I don’t know, 9 square meters is anything but cupboard size to me. Plus this likely doesn’t count the space for the kitchen and shower/toilet area.
4.5J (6 sqm) and 6J (9 sqm) is fairly normal for an urban apartment.
4.5J (6 sqm) and 6J (9 sqm) is fairly normal for an urban apartment.
My walk-in closet when I lived in SF was probably about 12m^2.
I've never stayed in a hotel room that large (neither in the US nor in Europe), more like 20sqm including the bathroom/shower.
> My walk-in closet when I lived in SF was probably about 12m^2.
Everything is relative. If you're living on a super yacht, a 30ft boat appears tiny.
That's more or less correct, to give you a data point in Italy the minimum legal size for a hotel room (double, up to 3 star hotels) is 14 m^2 + 3 m^2 (minimum) for the bathroom, but usually they tend to be slightly larger. (the minimum becomes respectively 15+5 and 16+6 for 4 and 5 stars).
For the single it is 8 or 9 m^2 (8 up to 3 stars, 9 for more) + the bathroom (again 3, 4 or 5 m^2 depending on stars).
For 1 or 2 stars hotel it is not compulsory to have a bathroom "en suite", there must be as many bathrooms as (respectively) 40% or 80% of rooms.
On the other hand, the very minimum size that you can legally call apartment (i.e. that has the "dignity" to be identified as "self standing") is 28 m^2 at national level, and a number of cities are increasing this minimum size (locally) to 35 or 40 (or even more).
I’ve lived in this 9 square meters space before (in Tokyo as well) and as a single person it is eminently doable. What do you really need from your home besides a place to sleep between work?
For a whole apartment (even excluding kitchen/shower)? Let's be generous and say it's double. Where in the west is 18 sq m. not closer to a cupboard than a house?
The catch is that there is a loft which doesn’t count towards the square meterage.
In contrast, an 18sqm place can have a kitchen with two burners where you can actually prepare food, a door between the kitchen and your bedroom so you don’t stink the place up while cooking, and can even have separate rooms for the toilet and sink. A lot of people I've met consider this pretty luxurious, at least in central Tokyo.
They’re generally aimed at students but plenty of single adults like myself lived in them too, mainly people who aren’t home much, eat out and socialise lots. It’s a place to sleep, and walking distance to work (and home, after a night out).
I now live on a quarter acre in a rural city but I didn’t regret it when I did it, I saved plenty of money and enjoyed the city life for a fair few years until I started a family.
It was very nice. The only reason I moved into a 2-room apartment was because I wanted a sofa.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tatami (section "Size")