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> It was only a few decades ago when Tokyo was famous for having the most expensive real estate in the world.

Yes, but then they did something about it [1] instead of pulling up the ladder behind them.

[1] https://www.vox.com/2016/8/8/12390048/san-francisco-housing-...

I felt that article is misleading. First off it used non inflation adjusted percentage change as an indication that Tokyo kept prices down. But in reality it was already very expensive. And then it claims they issued lots of building permits - but houses in Japan have very short lifecycles (like 30 years) and it is normal for a buyer to do a tear down and rebuild (which requires a permit).

Yeah they had a huge bust, a 30 year deflationary spiral that bankrupted the country. Nice.

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