality where citizens think of others and what is best for society
American: individual mentality where citizens think of themselves and their individual interests
That is the problem.
Nope you cannot apply the same tactic in Japan to fix the housing crisis.
Japan is a largely homogenous society.
Western societies are mixed
Therefore we're culturally different. People have other needs and desires. America is driven by personal freedoms and liberties. Japan is driven by fitting into society.
This is the biggest problem i see with most RUclipsrs thinking "hey it works in one country why can't it work here?"
It mostly will not due to cultural differences.
If we’re all about freedom and liberty shouldn’t the zoning regulations be more relaxed? Shouldn’t people be more free to build what they want on their property? And why does valuing personal freedom mean you can’t have mixed use zoning?
@@I_HATE_THE_TOS Thank you for challenging these nonsense concepts. People think "because homogeneous" is a good explanation for every difference.
How is letting the market decide instead of zoning laws going to take away people's choices? We have LESS choices now because zoning regulations restrict development and chokes supply.
Seriously, the "homogeneous card"? Which is played every time, no matter the topic, to dismiss things that work in Japan and their potential applicability to other countries. As for freedom, Japanese have far more freedom to do with their property than Americans do.
How about Houston? Our city is the least regulated in Zoning in the U.S. we are the first other than NYC if not top 5 in building new homes/apartments/condos. There are multiple mix use projects going on like Hanover Autry park, East River, Regent Square Houston, ect. Rents are still increasing and buying houses are now becoming unaffordable. What worries me are big rental corporations are controlling those rent prices for these massive developments instead of individuals. Furthermore, the Japanese zoning system also allows pedestrian walkways in the middle instead of a road in the middle which greatly densities the area. Many zoning laws don’t allow this to happen and require a motorized vehicle road.
Houston doesn't have zoning explicitly but they basically do via land use regulations that function the same. The land use regulations still limit density, lot size, and increase buffers between buildings, etc.
Houston has the problem of zoning via homeowners associations.
The local government basically outsourced this regulatory power to even smaller and less accountable local governments literally run by homeowners with the most to lose from more housing.
Furthermore, Houston destroyed the inner city (forcing it to be paved over into parking lots, making before and after pictures of the city looking as though the city has been bombed) by making a regulation that any commercial real estate needs a certain amount of parking space whenever it goes above a certain threshold of floor space.
@@evannibbe9375 on your second point, that was back in the 1950’s-70’s during the American removal of “poverty”. A lot of cities destroyed buildings and built parking. Not just Houston. Also there are areas of Houston that have removed the mandatory parking paces like in Downtown,midtown, and East Downtown.
@@evannibbe9375 Cities need parking and lots of it. Who wants more parking meters and not knowing if you'll even find street parking? Requiring parking spaces seems a reasonable idea to me.
I enjoyed the video, super clean and concise.
One point of constructive criticism: watch out for repetition in your script. All of the "look at this..."'s became noticeable after the third occurrence. Maybe consider using a "here is" or "this is"?
But thank you again for the video
The problem with Toronto is it makes poverty ghettos by putting safe injection centres, methadone clinics, homeless shelters and homeless community health clinics all in one area. Then the parks in all the surrounding areas of course become tent cities.
The city then sends people to these areas to access resources. Politicians concentrate these services outside their areas and designated “good areas”.
Homeless shelters should not be massive. It is not mentally healthy for people to be crammed in like sardines. Instead focus on building lots of supportive housing connecting people directly to an apartment that is transitional or permanent with supports on site while they have a choice to move into private separate apartments when ready if they choose.
There simply isn’t enough housing to intake all the people here and wealthier new residents to the city slowly gentrify people out. Mixed income housing is important, but not with massive concentration of substance user services and shelters that consume areas. Smaller pockets allow for areas to not be overwealmed.
People can say things discriminatory, but I argue those people have never lived in such areas. A central place to send all homeless people just concentrates a social issue which stems from poor housing policy and a lack of affordable housing and addiction resources. There is an assumption that all poor people have something in common and want to be housed together and that is not true.
I have no idea what this rant is directed at. Did you mean to comment this on another video? Toronto is not remotely discussed, nor is the idea of "a central place to send all homeless people"...
I think the Americans with power wouldn't accept Japanese-style zoning because it doesn't benefit them. It would strike down their artificially-created shortages, perceived value for property, and result in financial losses. The general American "me, me , me" attitude also won't help with wealthy NIMBYs surely going to lobby to keep their property values. Also, housing in the US are seen as assets and investments instead of being just housing - a human right - first. Japan doesn't have this problem since housing (the homes, not the land the homes are on) depreciates and becomes eventually worthless and obsolete, negating the notion that it's something that gains value in time.
It's a very Western thing. People here are very hyper-individualistic these days.
Don’t forget about “supply and demand”, the US cities have a lot of foreigner land owners who seek the US land as investments that are safe from their own governments grasp. That means foreign demand is hurting US home seekers too.
Especially in California, where there are millions of houses bought up by aliens, including communist Chinese of over a million green cards alone. 300,000 Thais. Etc. There are no reciprocal rights for an American in THEIR countries, as an expat. All of this has priced American working families out of affordable housing in Cali.
Fantastic point, I have many friends in New York who received cash offers for their homes from foreign investors.
@@diemes5463 Sigh.. it be like that, bro. When you say New York, do you mean New York City or the state?? If you mean the state, where at? Just curious. I’m in Dutchess County, NY, right on the Putnam County border!
@@franko8572 Brooklyn
I think this plays a lot into the fact that housing is viewed as an investment in the US. Here in Japan, it's actually viewed similarly to cars, it depreciates from the moment you buy it and will have no value by 30 years. This discourages foreigners buying up houses as a stable investment.
There's a part of the story that your'e missing here. In the 1980's Tokyo real estate was the most expensive in the world. I don't know much about the history of that boom and subsequent bust, but I suspect there may be more at play here than just sensible urban zoning.
Tokyo is on everyone's bucket list. 🙂
Tokyo may have had more people move into its city limits than NYC or London, but Tokyo is also nearly twice the size at 14.5 million people. NYC and London both sit at just 8.8 million. So, while it's true that Tokyo saw 200k more inhabitants than NYC the actual impact on the city of Tokyo was roughly half that of what NYC has experienced. Meaning that Tokyo saw a population growth of roughly 7% whilst NYC saw a population growth of closer to 11% So contrary to what you stated in the video the amount of growth that Tokyo saw does in fact play a role in why houses are more affordable there. However, the other points in the video were right on the mark. Hope this doesn't upset you, I'm just trying to help. Best wishes
I love the way that this video is laid out! Informational and concise - Keep up the great work!
My city is against anything that isn't a single family home. No apartments allowed. It's one of the dumbest policies that continues to fail people's need.
Keeps everybody out that can't afford a SFH. Multifamily residences are not allowed. Keeps their property values high. That's what they want. When housing gets short, property values and rents skyrocket. That's what they want!!!
Most of the tyrant-run towns have already "zoned" against tiny houses, which is what millions of Americans need, in whole multi-acre developments of them. A hundred single or childless couples could live on barely more than one acre, work, and build wealth from there. But, NO. The tyrants oppose it because they won't profit from it.
Great video! I would like to hear more about what is allowed in Tokyo's most restrictive residential zoning category other than sf homes and schools (if anything), since the vast majority of US cities are zoned sf residential only. Like, can someone open a store in the first floor of their house? Can they subdivide their lot and sell half of it? This would be a great follow up video.
What I've heard and seen is that you can basically build anything you want as long as it conforms to building codes.
If housing is so affordable, why are there so many ultra tiny flats?
this is a great insight. good video in overall
Such a great and informative video that deserves a lot more views imo
It’s impressive how urbanism alone can cause so much difference in a society.
Awesome insights, I had no idea how unique the Japanese zoning system was. Although I can’t help but wonder what the situation would be like if Tokyo was constructing New York-sized homes and had the some protections for old construction, like heritage designations. I feel like Japanese consumer preferences definitely skew to the newer and smaller side of things.
You know what's funny is I went into this video thinking there was a significant difference in apartment sizes, especially based on my experience living in Tokyo, but it's actually not much.
The average apartment in Tokyo is approx. 710 square feet and the average apartment in NYC is anywhere from 750-850, many are smaller.
@@CriticalDispatch Oh wow! That’s pretty standard for any new North American condo development then haha. I wouldn’t have guessed that either - cool!
@@Zilero Yeah, it's a bit surprising for sure. Tokyo does have a lot of small apartments... but considering how awful the situation is in New York, Toronto, etc. these days, you can get the same size apartment in Tokyo for cheaper. Not to mention it's so much safer, cleaner, accessible and just looks so beautiful.
Great video! It was really well done! However, it would be nice to see some statistic from places like the Uk and Korea
Tokeo is the capital city, and just like NYC, the center for economy. NYC development continues even if it isn’t as plentiful as Tokeo despite restrictions of being mostly islands and the anti-development air rights scheme. Apples to apples
Japan if it's a model for anything, is a model for good urban design and zoning (or near lack of).
This video needs to be broadcasted nation-wide.
finally some more detail to this
Short but sweet. Good upload.
In the west, we don't build anymore. Housing is an asset, not a need. But I don't follow the opposition, rental yield is what should be the main source of returns, not land appreciation.
The Japanese are ahead on this one.
This video is so good
So you know how the highway system in most places, but specifically talking about america, is pretty bad for almost all parts of society, i’d like to hear your take on how japanese urban highways have impacted cities in japan (specifically talking about tokyo here but they exist in other cities as well), because i see a lot of content bashing highways in north america and such, but i never hear people talking about them in japan
Hrm, interesting question. I think people don't talk much about the impact on the highway system in Japan because the country is just so well covered by public transportation. Speaking from my experience there, you can absolutely travel the country by bus and train without any issue. As far as I'm aware, the train system in Tokyo developed quickly in the post war period and grew as the city grew.
@@CriticalDispatch appreciate the answer. It's interesting to note that japan has pretty much as many roads as in american countries, on a per capita basis, considering they're completely different sizes it's not fair, but i still find it interesting how much better japan seems to have their infrastructure built.
The highways in Tokyo can be pretty bad. I'm generally of the opinion that you need some amount of highway infrastructure, but the size and location is very important. In Japan, they do one thing right in that most, if not all, highways are 3 lanes wide per direction or less. The main issue i see is that the locations can be terrible. Okinawa famously has a highway right along the waterfront where a beautiful beach should be. Tokyo built a ton of highways right over the rivers (though some are being removed/buried).
@@nanjing78654building is one thing, Japan has a culture of maintenance unlike most other places. Any immaculately built infrastructure will eventually fail without proper maintenance.
One thing you overlook is the cultural conceptual value of homes in Japan. Housing is seen as a tool, they depreciate with time. It is often cheaper to teardown old homes to build new ones. Generational wealth is built through family savings, not properties, at least not for the average person. The conceptual idea of home is more attached to the feel of the neighborhood and to the people than a singular static structure.
Housing in the US became a major investment for regular people _because_ zoning keeps prices high, and apartments expensive. Now the two form a feedback cycle, but zoning came first (excluding farms, but there the land is the business, not just a place to live).
However back in 1990s it was not that way Japanese brought investment homes everywhere. It was after the crash in the mid 1990s that it brought it to an end
This just raises an obvious question: why can some countries or cities pass smart, forward-thinking laws which shape their societies wisely, while others can't seem to even understand these concepts? My hypothesis: it's all rooted in the education level of your citizenry. It's no coincidence that Asian countries with tough education standards and a cultural emphasis on educational achievement, make people who can, at least, comprehend the concept of "we need to do this smart thing, to reshape our cities for the benefit of future generations". 3rd world countries with poor education standards struggle to even have these conversations and when they do, the outcomes reflect selfish, short-term desires. The US is trending rapidly in this direction.
In the US it's most often rooted in racism and/or classism, even if the person arguing isn't explicitly stating so.
"Neighborhood character", "those people", all these phrases thrown around by NIMBYs are them saying they are afraid to have poor or minority folks living near them.
Great video presentation!
the ONLY and I MEAN *THE ONLY* real purpose of zoning should be to prevent highly polluting industrial buildings(like many factories, mines, quarries, and treatment plants) from mixing with where people live. the purpose of zoning is to promote people's health not any of the shxt we try to use zoning for in the US. now you can add things on top of that to help plan and organize your city layout and maybe promote certain activities over others in certain areas, but people will build to suit either way if you let them. keeping industrial zones from contaminating people's living spaces is the ONLY real essential. it was the only problem created by the industrial revolution that zoning was meant to fix. you accomplish that your zoning laws are effectively complete, everything else is fluff and more art than science.
I'm a NNIMBYIMBY (No NIMBYs In My Back Yard)
I find it amazing how a country can do what is beneficial for the people of the land. In America the opposite happens things are done to benefit one class of people. Why? We all pay taxes and we all have to work. Why can't we do the same thing that the country of Japan did... fix their problems? We allow the wealthy to rule our lives by electing them into positions of power which only furthers the situation. The laws and rules are changed to further benefit them and make it harder for us to do anything.
Your answer as to why we can’t lies at racism and classism as the root cause. The two are the very foundation of most of Americas problems. America is a business. It’s always about making a profit, not the benefit of the people as a whole 😢
Because we’d rather soapbox Marxist critiques than get out and raise the noise required to change anything.
@joykennedy3478 if you think classism and racism don’t exist in Japan, where this problem is fixed, you are completely ignorant.
I mean, that’s already clear, from your assessment of America’s current issues. You don’t want to fix anything, you want to mope around in conspiracy theories that make you feel righteous.
Pipe down with all that.
America is about money. That's it. Get rich or get out.
Not everyone works, not everyone pays taxes. Not everyone wants to live in a city. Not everyone is of the "won't you be my neighbor" attitude, and it is likely for the better. Urbanizing the suburbs like the Japanese have done is not going to work in the US not because of NIMBYism but because when NIMBYism fails, the moving truck and the realtor agent win. A perfect example of this is the proposal to build a new city in the California delta area right now; the movers and shakers of society have declared that the existing cities cannot be saved and must be abandoned to the undesirable members of society, while a new utopian city for those who want it must be built. Racist? Hell yes. Classist? You bet. Correct? Yes. Because cities are not going to fix themselves, and adding housing is not going to solve the issue.
Up until the 1960's before the U.S. began centralizing around it's larger cities, they had a much more disbursed economy spread out thru many small towns & cities. That would include a Main Street with retail and restaurants on the ground level and apartments or offices above. Perhaps a train station. Surrounding suburbs and light industry sites beyond that. But the completion of the Interstate Highway System and the rise of the regional shopping center or mall changed all that, not just zoning. And now globalization has caused more concentration around mega cities with cheap air travel and unlimited channels for freight transport.
Honest to god most underrated video I have ever watched.
Basically without a car u are fked in the USA... All i understand from watching this video is that No groceries shop or malls etc near your house 😳
Light rail is about the only major building project that completely flips Nimbys on their head. In Sydney, houses that were near where light rail routes have been built went UP in value, and suddenly, everyone justifiably wants light rail in Sydney.
Amazing video! I loved it. I saw it recommended by another channel, and I'm so happy I clicked.
Question, are there any limitations on property and housing being used as real state assets? In the US, companies and magnates can own 30, 50, 100+ properties and rent them out as landlorda or just let them set and grow in value, even though such practices affect.housing supply as well. Is there anything in Tokyo preventing them from speculate on housing?
I'm not aware of any law in Japan that restricts real estate speculation like you're describing. In fact, Japan had an asset price bubble in the late 90s that was pretty bad for the economy. Interestingly though, they continued building massive amounts of housing during that period and I can't find anything to indicate that it had a huge impact on rents.
Good question to look more into though!
@@CriticalDispatch I think this comes from competition between landlords where the way to make more money is to build more units of housing than your competitors.
Japanese homes generally don't appreciate in value because old homes are seen as less desirable than new ones. There are a lot of reasons for this from superstitions of haunted houses to earthquake safety. Ultimately, this means treating housing as an investment in Japan is a bad idea that will lose money, so Japanese housing is seen as a consumer product, not an investment vehicle.
Im glad Australia (at least Sydney, NSW) wants more areas like this.
Great video
There are other factors as well which are equally important:
1. Controlled immigration. Remember that Japan is nearly 100% homogenous and doesn’t have large scale infusion of capital from international sources. Thus the demand for housing doesn’t skyrocket and thus growth in rental rates are steadily low. Places like Vancouver, Canada went through a massive increase in valuations due to large scale capital infusion from Asian countries like China. You don’t see this happening in Japan.
2. The labor force is a product of their upbringing. Teamwork is paramount. This shows itself in Japanese unions. In comparison to unions in the US, Japanese union members are far more efficient and thus provide better cost effective solutions in the construction of new housing inventory.
3. Zoning was not designed to keep poor people out. Zoning rules and ridiculous entitlement processes (here is looking at you San fransicko) keep poor people out. Not in my back yard (NIMBY) as community sentiment is what kills projects. Here is looking at you democrat millionaires of California.
Exactly. Millions of aliens (non-citizens) outright own homes in California. You can bet that no country in Asia allows that. This hugely increased, ARTIFICIAL demand has created in California a shortage of affordable housing for working American families, as well as driven up prices.
It would be awesome to also see the data in metric system
A foot is a foot everywhere. Doesn't matter if I don't know how big it is.
Ant life versus bee life.
A suburb isn't a city and shouldn't be compared to a city. Suburbs are where people go to live when they don't want to live in a city. A suburb is the outer fringes of a city - the place between the city and the rural countryside. I'd rather give up every amenity provided by cities and live in a suburb or the rural countryside than to EVER live in a city.
Cities do purpose affordable housing but NIMBYs are saying no to it and that’s why we “are not allowed” to have this solution. Nimbys want their property value to keep going at the expense of society and the city opportunity expense. Even though there are other ways of having assets like gold, stocks, art etc they don’t buy houses for their needs they buy houses for wealth. And who’s gonna buy these houses when they sell because we have a younger population that cannot afford not even half of the asking prices and that is to large corporations that will overpay for it on purpose so that means the end game is corporate dominance in the housing ownership which means real estate is mostly an old people game that will turn into a corporate game. Basically we are excluded from participating in the game and get denied if we try to do something about it. It’s like drowning in a crowded swimming pool and no one cares
there is a concern for the "not in my backyard movement" changing quickly. What would happen to property value. we can say boo hoo the millionaires property goes down but what about middle class Americans? I think the reason why it doesnt change in america is because of the middle class not wanting to lose their personal wealth and what they invested into their home. The question is, can property values stay the same or even go up with changing zoning laws.
No, it cannot. The entire premise ultimately comes down to ending the use of housing as a speculative asset.
I think one thing about US cities like NYC is that we attribute low-income housing to poverty which we attribute to crime.
When it's really attributed to the one undeniable and reliable correlative factor that you in the U.S. cannot mention.
I haven't visited Tokyo, but from what I'm told the city planning there is admirable. Additionally, I think the US has done itself a great disservice with how it's zoned, disincentivizing or outright prohibiting mixed-used development.
All that being said, I am weary of a single-variable explanation. It is true that the population of Tokyo has increased in recent decades, as opposed to the general population of Japan, implying increased demand. This seems, however, to suppose that the Tokyo housing market is independent of the national housing market. This doesn't seem to be the case in the US, so I'm skeptical it is the case there. Additionally, it is important to note structure and trends in the Japanese economy are different than the American economy: Japan's economy has grown much less; Japan's economy is much more equal; etc.
Finally, I would like to note the work done by Clayton Aldern and Gregg Colburn. In their work Homelessness is a Housing Problem, they do in fact find the lack of housing supply to be a critical factor in homelessness to a degree that is statistically significant. This analysis though, by their own admission, only reveals part of the problem as many of the regressions comparing housing supply with homelessness only yield a R^2 near 0.3, significant but not enough to assign it as the sole cause.
Japan had no inflation or salary increase from 1990~2021. This is the most important factor. Why do you only show economic growth till 1990 and not show that it went flat after 1990? Don't get me wrong I lived in Tokyo for 30+ years but it is great but leaving out that there was no inflation from 1990~2021 makes the rest of the reasoning irrelevant.
This. Income stagnation+population decline=Decrease in demand for housing
@@thomasgrabkowski8283 Tokyo's population only just started decreasing in the last couple of years. Until then it was steadily increasing.
Especially true in Texas. Everything is spread out, and you can't walk to anything
CSL2 player: mixed zoning = this city is too noisy!
This is a fantastic video, the zoning and planning practices in Japan are probably the best in the world for creating housing abundance and affordability and you do an excellent job of boiling it down. Another factor is how Japan embraces factory built homes, which are just as nice as houses built on site, but without the delays of permitting, inspection construction and high labour costs.
Factory built are more expensive here (in the US)
Great video. What are your thoughts on developers who keep units off-market? The US currently has 16 million vacant homes compared to Japans 8-11 million depending on source. Does vacancy truly equate to affordability? How does Japan's non-market housing compare to US?
The location of the vacant units is what matters most. People like to use vacancy stats but they never talk about the location. Tokyo has surplus housing because the vacant units are located in places where people actually want to live, which keeps prices low.
This isn't the case in the US, which was highlighted briefly here. Cities like LA and NYC actually have a housing deficit. Sure, the country as a whole has a lot of vacant housing, but a homeless person in NYC doesn't care about a vacant apartment in Kansas.
@Critical Dispatch I see what you're saying, but even in places where people want to live if the deficit is being created by nearly half of the units being withheld, then is it really an issue with the amount of units that are able to be built per the zoning ordinance? I'm not saying that Euclidean zoning isn't part of the problem, just that it isn't the extent of it.
@@lizsaavedra5319 I'm not aware of any place where lack of vacancy is being caused by units being "withheld". That's not a category in vacancy statistics.
Basically if a unit is empty, it's empty. There are statistical categories for units that are changing hands and sit vacant for a month or for units being renovated though.
@@CriticalDispatch While yes, we do need better data on vacancies to equitably monitor these changes and further analyze the disparities, they are categorized to an extent into market and non-market vacancies, and then subcategorized further. While yes, non-market vacancies aren't categorized by being "withheld". They are closely monitored in relation to housing market. The argument is that if there is a surplus, rent will go down, and you use LA as an example. Over 46,000 units are held in a state of non-market vacancy in LA -more than one for every unhoused person in Los Angeles. Many thousands more units are withheld from the housing system by landlords listing them at high rents that keep them vacant long-term. Many of these units are kept vacant by owners seeking to profit by speculating on the increase in property value, returning properties to the market only when rents are sufficiently high enough for them to yield their desired profit. (ACCE Vacancy Report 2020)
I think you miss a big piece here. Flipping homes for gains and massive speculation by average people is uncommon in Japan. There is a mentality that housing is a utility in Japan as opposed to seeing housing as an investment or a nest egg.
Speculation is uncommon because housing is plentiful. When an asset is less scarce, it ceases to be a good investment. Japan USED to have speculative behavior in their housing market, but they don't anymore, Policy is the answer.
@@CriticalDispatchHousing is plentiful because of Japan’s population decline. In fact japan has the opposite problem now. Many homes sit empty thanks to their population having shrunk by millions from their peak. Their housing stock is designed for a larger population than now and is expected to shrink at an accelerating pace for decades
I don’t know too much of everything that you addressed. But I am very optimistic on behalf of our country (America) we can learn a lot from other countries! ✅ Great video.
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I’d love to get your thoughts on this in regards to Adam Newmans new company Flow - which is trying to solve the affordable housing crisis.
If they are serious about potential renters gaining equity in their apartment while they rent, I like that idea a lot. I'm generally skeptical of the whole affair though, given Newman's history and how he seemingly ran Wework into the ground.
I personally think Neumann doesn't give a rat's ass about contributing to the financial foundation of his customers and is just riding the current revival of untenable far left collectivist ideas brought back by social media and its insidious ability to viralize simplistic fuzzy sounding ideas amongst young people. There is no way in hell he is going to offer fractional ownership - he's been very vague about the entire concept of ownership and has, on more than one occasion, used the phrase "perceived ownership".
I would love to see a video about housing on large cities like in China Korea with absurd housing prices comparing to the salaries. Those cities don’t have American zoning
Also NYC and San Francisco are mixed use cities and are zoned very differently compared to the rest of the country and we know how housing market in those cities are
I like the Tokyo zoning a lot, but I'm not sure they should allow homes in industrial zones. Although my previous understanding of Tokyo zoning was that you could go one up or down from your current zone (so like a residential area can go up to commercial and have vending machines or shops on it), so I'm kind of surprised to hear in this video saying they can have housing in every zone (including industrial)?
Light industrial, you can't put a house in a heavy industrial zone.
Industrial today is cleaner than ever before and meets all city codes during the daytime. I actually lived in an industrial zone in Idaho that was a grandfathered residence. Nothing wrong with it. It should all be mixed. The Japanese are right. For that matter, why not abolish all the zoning and let liberty and the free market decide?