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To authenticate to the full-text of this article, please visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1468-2427.2009.00903.x Byline: RAY FORREST (1), YOSUKE HIRAYAMA (2) Keywords: neoliberalism; housing; generations; Japan; UK Abstract: Abstract Neoliberalism has dominated policy discourse and policy formulation for at least two decades and has been particularly influential in reshaping housing systems and housing opportunities. The timing, pace and impact of these policy developments have, however, varied between and within societies. This article explores the experiences of Japan and the UK as a way of illustrating that while there has been a shared discourse of neoliberalism, there have been important contextual differences in relation to the economic cycle, welfare systems and political complexion. These have affected the progress and development of neoliberal policy reforms in housing and in other related spheres and the extent of global financial integration. In both countries, a key social change is the striking reduction in levels of home ownership among younger age groups. The article explores the common and different causes and consequences of these trends and points to the significance of these emerging generational fissions for the neoliberal project. Resume Cela fait au moins vingt ans que le neoliberalisme a envahi le discours et la formulation de l'action publique. Son influence a ete considerable sur la reconfiguration des systemes et des opportunites de logement. Le moment, le rythme et l'impact de ces evolutions politiques ont neanmoins varie d'une societea une autre, et au sein de chacune. Les experiences du Japon et du Royaume-Uni sont examinees ici afin de montrer que, malgre un discours neoliberal commun, on peut reperer de nettes differences contextuelles en lien avec le cycle economique, les systemes de protection sociale et la coloration politique. Ces facteurs ont pese sur la progression et l'ampleur des reformes politiques neoliberales dans le domaine du logement et d'autres spheres connexes, ainsi que sur la portee de l'integration financiere mondiale. Les deux pays revelent une transformation sociale cruciale: les proprietaires de leur logement sont en forte diminution dans les tranches d'age les plus jeunes. L'etude s'interesse aux causes, communes et differentes, ainsi qu'aux consequences de ces tendances, tout en marquant l'importance, pour le projet neoliberal, de ces ruptures generationnelles recentes. Author Affiliation: (1)School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, UK (2)Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, University of Kobe, Japan Article note: Ray Forrest (R.Forrest@bristol.ac.uk), School for Policy Studies, University of Bristol, 8 Priory Road, Bristol BS8 1TZ, UK and Yosuke Hirayama (yosukeh@kobe-u.ac.jp), Graduate School of Human Development and Environment, University of Kobe, Nada, Kobe 657-8501, Japan.

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. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Japan's condominium sector expanded rapidly along with post-war urbanisation and high-speed economic growth. However, the bursting of the bubble economy in the 1990s undermined land and housing markets. Capital losses on condominiums have been disproportionate, especially in cases of older, smaller or non-centrally located condominiums. This analysis incorporates socio-cultural elements in explaining emerging patterns of fragmentation among homeowners and property values. It illustrates relationships between the meaning of housing commodities and the context of indigenous production and consumption processes in urban Japan. The paper specifically draws upon data from interviews with Japanese homeowners to illustrate the significance of values and perceptions in the modern condominium sector and their relationship to changing socioeconomic conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]