Reshaping the Housing System in the Context of Japan's Post-Growth Society

Many mature economies are now entering the ‘post-growth’ era characterized by low growth in GDP, ageing of the population and increasing social stratification. Japan stands at the forefront of such transformations towards ‘post-growth societies’, where the government is increasingly being prompted to reorganize the housing system within the context of the shrinking and super-aging population, lowering marriage rates and lowest-low fertility, extremely prolonged recession, increased social inequalities, house-price volatility and housing asset deflation, and growing pressure to cut back on social spending and public subsidies. Housing studies have been debated during the postwar ‘golden age’ of social and economic development accompanied by increasing population, high-speed economic growth, expanding housing construction, and increasing rates of home ownership. Such housing debates were linked to the development of wider social theories on social stratification, the welfare state and urban transformations. With entering the ‘global age’, however, the ‘post-growth’ social context now requires a re-examination of housing debates and related theories. This presentation looks at Japan as a vivid exemplar in terms of exploring how housing is implicated in shaping ‘post-growth societies’.