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Comment by pancrufty | Hacker News Reader

Nobody renovates houses in Japan. You're supposed to destroy it and build anew. For 15k you're buying the lot and the right to spend a lot more than that.

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Well there's at least one person who has: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TwRjO3kHxU4

He mentions renovation companies as well as builders who will undertake renovations. He has many more videos detailing the process. However, being a youtuber does open up possibilities that aren't common.

People renovate older homes, which have historical value, but most homes built in the postwar period are rightly discarded because they are thin, flimsy junk.

Yeah, it most cases it would be like renovating a used kleenex.

How come? Is it just cultural? Are there laws against it?

> Unlike in other countries, Japanese homes gradually depreciate over time, becoming completely valueless within 20 or 30 years. When someone moves out of a home or dies, the house, unlike the land it sits on, has no resale value and is typically demolished. This scrap-and-build approach is a quirk of the Japanese housing market that can be explained variously by low-quality construction to quickly meet demand after the second world war, repeated building code revisions to improve earthquake resilience and a cycle of poor maintenance due to the lack of any incentive to make homes marketable for resale.

-- https://www.theguardian.com/cities/2017/nov/16/japan-reusabl...

Of course, houses can be renovated - as the article explains. But going along with a country's traditional building methods is often cheaper than bucking the trends.

Because of earthquakes. Old houses are considered unsafe even after renovation. Of course things are changing as modern materials are getting more trust.

It's just cultural.

No native Japanese are renovating houses, but we’re talking about foreigners who are vlogging from their vehicles. Gaijin do renovate old Japanese houses.

This is myth now. Renovation is getting more popular. Tax valuation isn't real value for resident.

this is changing.

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