No place like home

It looks much more inviting than the ugly rabbit warren communist boxes in the background

This is disgusting and dangerous. It would never be allowed in a truly First-World country.

Not rare to see such places.

As kawa said. Not only dirty and unsightly, but downright dangerous.

Fire hazards, vermin nests that should be cleared, but local govts are reluctant to do anything, even if by-laws exist. In some instances the owners have mental health issues, or belong to the burakumin community or even rightwing uyoku connections, so local officials/police turn a blind eye.

I pass one of these houses often, piled high with junk upon junk, overflowing onto the footpath. It's on a main city highway, directly in front of a large furniture / interior shop. I'm sure they lose drive-by customers, unwilling to stop next to such a place.

It would never be allowed in a truly First-World country

Lol. This pic could have been taken anywhere in the world, including/especially in so called first world countries.

A common sight indeed. Its not a "gomi yashiki" though. One of them would have the entire foreground covered in gomi. This is neat and ordered by comparison.

If anyone lives in a place like this, brace the frame or it will collapse in an earthquake. Post and beam is only strong when the joints are square. Off square it will not support that heavy tiled roof.

Firstly Japan is a first world country.

Maybe someone holding out on land or maybe developers haven't felt the need to build on it yet or the land is unsuitable some how. Eitherway, the person who lives their looks like they may have hoarding issues and needs social services to see if they are managing ok.

Yeah I'm afraid of the ones like this in my neighborhood in Kyoto. They're the ones so many loose bits flew off of and caused damage during that big typhoon.

They really need to change the laws so that Japan can seize and demolish unclaimed houses. If someone actually lives in a shack like that, then there's very little they can do about it, but derelict houses should be seized and torn down.

for a country with such a lack of space, land waste should not be allowed on derelict structures such as these and hoarding...yet another glitch in the matrix...

In fairness there are tons of much newer houses which have piles of crap lying around them like that too. Its a result of the lack of space more than anything, and newer houses in general are (ironically I suppose) much smaller and more crowded than older ones.

I wonder how old that house is.

Good picture by Thomas White bringing reality on the ground nearer to the people.

I see a photo of a now fairly rare pre-war house with a bit of stuff stored outside. Some does look a bit like garbage, but quite a lot would have obvious or occasional uses (a ladder, poles etc).

It is a bit grubby but it also has some charm for me. I don't think that it is dangerous.

It may not be apparently the most attractive house, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder. In addition, home is what you make of it. We don't know the inside of that place. I'm sure there's much more space than those apartments in the background. Plus, the owner doesn't have to worry about next door noisy neighbors and paying community dues.

These places really need to be torn down. Same goes for those awful naga-ya projects. Firestorms waiting to happen.

It's just someone's home. It's their little refuge from the crazy world outside. They must be many happy memories in that house, and maybe a few sad ones. It's really quite beautiful.

I'd much rather live in that house than in the "ugly rabbit warren communist boxes in the background" as ozziedesigner so eloquently put it.

"Plus, the owner doesn't have to worry about next door noisy neighbors and paying community dues."

Plus they can have barbeques in the "yard."

I like! The old boy just needs to get shed of the blue tarp, sell his cans, that's about it. Character.

One of the weird things for me in Japan is that I find old places like this much more attractive, even when they are falling apart, than the sturdier, cleaner new houses that they inevitably get replaced with.

Contemporary residential architecture in Japan is so ugly it makes me want to puke just looking at 95% of it. What is with the recent attraction to shiny beige (sometimes grey) plastic siding that all new houses are clad in? And having zero greenery or landscaping of any sort on the property even when there is space for it? And why is everything made to look like a box with no depth or sense of its own scale?

After reading most comments on this I believe that you all believe that you are better than those living in this house I lived in a row house in Kama-yamada Fukuoka for many years and would still live there if the government didn't steel it

I get the feeling there's a lot of duct tape being used inside that house.