Super-aged Japan now has 9 million vacant homes. And that’s a problem

Abandoned houses are known in Japan as “akiya,” a term that usually refers to abandoned residential homes hidden in rural areas.

But more akia are being seen in major cities such as Tokyo and Kyoto, a problem for a government already struggling with an aging population and an alarming decline in the number of children born each year.

“This is a symptom of Japan’s population decline,” said Jeffrey Hall, a professor at Kanda University of International Studies in Chiba.

“The problem is not really building too many houses,” but “not enough people,” he said.

According to data compiled by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, 14 percent of all residential properties in Japan are vacant.

The figures include second homes and those left empty for other reasons, including properties temporarily vacated while their owners work abroad.

Not all of them have been left in ruins, like the traditional aquia, whose growing numbers are creating a host of other problems for the government and communities, experts told CNN.

These include stifling attempts to rejuvenate crumbling cities, becoming a potential hazard due to a lack of maintenance and raising the risks for disaster rescuers in a country prone to earthquakes and tsunamis.

The problem of too many homes

The aquia is often passed down from generation to generation.

But with Japan’s plummeting birth rate, many are left without an heir to pass on to, or have been inherited by younger generations who have moved to cities and see little value in returning to the countryside.

Some houses are also left in administrative limbo as local authorities do not know who the owners are due to poor documentation, they said.

This makes it difficult for the government to rejuvenate rapidly aging rural communities, hampering efforts to attract younger people interested in alternative lifestyles or investors looking for a bargain.

Under Japan’s tax policy, some homeowners often find it cheaper to keep their home than to tear it down for redevelopment.

And even if the owners want to sell, they may have trouble finding buyers, said Kanda University’s Hall.

“Many of these houses are cut off from access to public transport, healthcare and even shops,” he said.

Trending videos showing people – mainly foreigners – picking up cheap Japanese houses and turning them into stylish guesthouses and cafes have garnered a large following on social media in recent years, but Hall warned that it’s not as easy as it looks.

“The truth is that most of these homes will not be sold to foreigners or that the amount of administrative work and the rules behind it (is not) something easy for someone who doesn’t speak Japanese and reads Japanese very well,” he said.

“They’re not going to be able to get these houses cheaply.”

Japan’s population has been in decline for several years – at the last census in 2022, the population had shrunk by more than 800,000 from the previous year to 125.4 million.

In 2023, the number of newborns fell for the eighth year in a row, reaching a record low, official data show.

Japan’s birth rate has hovered around 1.3 for years, far short of the 2.1 needed to maintain a stable population, and just last week Japan’s Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications said the number of children under 15 had fallen for the 43rd straight year to a record low of about 14 million as of April 1.

So, all of this means that the problem of too many homes and too few people looks set to continue for some time.