Volume 20　日米英の住宅事情


Living Places in Japan

Ann Slater: Hello everyone and welcome to this edition of Cultural Crossroads. We are in March already. Who can believe it?

Michael Rhys: Wow, time is going quickly.

Ann: This is Ann.

Michael: And I'm Mike.

Ann: And we're very glad to be with you again. So, Mike what is our topic for this month?

Michael: Well, today we're talking about, uh, renting and real estate and houses, that kind of thing.

Ann: That's a big topic.

Michael: It is. 

Ann: It's a big topic. I suppose you've rented many places in Tokyo over your years here.

Michael: Over the years, I think I've rented about, uh, one, two, three, four different places, four different apartments. But now luckily a couple of years ago, uh, my wife and I we were able to buy a house. Uh, so we've made that transition from rented apartment to a house and it is such a difference.

Ann: Ha-ha.

Michael: Um, in Japan and pretty much around the world, I think, if you rent a place you're gonna be much more nervous about doing something with that apartment. You don't wanna damage the apartment, you wanna be able to leave the apartment as you found it. And of course that's what, you know, the real estate agents wants, expect of you. So, what you can do with the apartment in terms of decorating is very limited.

Ann: Although, I have to say that in the States I have often seen the opposite, where people feel that you can just do whatever you want because you don't own it, and so you don't worry about damage or sticking thumbtacks into the wall or . . .

Michael: You just . . .

Ann: You know, you just do it and don't worry about it, and there's a certain amount of, perhaps, wear and tear that landlords expect, and that sort of thing.

Michael: So, you start out with the assumption that, "Oh, the deposit, I'm not gonna get that back, so OK."

Ann: Yeah, yeah. One of the things that really surprised me when I came to Japan was you move into some place and it is unfurnished.

Michael: Right.

Ann: And in the United States, unfurnished means there's still a refrigerator, there's a stove, there are these basic things that - often you have a washer and dryer - you know, these basic appliances. And in Japan, what I discovered in Tokyo is unfurnished means there is, like, nothing. 

Michael: Nothing at all.

Ann: Nothing at all.

Michael: When I first came out, uh, I think the big thing that surprised me at first was how small some of these apartments are. My first place was just a kitchen and a six-mat Japanese room, and, and that was it. But I think you, you very quickly adapt yourself to your surroundings. Small or large, it doesn't really matter.

Ann: Yeah. Certainly I would agree with you. Also sometimes looking at apartments, they might be listed, uh, for example as a 2DK or 3DK but actually because of the fusuma, you know, the sliding doors, they were often actually just, kind of, one big room. 

Michael: Right. Ha-ha, right.

Ann: So, it's an interesting thing. And eon one hand it's a lovely aspect, I believe, of Japanese design where you have this fluidity - where you can make one big room, where you can divide it into smaller rooms . . .