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?
https://www.reddit.com/r/japan/comments/1762jg4/are_japanese_houses_are_tiny_a_myth/
18 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.
I think comparing prices is somewhat meaningless. I believe that newly built houses in large cities, especially in Tokyo, are genuinely expensive and small for the price, even though the yen is currently weak against the GBP.
People who claim that Japanese houses are small focus on houses in big cities that they can afford.
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.*
It’s hardly a myth. I can attest personally to that as earlier this year I stayed briefly with a host family in Chiba that had a tiny house, much smaller than anything I was realistically used to. It was just an older lady and her son.
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
Yes, it is. People really believe that Japan has small houses and can’t even put an XBOX in them.
They think Japanese houses can’t even hold an Xbox, that they’re living in cardboard boxes.
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..