Why are there millions of empty houses in Japan? - The Global Story podcast, BBC World Service

In Japan, the number of abandoned homes - known as Akiyas - is at an all-time high, with 9,000,000 million properties sitting empty on city streets and turning rural communities into ghost towns.

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Lucy Hockings is joined by BBC Tokyo correspondent Shaimaa Khalil to ask why these abandoned homes are such a problem? What they say about Japan's existential population crisis? And whether there are any solutions?

00:00 Introduction
01:00 Spotting the abandoned homes
02:20 Dolls replace people in 'dying' village
02:55 Abandoned homes in cities
03:23 Why are there 9,000,000 empty homes in Japan?
04:06 Cultural and economic factors
05:22 'Homes die when the people die'
06:29 Impact on rural communities
07:00 Why not just knock the homes down?
07:47 Empty houses creating earthquake hazards
09:00 Foreigners buying and renovating these homes
10:53 Can tourism solve the empty home crisis?
12:42 Why foreigners are buying Akiyas
14:15 Japanese opinion on foreigners buying up empty houses
15:00 Does the Government have a plan for Akiyas
16:44 Japan's aging population problem
17:35 'Akiyas tell the story of Japan'

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