Japan boosts stock of low rent homes

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The Japanese government is trying to find ways to boost the availability of low-cost housing to provide for the increasing number of elderly and the growing army of young people who are trying to survive on low salaries, especially those with one or more part-time jobs.

As the stock of low rent public housing cannot meet current needs, the government is considering ways to utilise the huge number of vacant houses in Japan.

This, say proponents of the idea, would help satisfy housing needs and at the same time address the potentially risks to public safety from abandoned houses.

The Japan Center for Economic Research (JCER) has produced a medium term industry outlook. For the housing and construction sectors the outlook points to continued contraction against the backdrop of a decline in the number of households.

As the number of households declines housing construction, says JCER, will be limited to rebuilding aging infrastructure as there will no longer be a need to increase the stock of homes. In some prefectures in Japan the number of households has already started to fall.

According to JCER the decline in the number of households could leave national annual housing starts at around 600,000 by 2025.

Construction activity in the non-housing sector (offices and stores) is expected to remain flat. Nonresidential construction is also susceptible to the population decline.

The sectors in which domestic production will grow are processing and assembly type manufacturing sectors, including general machinery and transport machinery and the health and nursing care and business services sectors says JCER.

Activity in the agricultural, forestry and fishing sectors will inevitably fall due to the aging of the workforce in these sectors and due to more reliance on imports as trade agreements are concluded.

Due to the population decline and aging, a decline in the domestic workforce is inevitable. Labour shortages are already emerging in the health, nursing care and construction sectors and the development of human resources plans to meet expected long-term labour demand is required.

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