That's a non sequitur. Tokyo is plenty dense and already has affordable housing.
All while just 3 hours away by car, beautiful houses are crumbling into dust. You literally can get them for the price of the land tax, and there are even companies that specialize in finding them.
Any questions?
First one I clicked, $600 a month
https://suumo.jp/chintai/jnc_000099304610/?bc=100450374320
I can find cheaper
Please don't cross into personal attack. Your comment would be just fine without that bit.
For comparison, Seattle WA has a minimum wage around 2.5x higher than Tokyo. Here is a larger apartment [2] that is only 1.33x more expensive than your Tokyo broom closet.
Go ahead and find something more akin to the American sized apartments (500sq+ for 1 bd) and you'll see that the prices are almost the same, with much lower wages across the board.
[1]: https://kb.nkba.org/2016/11/new-nkba-research-defines-averag... [2]: https://www.apartments.com/amherst-micro-studios-seattle-wa/...
As a result, the US also doesn't have such a collapsing population as Japan.