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This paper presents the importance of the visual expression of factor decomposition in regression analysis, which is particularly worthwhile for undergraduate students whose majors are not mathematics but social science. The conventional purpose of regression analysis is to examine specific hypotheses empirically. In particular, the statistical significance of the explanatory variable was tested, which may have been difficult for many students to understand mathematically. To remedy this, factor decomposition is introduced in the same way that human body composition is broken down into water, fat, and muscle. As an illustrative example, multiple regression was applied to the determinants of housing rents in Japan. The explanatory variables were the living area, building age, and walking time from the nearest station. The findings suggest that, with the help of visual expression, a student can easily appreciate which variable significantly affects housing rents.

The dollar, once one of the world's strongest currencies, has fallen dramatically in recent years--a development impacting attitudes from corporate boardrooms to the sets of music videos where artists are choosing to flash the euro over American cash. When measured against a collection of other leading worldwide currencies--like the European euro, the Japanese yen and the Canadian dollar--the U.S. dollar has lost a quarter of its value over the last five years, according to the "Economist" magazine. The dollar is losing value because of several factors: the federal deficit, the trade deficit and most recently, the weakening economy due to the housing and mortgage crunches. (Contains 4 online resources.)

In Asian countries, including Japan, the rapid demolition and new construction of housing continues, causing demand for old housing stock to fall. Employing unit-level listing information obtained from a real estate portal in the Tokyo rental housing market, this study differentiates vacancies by time dimension and documents that old properties are likely to spend a long time on the market, exceeding several months. This low demand for old houses can be attributed to functional obsolescence (lack of contemporary housing amenities and services) and owner resignation (lack of adequate countermeasures to fill vacancies regardless of their effectiveness). Our results indicate that even in popular property segments and neighbourhoods at the macro level, low demand broadly arises among old houses and is not always socially inefficient. Moreover, accelerating early redevelopment may improve social welfare by avoiding older properties sitting on the market for long periods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To evaluate the association between housing and psychological damage caused by the Great East Japan Earthquake (GEJE) and modifiable risk factors (MRFs) of dementia for general population of older adults. Methods: This cross‐sectional study enrolled 29 039 community‐dwelling older adults (mean age 69.1 ± 2.9 years, 55.5% women). We evaluated disaster‐related damage (by complete or not complete housing damage) and psychological damage (by post‐traumatic stress reaction [PTSR]) after the GEJE using a self‐report questionnaire. MRFs encompassed the presence of depression, social isolation, physical inactivity, smoking, and diabetes. We examined the association between disaster‐related damage and MRFs using ordinary least squares and modified Poisson regression models adjusted for sociodemographic and health status variables. Results: Complete housing damage and PTSR were identified in 2704 (10.0%) and 855 (3.2%) individuals, respectively. The number of MRFs was significantly larger for the individuals with complete housing damage (β = 0.23; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.19–0.27) and PTSR (β = 0.60; 95% CI: 0.53–0.67). Prevalence ratios (PRs) for depression and physical inactivity were higher in individuals with complete housing damage. The PRs for all domains of the MRFs were significantly higher in individuals with PTSR. Conclusions: Housing and psychological damage caused by the GEJE were associated with an increased risk factor of dementia. To attenuate the risk of dementia, especially among older victims who have experienced housing and psychological damage after a disaster, multidimensional support across various aspects of MRFs is required. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2024; 24: 509–516. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Focusing on migrants' experiences of moving house in the country of settlement, the study explores the housing pathways of Russian-speaking migrants in Japan over their life courses. This paper emphasizes the need for the anthropology of migration to consider not only the housing events but also the housing pathways experienced by cross-border migrants in receiving countries. It is argued that the act of moving from one accommodation to another plays a crucial role in how migrants develop their biographies and perceptions of self. In addition to investigating house relocation, the study borrows from the Russian formalist school of narratology to examine how migrants narrativize their experiences in stories that intertwine housing pathways and movers' identities. The study reveals how the instances of moving—and not necessarily the physical qualities of housing—emerge as dynamic forces that initiate migrants into their desired statuses. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article discusses the problems of housing policies in Japan in the context of a post-growth society. The authors argue for a shift in Japan's housing policy, emphasizing the importance of the second-hand housing market and the utilization of existing housing rather than new construction. They explore the causes of housing problems in Japan, such as the increase in vacant houses, and examine the political and economic circumstances that contribute to these issues. The authors also discuss the impact of post-growth society on housing conditions, including the shrinking housing market, housing inequalities, and the housing pathways of young people. They highlight the relationship between a post-growth society and low fertility rates, gender issues, and population aging. The book provides insights into the housing situation in Japan and offers suggestions for addressing housing problems in a post-growth society. [Extracted from the article]

The analysis of several cases of representation of contemporary Japanese housing architecture and the use of drawing as a tool for ethnographic knowledge allow us to reason about the best way to introduce the complex reality of a house, in relation to the context in which it is situated. In this way, a reflection is established on the appropriate method of representation to expose the relationship between the light assembled house, the dense city and the interstitial space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper explores the case of a migrant-owned apartment in Japan that has been rented to migrants for over a decade. The apartment, located in the "house with the red roof," and people's relations that develop within and around it are approached through the anthropological concept of "societies with houses." The apartment is regarded not only as a dwelling but as an institution that governs relations in a loosely tied migrant society with houses. The study contributes both to migrant housing studies, offering an experimental perspective that goes beyond inquiries into migrant spatial distributions and notions of home, and to the "societies with houses" concept through expanding its toolkit and application. The apartment in question not only provides a place to live for migrants but also enacts the functions of protection, capital accumulation, social memory reproduction, disguise and exposure, and metaphorical kinning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This project is an attempt to build a house in a suburban residential area that incorporates the broad meaning of the word "house" typified by the farmhouses and townhouses that were once common in Japan. To do this, we performed a case study on a house possessing cognitively diverse properties based on the concept of "dots" and "cues" inspired by Gestalt theory. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The five 'developmentalist' welfare states of East Asia (South Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Hong Kong and Japan) have been presented as successful projects of economic progress, positively aligning citizen-interests with business objective. Utilising Jessop's Strategic-Relational Approach (SRA), we analyse the Central Provident Fund (CPF), Singapore's 'forced savings' social policy which organises housing, healthcare, education and retirement. Through a myriad of eligibilities/ineligibilities, Singapore's CPF administers desired social behaviours while sustaining a series of inequalities supporting certain classed and gendered interests over others. Our analysis breaks down the CPF into three social relational orientations: (1) heteronormative familial responsiblisation, (2) labour market activation and (3) class reproduction. The article highlights the function of CPF in institutionalising conservative and pro-market political interests. CPF reproduces material inequalities and fashions behaviours conducive with the dominant accumulation strategy while discouraging those which are not, privileging some interests over others. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In Japan, the rise in vacant housing has created the need to develop quick, effective, and inexpensive methods to detect the spatial distribution of vacant housing at the municipal level. However, due to incomplete and inaccessible data, the change in the accuracy of the vacant housing detection model must be evaluated while accounting for the limited data. Therefore, this study compares the performance of vacant housing detection models for different data combinations (Basic Resident Register; building registration, water usage, and national census) by considering Wakayama City, Japan, as the case study setting. Three main findings emerged: (1) the contribution of the data to the accuracy varies with the combination of datasets and metrics; (2) even if specific municipal data are unavailable, it is possible to acquire a similar accuracy by combining other data; and (3) the missing value contributes to the vacant housing detection rather than the feature value itself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Home clutter can adversely affect work performance, health and well‐being. Clinical‐level hoarding disorders usually manifest during early adolescence, so early detection and prevention of subclinical hoarding tendencies are essential. This study aimed to evaluate a community‐based programme for individuals with poor organising and decluttering skills who volunteered to receive education on how to organise their homes. We conducted an open‐label randomised controlled trial beginning in January 2016 in Tokyo. We enrolled 61 volunteers aged 12–55 years with problems with organising and decluttering. A workshop and home visit group (n = 30) attended four workshop sessions on organising skills and received a visit from a home organiser. The home visit only group (n = 31) only received the home organiser visit. The primary outcome was Saving Inventory‐Revised (SI‐R; Japanese version) scores. The secondary outcomes were Clutter Image Rating Scale and Rosenberg Self‐Esteem Scale (Japanese version) scores. Between‐group changes from baseline to 7 months were analysed using a general linear model. At follow‐up, the SI‐R scores of both groups had improved. The mean change from baseline in SI‐R scores was −20.8 (standard deviation = 9.8) and −13.1 (standard deviation = 14.3) in the workshop and home visit and home visit only groups, respectively. The estimated between‐group difference in SI‐R score changes from baseline (adjusted for baseline SI‐R score) was non‐significant at −5.7 (95% confidence interval, −12.4 to 0.9; p =.089). However, the difference was significant in the univariate model: −7.2 (95% confidence interval, −13.7 to −0.8; p =.029). Although both groups improved, after adjusting for baseline values and participant characteristics, there was no significant difference between the groups. Our results suggest that a workshop‐style educational intervention and assistance and advice from professional organisers may help to improve the living conditions of people with hoarding tendencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The willingness to purchase a house is closely related to previous experiences with housing market changes. This paper establishes the variable effects of willingness to purchase a house based on experience to analyze how experience with the Lost Decade (1991 to 2001) in Japan has influenced its housing market. This study finds that when the regional house-price levels are less deviated from those of Tokyo, willingness to purchase a house is relatively higher, which inhibits the growth of rent prices. Grouping data into urban and non-urban areas shows that the negative impact of willingness to purchase a house is higher in non-urban areas. This indicates an urban-rural gap in the country and house prices in the urban areas can self-adjust so that willingness to purchase a house does not reflect significantly on the rental market. Experience with the cumulative house prices of each prefecture from 1985 to 2015 relative to the Tokyo standard is calculated for deviation to determine whether the cumulative experience of longterm past losses could be used to analyze divergence in the regional housing markets. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Previous studies have reported the relationship between housing environment and health, although due to cost and effort, it was difficult to conduct housing condition surveys on a large scale. The CASBEE Housing Health Checklist (the Checklist) made it possible to easily evaluate the housing condition from the resident's perspective. This study examined the relationship between housing coldness/warmth evaluation using the Checklist and psychological distress in a large-scale general Japanese population. A cross-sectional study. We analysed data from 29,380 people aged ≥20 years who lived in Miyagi Prefecture, Japan. As an assessment of housing coldness/warmth, we used the Checklist. We classified participants' total scores on the Checklist related to coldness/warmth into quartiles. The Kessler 6 scale was used as an indicator of psychological distress. Multivariable logistic regression models were used to estimate the adjusted odds ratio (OR) and 95% confidence intervals (CIs). Adjusted OR and P -values for linear trends were calculated using the quartiles of the Checklists' score. Among participants in Q1 (i.e., poorer subjective house condition), the percentage of people with psychological distress was high. Compared to the highest quartile, Q1 showed poorer evaluation of housing coldness/warmth, and higher OR for psychological distress. The OR (95% CI) of psychological distress for Q3, Q2, and Q1 compared with Q4 were 1.93 (1.74–2.14), 2.82 (2.55–3.12), and 5.78 (5.25–6.35), respectively. Housing coldness/warmth evaluation was significantly related to psychological distress. This finding suggests that maintaining a comfortable thermal environment at home could be important for residents' mental health. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the past two decades, a number of biomedical studies have been conducted in Japan using common marmosets (Callithrix jacchus). Common marmosets are highly promising experimental animals because of their high fertility, which is noteworthy among primates. Here, based on our breeding experience at Kyoto University, we have compiled a simplified manual that outlines how to breed and raise robust common marmosets, defined as those achieving over 350g in weight, in a captive environmen 匚 The manual covers selection of appropriate breeding individuals, effective pairing methods, perinatal management including birth control, feeding and housing management, and precautionary health status monitoring. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to explore forms and types of space in vertical housing in order to support the creation of inclusive living environments for children, through observing children's activities and the available spaces and facilities. The field observation was carried out in vertical housing and their surrounding environments in Indonesia and Japan. Housing is currently in high demand in Indonesia, but land availability in cities is limited whereas children population in Indonesia has reached about one third of total population. Vertical buildings, thus, become one of feasible solution. Meanwhile Japan, as a developed country, has implemented vertical housing for a long time to meet society's needs in various places and forms. Housing as a living environment which is suitable for children sometimes receives little attention, especially when there are challenges of limited resources. Therefore there are not many spaces that designated to accommodate various children activities. On the other hand, spaces in vertical housing have their potential to support a child-inclusive living environments. In this study, the qualitative method was employed to explore vertical housing living environments and spaces for children. The results indicated there are three scales of spaces that need to receive attention to the creation of inclusive living environment for children in vertical housing, namely micro, meso, and macro spaces. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The term "housing ladder" refers to the phenomenon of people moving from one housing type to another according to changing demands of different life stages. This phenomenon is observed in many countries and is known as the Jutaku Sugoroku Paradigm in the Japanese context. This study aims to clarify whether adult children's access to homeownership might be affected by their parents' homeownership and their place of origin. Questionnaire Data from a survey across Japan's two largest metropolitan areas, Tokyo and Osaka, were analyzed by combining crosstabulations and a binomial logit model. The results revealed that individuals are more likely to attain homeownership if they come from a metropolitan area and if their home of origin is an owner-occupied house. These findings suggest that housing inequality is being passed on to the next generation by parents' homeownership status and residential location. Japanese housing policies that promote private ownership of housing may reinforce these inequalities. The study concludes that Japan experiences the same intergenerational transmission of housing inequality due to homeownership as other countries, whereas place of origin was an additional factor for homeownership in the Japanese context. • Inheritance of housing inequality in Japan has accelerated as global experiences. • Adult children's access to homeownership might be affected by their place of origin. • Peoples' access to homeownership might be affected by both their parents' homeownership and their place of origin. • Place of origin was an additional key factor for intergenerational transmission of housing inequality in Japan. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Japanese mass housing from the 1960s has a colloquial nickname -- danchi, which can be translated as "common land." Originally celebrated by the public as a highly desirable living environment, danchi are now becoming a source of problems for the government. After briefly introducing the reader to the history of danchi, this paper will turn to investigate the interior lives of their current residents who stay hidden from the media attention behind dilapidating concrete walls and layers of social stigma. This work will attempt to propose a practical methodology on how to collect and interpret ethnographic materials from the apartment visits in relation to factual architectural knowledge. The data collected during the visits became the most controversial part of this research: in the spotlight is the abnormal inability of danchi residents to verbally admit their unsatisfactory living conditions that arises from the Japanese cultural characteristic of gaman, roughly translated as "perseverance". Despite dire living conditions, clearly depressed inhabitants keep repeating that they cannot imagine living a better life. Balancing on the edge between ethnography and architecture, an innovative interior analysis method named "Devicology" (in homage to Wajiro Kon's "Modernology") can help us look beyond these modest replies by detecting "devices" intricate systems of unconventionally used furniture and smaller, less permanent objects, that are unconsciously assembled by the residents. These visually chaotic yet surprisingly functional structures are the only tool of the current dwellers to negotiate with the restricting standard apartment plans that were originally designed for a very different sector of the Japanese population. Beginning as an examination of behaviour patterns in a single apartment, Devicology has the potential to become a study of the collective unconsciousness of different people stuck in the same conditions with the same set of rules. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Reading the book "Bankruptcy after Old Age" has triggered the author's interest in exploring Japanese housing security, and by reviewing the relevant systems and operation methods of housing security in Japan, in order to consider the inspiration for China's housing security policy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Home adaptations are integral for inpatients with fall-related fractures, especially during discharge. However, it is unclear as to how patient-implemented home evaluations can be prioritized with limited professional rehabilitation resources. This study examines the associations between predisposing, enabling, and needs factors with the implementation of home evaluations in the eastern district of Tokyo. Being a female and lower comprehension in cognitive function was significantly associated with the implementation of home evaluations. It may be necessary to consider patients' cognitive function when deciding who to target for housing evaluations and to seek strategies to best estimate their needs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Here, we investigated the relationships between herd life (HL) and type-classification scores among dairy cattle in 3 housing types (tie stall [TS], free stall [FS], and grazing [GZ]). We assessed six classification traits (feet and legs [FL], chest width, angularity, udder support, udder depth [UD], and front teat placement [FTP]) in primiparous cows with 1st calving between 1993 and 2008 and for which HL data were available (i.e., 126,492 data on HL for TS; 88,851 for FS; and 3,989 for GZ). The GLM procedure (R Statistics) was used to estimate the least squares means (LSMs) of HL on type scores. LSMs of HL increased with increasing FL score (≧ 79). With FL scores < 79, LSMs of HL decreased linearly with decreasing scores in TS and FS but not GZ. For all housing types, LSMs of HL increased as UD score increased. Intermediate scores for FTP gave the highest LSMs of HL for all housing types. For all traits, LSMs of HL were similar for TS and FS. However, for GZ, a low FL score had little effect on HL. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this paper, the survey conducted by the government aimed at collecting fundamental statistics on housing is referred to as the "national housing statistics survey." The purpose of this study is to clarify the background of the discussions on the national housing statistics survey in Japan and how these discussions were linked to the actual survey. Previous studies have recognized two surveys in 1941, the "Housing Survey of Industrial Cities" and the "Housing Survey of Larger Cities" as the first national housing statistical surveys in Japan, and revealed the background to how both surveys were conducted. In contrast, this paper also focused on the discussions that ensued between the 1920s and 1930s, and discovered that discussions on obtaining national housing statistics began in 1923, and Japanese researchers intended to include housing‐related items in the 1930 National Census. However, its implementation was incomplete owing to a lack of funds, and only the number of rooms was investigated. The results of the discussions up to 1930 were reflected in the discussions around 1940, and two surveys with many items were conducted to understand the actual detailed conditions of the houses existing in the "industrial cities" and "larger cities" where munitions industries were concentrated. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study aims to quantify the relationship between the arbitrary thermal environment of houses in winter and their occupants' health through a comprehensive questionnaire survey, involving approximately 24,000 individuals who moved into insulated dwellings in Japan. A relationship between the degree of the thermal insulation of these houses and corresponding rates of improvement in the following 10 diseases were formulated: heart disease, cerebrovascular disease, hypertension, diabetes mellitus, asthma, dermatitis and eczema, pneumonia, inflammatory polyarthropathies, allergic rhinitis, and conjunctivitis. Following the statistical analysis of these outcomes, significant differences in improvement rates were identified among the levels of the thermal insulation of houses for the following five diseases: cerebrovascular diseases, asthma, dermatitis and eczema, allergic rhinitis, and conjunctivitis. In addition, the thermal environments of houses corresponding to each thermal insulation level were estimated by numerical simulations. Using these results, we organized the relationships between the thermal environment conditions of houses and observed prevalence rate for the following four diseases for which the improvement rates increased with increasing insulation levels and significant differences were identified: asthma, dermatitis and eczema, allergic rhinitis, and conjunctivitis. Consequently, we formulated equations to predict the prevalence rates of these diseases using the "mean operative temperature of rooms occupied by each family member from January 1 to February 28.", Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2024 Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

This study investigated the association between housing type and clinical remission of infantile-onset allergic rhinitis (AR) in 53,575 children born in 2001 in Japan. Infantile-onset AR was defined as the presence of AR symptoms reported between ages 1.5 and 4.5 years, and remission was assessed between ages 10 and 12. The type of housing was categorized into detached houses and multi-unit residential buildings with 1-2, 3-5, or ≥6 floors. Among the 4,352 infantile-onset AR, 42.9% experienced remission. Notably, living in multi-unit residential buildings, particularly those with 1-2 and ≥6 floors, was positively associated with AR remission., (Copyright © 2023 National Association of Pediatric Nurse Practitioners. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Kyushu Shinkansen and conventional railway lines run parallel in the areas 5 km north of Kumamoto Station (northern area) and 12 km south of the station (southern area). Following the operation of the Kyushu Shinkansen Line in 2011, the adjacent conventional railway line in the north was elevated, a new station was operated in the south, and large earthquakes struck the Kumamoto area from March to April 2016. Sleep disturbances were compared before and after the interventions and earthquakes based on noise source (Shinkansen and conventional railways), area (northern and southern), and house type (detached and apartment) through socio-acoustic surveys from 2011 to 2017. The Shinkansen railway caused significantly less sleep disturbances in detached houses in the north after compared to before the earthquakes, presumably due to more frequent closures of bedroom windows in northern detached houses following the earthquakes. The Shinkansen railway caused significantly more sleep disturbances in apartments in the south after compared to before the earthquakes, presumably because the Shinkansen slowed down immediately after the earthquakes and returned to normal speed during the survey, suddenly increasing the noise exposure. There was no significant difference in the other six cases investigated. Overall, the interventions may not have caused significant differences in sleep disturbances. This article expands on the congress paper by Morihara et al. presented in the "Community Response to Noise" session at the 52nd International Congress and Exhibition on Noise Control Engineering in Makuhari, Japan, organized by the International Institute of Noise Control Engineering.

This article discusses the development of housing policy in Japan and its impact on urban settlements. It focuses on two types of housing projects: "new towns" on the outskirts of metropolitan areas and collective housing with condominiums/apartment buildings in urban areas. The article highlights the challenges faced by these housing projects, such as population decline and unbalanced concentration of resources. It also explores the segregation that occurs within these communities based on income and other factors. The article emphasizes the need for better housing data and understanding of how people use their housing in order to address these issues effectively. [Extracted from the article]

This paper provides new empirical evidence on housing bubble timing, volatility spillover, and bubble contagion between Japan and its economic partners, namely, the United States, the Eurozone, and the United Kingdom. First, we apply a generalized sup ADF (GSADF) test to the quarterly price-to-rent ratio from 1970Q1 to 2018Q4 to detect explosive behaviors in housing prices. Second, we analyze the volatility spillover in housing prices between Japan and its economic partners using the multivariate time-varying DCC-GARCH model. Third, we assess bubble contagion by estimating a non-parametric model of bubble migration with time-varying coefficients. We document two historical bubble episodes from 1970 to 2018 in Japan's housing market. Moreover, we find evidence of volatility spillover effects and bubble contagion between Japan's real estate market and its most important economic partners during several periods. In this context of market integration, countries need to develop coordinated real estate policies to address the risk of global real estate bubbles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The presence of small open spaces between houses is a common feature in existing Japanese neighborhoods. The redefinition of these spaces through architectural design can contribute to the regeneration of the urban fabric. This study is focused on the significance of open spaces within architectural territory, not as negative leftover spaces, but rather as positively designed units. In this regard, architecturally designed open space that connects the building site to the surrounding urban fabric is referred to as urban void. This article aims to discuss three contemporary theories, by Japanese architects, on architectural approaches that are based on the formation of urban voids. These theories are "Tokyo Metabolizing," "Site Determined," and "Group Form." Three levels for positivity of urban void are defined and their related factors are extrapolated, based on which the theories and their representative collective housing projects are analyzed and compared. Also, the position of urban void in the process model of each theory is clarified. Finally, it is shown that an urban void has a double identity--it belongs to the internal order of an architectural composition, while also being a part of the external order of the urban fabric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Display omitted] • Temperatures in 1,553 Japanese houses were measured in several rooms and heights. • Average vertical temperature difference of 3.1 °C was observed in the living room. • Houses in Hokkaido had the largest vertical difference of 5.1 °C in the living room. • Vertical temperature difference linked to coldness, not horizontal/temporal. • Older adults, who are vulnerable to cold temperature, were less sensitive to cold. Residents themselves are responsible for controlling their living environment, and their perception of coldness is important to protect their health. Although previous studies examined the association between perceived coldness and indoor temperature, they did not consider the spatial–temporal differences in indoor temperatures. This study, conducted in Japan, measured indoor temperatures in 1,553 houses across several rooms (living room, changing room, and bedroom) and heights (at 1 m above the floor and near the floor) over two weeks and obtained the perceived coldness from 2,793 participants during winter. Results showed substantial temperature differences between rooms (horizontal differences): 3.8 °C between living and changing rooms, and 4.1 °C between living rooms and bedrooms. The average vertical and diel (evening-morning) temperature differences in the living room were 3.1 °C and 3.0 °C, respectively. Regional analysis revealed that the Tohoku region experienced larger horizontal and diel indoor temperature differences, primarily due to its practice of intermittent and partial heating in living rooms only, in contrast to Hokkaido's approach of heating the entire house continuously. Despite Hokkaido's comprehensive heating system, it exhibited the largest vertical temperature difference of 5.1 °C in living rooms, highlighting the insufficiency of heating alone and the necessity for enhanced thermal insulation. The multivariate logistic regression analyses showed that average temperatures and vertical temperature differences were associated with perceived coldness, while horizontal and diel differences did not show a significant association, further emphasizing the importance of improved thermal insulation. Moreover, factors like individual attributes (age and gender), and lifestyle choices (meal quantity, exercise habits, alcohol consumption, and clothing amount) were significantly associated with coldness perception. Notably, older adults were less likely to perceive coldness but more vulnerable to the health impacts of low temperatures, underscoring the necessity of not solely relying on human perception for indoor temperature management to protect cold-related health problems. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on Muji's initiative to redesign danchi housing complexes in Japan, aiming to combat loneliness by revitalizing communal spaces and encouraging young couples and families to move back to these complexes.

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. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents the post-disaster reconstruction of the Tōhoku region. Although Japan has always been one of the most prepared countries because of its long history with natural disasters, the 2011 Great East Japanese Earthquake and tsunami might be one of the most significant disasters recorded in the country's modern history. This unprecedented disaster that has shaken Japan is a decisive turning point for the entire society as well as for architects and urban planners. Almost ten years later, reconstruction work is still ongoing. This paper introduces specifically Japanese architects' involvement during the three phases of recovery: emergency shelter, temporary accommodation and permanent housing. After the first stage of perplexity and doubt, architects gradually stepped up and started initiatives to resolve the disaster victims' precarious situation. This article outlines some of the architects' actions through the three phases of recovery since the 3.11 disaster. Each of these temporalities has its issues and challenges which the urban planners, architects and designers tried to solve using their know-how to help rebuild devastated communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Traumatic experiences from disasters have enduring effects on health, both directly and indirectly by influencing health behaviours. Among potential pathways, the impact of disaster-related trauma on dietary patterns has been understudied. This study investigated the relationship between disaster-related trauma and dietary inflammatory index (DII ® ), and how these relationships differed by gender and whether they prepare meal by themselves or not among older survivors of the 2011 Great East Japan Earthquake and Tsunami ( n 1375). Dietary data were collected in 2020 using a brief-type self-administered diet history questionnaire, from which we derived a dietary inflammatory index (DII ® ) based on twenty-six food/nutrient items, where higher scores indicate pro-inflammatory (i.e. unhealthy) diet. We found that the experience of housing damage due to the earthquake and tsunami was associated with slightly higher DII scores (coef. = 0·38, 95 % CI -0·05, 0·81). Specifically, women who cooked by themselves tended to have higher DII when they experienced housing damage (coef. = 1·33, 95 %CI -0·63, 3·28). On the other hand, loss of friends was associated with a lower DII score (coef. = -0·28, 95 % CI -0·54, -0·01). These findings highlight the importance of providing support to groups who are at increased risk of deterioration in dietary quality in the aftermath of disasters.

Housing tenure is an important aspect to determine health. However, even though renters tend to have more socioeconomic disadvantages than homeowners, mortality risk between private and public renters compared with homeowners remains unclear. Japanese public rented housing, such as the Urban Renaissance Agency, has been developed for supplying an adequate living environment since 1950s. This study aimed to examine the mortality risk among older Japanese residents living in private and public rented houses compared with those living in owner-occupied houses using 9-year follow-up data. This study drew upon a 9-year follow-up of participants in the Japan Gerontological Evaluation Study, a population-based cohort study of Japanese independent adults aged ≥ 65 years. Mortality from 2010 to 2019 was analyzed for 44,007 respondents. Housing tenure was defined by a questionnaire. Cox regression models were used for calculating the hazard ratio for mortality. Bonferroni correction was used to account for multiple testing between rental houses. Overall, 10,638 deaths occurred during the follow-up period. Compared with housing owners, all rental housing groups had a significantly higher risk of mortality. Among renters, participants who lived in public rental housing had the lowest risk of mortality even after adjusting for sociodemographic characteristics, health status, social status, and environmental status. Multiple testing among renters with Bonferroni correction showed that public renters had 0.80 times (95% CI 0.72-0.89) lower mortality risk than private renters. Although Japanese older adults living in public rental housing had a higher mortality risk than homeowners, this risk was lower than that among private renters. A positive neighborhood environment based on well-planned urban development may have contributed to this result. The results suggest that planned urban development lowers the risk of mortality in older renters in Japan., (© 2024. The Author(s).)

The WHO Housing and health guidelines recommend a minimum indoor temperature of 18°C to prevent cold‐related diseases. In Japan, indoor temperatures appear lower than in Euro‐American countries because of low insulation standards and use of partial intermittent heating. This study investigated the actual status of indoor temperatures in Japan and the common characteristics of residents who live in cold homes. We conducted a nationwide real‐world survey on indoor temperature for 2 weeks in winter. Cross‐sectional analyses involving 2190 houses showed that average living room, changing room, and bedroom temperatures were 16.8°C, 13.0°C, and 12.8°C, respectively. Comparison of average living room temperature between prefectures revealed a maximum difference of 6.7°C (Hokkaido: 19.8°C, Kagawa: 13.1°C). Compared to the high‐income group, the odds ratio for living room temperature falling below 18°C was 1.38 (95% CI: 1.04‐1.84) and 2.07 (95% CI: 1.28‐3.33) for the middle‐ and low‐income groups. The odds ratio was 1.96 (95% CI: 1.19‐3.22) for single‐person households, compared to households living with housemates. Furthermore, lower room temperature was correlated with local heating device use and a larger amount of clothes. These results will be useful in the development of prevention strategies for residents who live in cold homes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Vacant housing detection is an urgent problem that needs to be addressed. It is also a suitable example to promote utilisation of smart data that are stored in municipalities. This study proposes a vacant housing detection model that uses closed municipal data and considers accelerating the use of public data to promote smart cities. Employing a machine learning technique, this study ensures high predictive power for vacant housing detection. The model enables us to handle complex municipal data that include non-linear feature characteristics and substantial missing data. In particular, handling missing data is important in the practical use of closed municipal data because not all of the data are necessarily absorbed to a building unit. Consequently, the model in this analysis showed that the accuracy and false positive rate are 95.4 percent and 3.7 percent, respectively, which are high enough to detect vacant houses. However, the true positive rate is 77.0 percent. Although the rate is not low to some extent, selection of features and further collection of extra samples may improve the rate. Geographic distribution of vacant houses further enabled us to check the difference between the actual and estimated number of vacant houses, and more than 80 percent of 500-meter grid data are with below 10 errors, which we think, provides city planners with informative data to roughly grasp geographical tendencies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Although a series of policies have been adapted to deliver an early diagnosis of dementia, many people living with dementia remain undetected and undiagnosed. The aim of this study is to investigate the characteristics of undetected dementia in community‐dwelling older people in Metropolitan Tokyo. Methods: We conducted a three‐step survey. First, the questionnaires were mailed, in total, to 7614 residents aged ≥70 years in one area in Tokyo, and 5430 were retrieved. Secondly, 2020 individuals attended the face‐to‐face survey, including Mini‐Mental State Exam (MMSE). Thirdly, 198 of 335 individuals who scored <24 on MMSE were visited. Diagnosis of dementia, Clinical Dementia Rating and need for social support were assessed by the interdisciplinary team at their home, and psychological variables, sociological variables and sociodemographic variables were evaluated. Results: Among the 198 participants, 78 (39.4%) were assessed to have dementia. Among those who had dementia, 34 had received a previous diagnosis of dementia in a clinical setting, i.e., the rate of undetected dementia among our 198 participants was 56.4%. People living with dementia without a dementia diagnosis tended to have more complex social support needs, particularly in the domains of dementia diagnosis, medical check‐ups for physical conditions, continuous medical care and housing support. In addition, they exhibited signs of frailty. Conclusions: Given that people living with dementia without a dementia diagnosis are at risk of losing housing or physical health, it is a threat to human rights. Geriatr Gerontol Int ••; ••: ••–••Geriatr Gerontol Int 2020; ••: ••–••. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: Subjective happiness is an important marker of successful aging, and is associated with housing tenure status and household structure. However, the associations between subjective happiness and combinations of housing tenure status and household structure have not yet been clarified. Therefore, we examined which combinations of housing tenure status and household structure are associated with high or low subjective happiness among community‐dwelling elderly people. Methods: Subjects were enrolled by stratified random sampling, and comprised of 1602 elderly persons aged ≥65 years as of January 2017 in Fukushima Prefecture, Japan. The subjects' data were collected via a self‐completed questionnaire (effective response rate: 53.4%), and the associations between subjective happiness and combinations of housing tenure status and household structure were analyzed by chi‐squared test and logistic regression analysis, controlling the confounding variables such as care support needs, subjective economic status and health status. Results: The subjects reported significantly decreased subjective happiness when they were a renter living alone (odds ratio [OR] = 0.427 and 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.249, 0.732) and with others (OR = 0.420 and 95% CI = 0.256, 0.687) after adjustment for confounding variables, compared with owner‐occupier living with others (referent). Conclusions: The results of the current study revealed significantly decreased subjective happiness when the subjects were renters regardless of household structure. Therefore, housing tenure status may be a stronger determinant of subjective happiness among community‐dwelling elderly people than household structure. Geriatr Gerontol Int 2020; ••: ••–••. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]