Japan’s ‘rubbish’ homes: surge in akiya abandoned houses as more elderly Japanese die

The windows are boarded up, the paint is peeling and the garden is hopelessly overgrown. This single-storey property in the upmarket Negishi district of Yokohama, south of Tokyo, should be ripe for redevelopment – but has instead been left to gently decay for more than a decade.

These akiya (“empty houses”) are being abandoned when their elderly occupants either die or move into retirement homes. Surviving family members often don’t want to move into the properties and cannot afford the high cost of demolition. In many cases, inheritors can’t even be located – or squabble over how the asset should be divided if they are found.

In each case, the building remains uninhabited.

Seth Sulkin, founder of property developer and asset management firm Pacifica Capital KK, said the “primary reason” for homes in Japan being left empty “is that the population outside Tokyo is falling rapidly, especially in areas such as Tohoku and Hokkaido, and old people are simply abandoning their homes”.

“In addition to that, it is very difficult to recycle these properties because of the inheritance and property title systems in Japan,” he told This Week in Asia.

When it comes to property inheritance in Japan, a deceased person’s spouse is legally entitled to half of a property, with the remainder being divided among their children. But if an inheritor cannot be located or refuses to sell their share, there is no solution, according to Sulkin.

Once primarily seen in rural areas most affected by worsening population decline, akiya are now increasingly being found in the suburbs of major cities. In an effort to curb the growth of abandoned homes, local authorities were granted the power in December to withhold tax breaks from owners who fail to take