Papers by Yosuke Hirayama
Journal of Architecture and Planning (Transactions of AIJ), 2018
JAPAN ARCHITECTURAL REVIEW
The state-guided housing system in Japan during the "post-war growth period" has consistently dri... more The state-guided housing system in Japan during the "post-war growth period" has consistently driven the expansion of the family-owned housing sector, in association with an increase in independent nuclear households. Nevertheless, Japan entered a "post-growth era" in the 1990s, characterized by a more precarious economy, aging population, and policy shifts toward a more neoliberal course. People's housing paths have since noticeably diverged, in relation to both individualization and familization in life-courses. However, government housing policy has remained directed toward family home ownership while excluding unmarried individuals, one-person households, and renter households. This is beginning to widen social inequalities. Using the case of post-growth Japan, this study focuses on the roles that individualization and familization play in reshaping housing paths, and examines the extent to which home-owning societies centered on conventional nuclear households are sustainable.
Economy and Society, 2018
Home ownership was a significant element of social change in the postwar , mature, capitalist eco... more Home ownership was a significant element of social change in the postwar , mature, capitalist economies such as the United Kingdom, United States and Japan. This growth of individual home ownership occurred, however, within a particular demographic, economic, social and political context. This distinctive set of conditions include the atomized, nuclear family; suburbanization; high growth; the conventional mortgage market and a young, working population. These conditions have changed and coalesce in the constitution of what we refer to as 'late home ownership'. The paper conceives of contrasts between 'real estate families' or 'accumulating families' which maintain or further accumulate valuable multiple property assets over generations; 'dissipating families' which are forced to deploy and diminish their property assets accumulated in the exceptional era; and propertyless 'perpetual renter families'. It is argued that these emergent divisions are pivotal in understanding new forms of social re-stratification in which the patterns of ownership of residential property, the income flows from residential property investment, a changed demographics and intergenerational dynamics are key drivers.
Urban Studies
This paper argues that the relentless logic of commodification has served to undermine a key elem... more This paper argues that the relentless logic of commodification has served to undermine a key element of the social cement of contemporary capitalism: home ownership. In addressing this issue, the paper explores the development of the post war ‘social project’ of home ownership with particular reference to mature home ownership societies such as the USA, Japan, Britain and Australia. The paper then outlines the new fault lines and fractures which have emerged in post-crisis home ownership systems and the way in which a more vigorous, financialised private landlordism has emerged from the debris of the subprime meltdown. A key argument is that in a new and more intensified process of housing commodification, the social project promise of home ownership for a previous generation has shifted to a promise of private landlordism for current generations. In summary, the social project of Keynesian-embedded liberalism has been undermined by the economic project of neoliberalism.
The Journal of Comparative Asian Development, 2003
The state of the residential property market is an important issue for both the macro economy and... more The state of the residential property market is an important issue for both the macro economy and for individual households in Japan. Home ownership is the main pillar of housing policy and as a very expensive commodity it has been deeply implicated in the economic problems of the 1990s. This paper considers the role of home ownership within the broader context of the post-war Japanese social structure. The core of the paper is an assessment of the impact of the recent period of financial turbulence on the home ownership sector. This discussion ...
Over the past three decades, neoliberalism has been pervasive and even normative in reorganizing ... more Over the past three decades, neoliberalism has been pervasive and even normative in reorganizing housing systems, encouraging a decline in low-income housing. However, the way in which neoliberal prescriptions have impacted on housing processes has not necessarily been the same but has rather differed according to the indigenous social, economic, political, and institutional contexts of particular countries. In the case of Japan, neoliberalization has effectively combined with a traditionally residualized public housing to affect housing circumstances surrounding low-income people. This article explores transformations in low-income housing in Japan to demonstrate the importance of specific housing contexts in particular societies, in terms of looking at the impact neoliberalism has had on housing processes.
Economy and Society, 2018
Home ownership was a significant element of social change in the postwar , mature, capitalist eco... more Home ownership was a significant element of social change in the postwar , mature, capitalist economies such as the United Kingdom, United States and Japan. This growth of individual home ownership occurred, however, within a particular demographic, economic, social and political context. This distinctive set of conditions include the atomised, nuclear family; suburbanisation; high growth; the conventional mortgage market and a young, working population These conditions have changed and coalesce in the constitution of what we refer to as 'late home ownership'. The paper conceives of contrasts between 'real estate families' or 'accumulating families' which maintain or further accumulate valuable multiple property assets over generations; 'dissipating families' which are forced to deploy and diminish their property assets accumulated in the exceptional era; and propertyless 'perpetually renter families'. It is argued that these emergent divisions are pivotal in understanding new forms of social re-stratification in which the patterns of ownership of residential property, the income flows from residential property investment, a changed demographics and intergenerational dynamics are key drivers.
Journal of Architecture and Planning (Transactions of AIJ), 2008
International Journal of Housing Policy, 2015
The Future of Public Housing, 2013
In Japan, it has increasingly been becoming more difficult for young people to acquire a foothold... more In Japan, it has increasingly been becoming more difficult for young people to acquire a foothold on the rungs of the housing ladder. A notable decrease in the number of youths who are following conventional life-courses implies a challenge to the traditional organization of Japan's home-owning society. This paper analyzes the housing situation with young people with particular reference to changes in public-policy practices relating to family, employment and housing. In post-war Japan, the conservative nature of public policy has been maintained in the sense that it has continuously advantaged middle-class families in purchasing a house to lead a conventional life-course. With the global diffusion of neo-liberalism, however, since the middle of the 1990s the Japanese government has reoriented its policy formulation towards accentuating the role of the market economy in providing employment and housing. Public-policy arrangements have thus become characterized by a combination of conservative and neo-liberal approaches. Young family households have been protected by conservative policies in accessing the owner-occupied housing sector. Alternatively, an increasing number of parental home dwellers and single people, who have been out of the protection of conservative institutions, have particularly been affected by neo-liberal implementation of policies, finding themselves excluded from the residential-property ladder system. The paper highlights the differentiation in young people's housing experiences that has facilitated transformations in Japan's homeowner society.
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 08111140802301773, Sep 1, 2008
... for single-family dwellings. In other words, the depreciation of second-hand condominiums has... more ... for single-family dwellings. In other words, the depreciation of second-hand condominiums has been marked, and the scale of capital losses generated oncondominium properties has been substantial. This means that the baby ...
Journal of Architecture and Planning, 2008
Http Dx Doi Org 10 1080 02673039408720792, Apr 12, 2007
ABSTRACT
Journal of Architecture and Planning (Transactions of AIJ), 2014
Urban Policy and Research, 2008
... for single-family dwellings. In other words, the depreciation of second-hand condominiums has... more ... for single-family dwellings. In other words, the depreciation of second-hand condominiums has been marked, and the scale of capital losses generated oncondominium properties has been substantial. This means that the baby ...
Journal of Architecture and Planning (Transactions of AIJ), 2009
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Papers by Yosuke Hirayama