While Japan demonstrates many of the characteristics of some western housing and social systems, including mass homeownership and consumption-based lifestyles, extensive economic growth and rapid urban modernization has been achieved in balance with traditional social values and the maintenance of the family system. Helpfully divided into three sections, Housing and Social Transition in Japan:
As well as providing challenges and insights for the academic community at large, this book also provides a good introduction to the study of Japan and its housing, economic, social and welfare system generally.
Yosuke Hirayama is Professor of Housing and Urban Studies at Kobe University in Japan. He is the author of several books on housing and urban transformations in Japanese, and has also published widely in international housing and urban research journals. He is a founding member of the Asia Pacific Housing Research Network.
Richard Ronald is a Research Fellow at the Research Institute for Housing, Urban and Mobility Studies at Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands, and was formerly a Research Fellow at Kobe University in Japan. He is the former recipient of the Japan Foundation Doctoral Fellowship and the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science Postdoctoral Fellowship.