The Changing Context of Middle-Class Housing in Japan's Major Cities

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The focus of this research project is on transformations in the housing condition of urban middle-class households. The Japanese housing system in the post-war period has been oriented towards the expansion of home ownership, associated with vigorous economic development and the government's housing policy to accelerate the mass construction of owner-occupied housing. However, over the past two decades, the rise and fall of the bubble economy, the increased fragmentation of society and the shift of housing policy towards accentuating the role of the market in providing and financing housing have combined to destabilize the circumstances surrounding middle class home ownership particularly in major cities.The research project, thorough a questionnaire survey on urban middle class households as well as statistical surveys, has found and demonstrated the following trends in urban home ownership: owning a house, which used to produce considerable capital gains, now generates substantial capital losses particularly on the second-hand condominium sector; unlike the baby-boomer generation which climbed up the housing ladder relatively smoothly along with high-speed economic development, the young generation entered the labor force market during the post-bubble period when the serious, long-standing recession encompassed the country, and their prospects of housing and home ownership are now extraordinary uncertain; transformations in the public sector's housing measures towards an emphasis on market based housing provision have noticeable eroded the traditional condition of middle class home ownership.