Houses in Tokyo rarely reach the age of 30. As a place identified in part by its demolition of urban artifacts (Rossi, 1966), the Japanese capital raises fundamental questions related to both environmental and cultural sustainability. The city's notorious "scrap and build" practices still dominate, with its housing market trapped in an anachronistic postwar social and administrative system that includes an unsustainable housing loan, pricing, and tax system in its real estate, and high inheritance taxes. Those forces combined provide major incentives to demolish rather than improve houses before they reach their potential lifespan (Iwamura,2006).
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