I was browsing the Lifull Homes website for suburban houses in Japan when I noticed that the majority of the homes were between 90 and 110 square meters and cost around $200,000. From a British perspective, they are significantly larger and more affordable than homes in the UK, with greater quality as well. Where did the idea that Japanese homes are small and (presumably expensive) come from?
by Alternative-Unit38
33 comments
$200,000? Where was that? Bumfuck Shimane-ken? Not in my neighborhood.
90 to 110 square meters is pretty standard here in Japan. I think the tiny bit comes in with mostly apartments but also houses in Tokyo where land is at a premium and many people do live in smaller houses.
We looked at several dozen of houses online and visited about 10 before we bought our house in Japan, all of them were from 95 to about 110 square meters. Every other house I’ve been in from Tokyo to the deep countryside was at least 90 square meters, if not more.
There are a huge number of myths about Japan out there that are just not true, mostly because people take the most extreme examples and say this is how everything in Japan is. Tiny houses is one of them.
British housing is extremely small. I think I heard somewhere the average is ~800 square feet
Maybe that price is valid for just the house, but it needs to have land under it. So, triple that for a decent neighborhood in Tokyo. Double it for a convenient sunerb.
Because compared to British standards, the standard sized houses in most countries are big? I grew up in France and frequently go to Japan. While I would not qualify the typical Japanese house tiny, it’s most definitely small compared to the average house in France. Like 100 square meters is the size of a small house in a residential area.
Majority of westerners living in Japan are American and from their standard, Japanese houses are tiny. From European standard, Japanese houses are average size.
Average house size by country.
Canada1948 sq. ft181 sq. meters
France1206 sq. ft112 sq. meters
Germany1173 sq. ft109 sq. meters
Italy872 sq. ft81 sq. meters
Japan1023 sq. ft95 sq. meters
Spain1044 sq. ft97 sq. meters
United Kingdom818 sq. ft76 sq. meters
United States2164 sq. ft201 sq. meters
https://shrinkthatfootprint.com/how-big-is-a-house/
In Europe we tend to think of countries like Belgium and Netherlands as densely populated and I don’t think people in the UK realise how densely populated it is.
But if you check out [‘List of countries and dependencies by population density’](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_and_dependencies_by_population_density) on Wikipedia, the UK is #34, not far behind Japan at #28
Comparing houses only by size and price is like comparing cars only by price and number of seats.
And just because British houses are notoriously small *and* expensive in the middle of a cost-of-living crisis doesn’t mean that anyone who has it *better* automatically has it *good.*
Small compared to US standards, perhaps. I dunno about the rest of the world.
But much of that depends on various factors. The closer you are to a large city/decent train station, the more expensive it’s going to be, and depending on the area, there may be some small houses cramped into tight neighborhoods. Way out in the country you can find some large houses for cheap. Newer houses are most likely built to bigger standards, while some of the older ones can be quite cramped.
In my parent’s neighborhood in the US, I think most of the houses are around 300 to 350 m², with a front and backyard, and at least a two car garage if not three. So by those standards, yes Japanese houses are very small. It’s all relative
By the way. I’m not sure where the heck that place is that you saw for that price, but that’s not in downtown Tokyo. Units in my condo are 64 m² and are selling now for about $470,000
When i go on a month-long trip to see my parents in the US and come back home, it feels like my place here has shrunk. Not sure about the UK, but compared to the States, it feels tiny.
Not a myth. They are objectively smaller. At least from a North American perspective – much smaller.
I spend some childhood years in US. My parents’ house was way smaller compared to the house we lived in US. I now live in UK. My house isn’t so different in size compared to my parents’ house.
So, I think it depend on where you are from.
It depends on where they are. In crowded urban areas where space is at a premium houses and apartments are smaller. I stayed at a friend’s apartment in Tokyo once that was about the same size as a cruise ship cabin. In smaller cities and in rural areas they tend to be bigger.
My husband and I live in a big two-story house in a small city in Kyushu that has a lot more space than we need. We converted one room into a home gym and he converted another into a greenhouse because we weren’t using those rooms for anything else prior to that.
From my experience Japanese houses and apartment seem so tiny mostly because the residents keep so much crap in them..
They’re a good size. I’ve never understood the complaints until I framed it from Americans who think everything has to be omega sized to be considered normal.
Maybe family houses are comparable to Europe and small compared to America, but Japan also has an enormous number of tiny rabbit hutch apartments that, until recently, just didn’t really exist in other places.
Japanese houses are not small, they are similar to the rest of the world. American houses are oversized.
110 Sqm for 200k???
Where? how old was the building and how far from the station?
Not where I’m living that’s for sure.
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Lived in a house in the UK, bought a house in Japan, house in Japan is bigger. Its all relative. Ive seen some massive houses in Japan. Probably not as big as what you would get in the US, but definitely bigger than most houses I saw in the UK.
Where I live all the older houses (from the 1950’s) are getting sold, demolished, and 2 smaller houses are built on the same lot. I think homes are getting smaller, but older homes are fairly large.
> Where did the idea that Japanese homes are small and (presumably expensive) come from?
for what it’s worth, what many people on the outside see are houses in tourist areas, and if you’re walking around tokyo the houses you see are tiny.
lots of people don’t compare apples to apples, they’ll compare whereever they are to whatever they see and generalize.
Japanese houses are not that small in absolute size, but they generally have way less storage so they can feel pretty cramped to someone from Europe or the US. Like basements are incredibly rare in Japan, and that’s usually at least another 40-50 sq meters of storage that isn’t usually included in the square footage of a house.
Coming from Hong Kong, I’ve always thought Japanese homes rather large.
I remember stumbling upon a chart a few years ago. Basically new houses in Japan the last 1-2 decades had some of the biggest growth in size compared to other OECD countries.
UK or London?
I stayed in 2 AirBNB’s and 2 hotels while on vacation in Japan (Tokyo and Osaka). Every accomodation was extremely compact. No matter how much space you THINK you would need, they found a way to put in less in that spot pretty much everywhere. Stairs? Make them steeper (save space). Go vertical, have 1 room per floor with stairs, etc. Land is at a premium (35 million people in Tokyo area. Hotel room – if it had a “queen” matress, the matress was probably smaller than standard queen size, and the room was exactly the size of the mattress – you couldn’t even have a suitcase on the side of the bed – had to crawl all the way to the one part of the front just to get off the bed.
No, I lived in a house in Japan and they were small asf
It’s funny, because they seem small to me, as an American. I moved to Japan in 2015 and had a 2LDK. (Small kitchen, bathroom, tiny dining room, small bedroom, stairs, small room upstairs with a sliding door between a larger living space.) All of my American friends and family were like, “Oh, that’s so cute and cozy!” when I did a video walk-through house tour. All of my Japanese coworkers were like, “Is it weird living alone in such a big house?”
It was a great size for me, honestly. My biggest problem was it was old and uninsulated so I basically never used the upstairs living space because it was impossible to heat or cool. It was just wasted. I managed to use the smaller of the two rooms as an office/guest room. If the house had been better insulated where I could’ve used that bigger upstairs room it would’ve been really nice.. but I wouldn’t want to have kids there. There was no privacy in that upstairs room. So it was great for a couple, but if there was a kid I’d want to either put in a solid wall between the tiny toom upstairs and the living room, or else move.
You are from the UK (GBP) looking at Japanese houses in Yen and you quote USD? Confusing. Lol
200,000USD is 30,000,000Yen
If you are seeing houses at that price then it’s either
A) The price for the house construction ONLY, excluding land price
B) A dirt cheap low spec place in somewhere like Chiba – still a good well populated place – and potentially a “back house” behind another house with little light (common as builders buy a large plot of land and split it, with the back houses being significantly cheaper). Low spec in Japan is still better than standard Wimpey spec in UK tho.
C) Somewhere in Inaka, and probably still low spec
Equivalent price in Tokyo for a non-back-house of 90-110 with be 70,000,000yen+
Most Japanese houses are actually 80-90sqm.
Also, in cities like Tokyo anyway, most are thin and tall with 3 floors and no loft. Compared to the UK you lose the loft space, which is a bigger deal than you think, and also stairs eat into a chunk of that.
I mean yeah houses here in Japan are bigger, and just look at the size of the front back gardens!!!….. oh wait..
Compared to American and Canadian houses, Japanese homes are pretty small.