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Due to factors such as population decline and an increase in nuclear-family households, the vacancy rate for houses in Japan has been increasing in recent years. It reached a record high of 13.5% (about 8.2 million) in 2013, and is a major social issue affecting efforts for both disaster and crime prevention. From 2025 onwards, when the baby boomers will be at least 75 years old, it is expected there will be a rapid increase in vacant houses from inherited homes, with estimates that vacant houses will account for 30% (about 20.15 million) of the total in 2033.

Since the Vacant Houses Special Measures Act came into full effect in 2015 local governments have been working on measures to deal with the issue. It is estimated that by the end of March 2018, over 50% of all municipal governments will create a plan for measures based on this act. Nationwide, there are approximately 6,400 “designated vacant houses” in danger of collapsing or with other issues which municipal governments have given advice or guidance on how to fix, with some having been forcibly demolished by local governments.

The FPCJ invited Mr. Hidetaka Yoneyama, Senior Research Fellow at the Fujitsu Research Institute and an expert on residential and property policies, to speak about the progress on and issues facing measures for vacant houses, two years after the Vacant Houses Special Measures Act came into effect.          

The briefing had a total of 26 participants, including 17 journalists from Denmark, France, Germany, U.K.,  U.S.A., India, Singapore, South Korea, and Taiwan.