> Unlike in other countries, Japanese homes gradually depreciate over time, becoming completely valueless within 20 or 30 years. When someone moves out of a home or dies, the house, unlike the land it sits on, has no resale value and is typically demolished. This scrap-and-build approach is a quirk of the Japanese housing market that can be explained variously by low-quality construction to quickly meet demand after the second world war, repeated building code revisions to improve earthquake resilience and a cycle of poor maintenance due to the lack of any incentive to make homes marketable for resale.
Of course, houses can be renovated - as the article explains. But going along with a country's traditional building methods is often cheaper than bucking the trends.
Because of earthquakes. Old houses are considered unsafe even after renovation. Of course things are changing as modern materials are getting more trust.
