Main contents start here
CHAPTER 21 HOUSING AND ESTATE
This chapter contains statistics on inhabitancy, ownership and utilisation of dwellings by households, their geographical distribution, as well as the ownership and utilisation of land by corporations. The sources of data are "Housing and Land Survey" by the Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications and "Corporations Survey on Land", "Corporation Survey on Buildings" and "Survey of Land Acquisitions by Corporations" by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
Housing and Land Survey (Fundamental Statistical Survey)
The Housing and Land Survey is the most fundamental statistical survey on housing conditions conducted for the purpose of obtaining basic data for various policy measures on housing life by investing actual situations and trends of dwellings and other occupied buildings and the inhabiting households for the whole country, major metropolitan areas, and prefectures. It had been conducted every five years since 1948 as Housing Survey until the tenth in 1993, then the scope of the survey was extended to include questions on land and the name was changed to Housing and Land Survey in 1998. The 2013 Survey was the fourteenth in the series.
For the 2013 Survey, approximately 210 thousand unit areas were randomly selected from the enumeration districts of the?2010 Population Census, and the Survey was conducted as of 1 October, 2013, on the dwelling units and other buildings where persons live that are sampled from the selected unit areas, and on the households who live in the sampled dwelling units / buildings (approximately 17 dwelling units / buildings per a unit district, 3.5 million dwelling units / buildings and households in total). The Survey was directed by the Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications through the channel of prefectures; shi (cities), ku (ward), machi (town) or mura (village); supervisors; enumerators; and households to be surveyed. The questionnaires were filled out by the household members (partly by enumerators). It was made possible to answer the questionnaires through the Internet (online survey) instead of submitting them to the enumerator.
Dwelling
A dwelling is defined as a permanent building or a perfectly separated part of a building, such as a detached house or an apartment of an apartment house, built or reformed for habitation by one household.
"Perfectly separated" means that the dwelling is separated by fixed concrete or wooden walls.
A dwelling for habitation of one household must satisfy following four conditions with regard to facilities: <1> at least a room, <2> sink for cooking for exclusive use, <3> toilet for exclusive use, and <4> doorway for exclusive use (i.e. it may be a direct access to the street, or an access to the hallway which occupants and visitors can use). For conditions <2> and <3>, facilities for joint use are included, if they can be used at any time and can be accessed without passing through a floor of any other household.
Households
Households living in a dwelling are classified into principal households and lodging households. If a household is occupying an entire dwelling, the household is defined as "principal household". In case two or more households are living together in a dwelling, the main household (such as owner or tenant) is defined as "principal household" and others are defined as "lodging households". When two or more single persons are living together in a dwelling, for example, an unmarried person living together with his / her friends, one of them is defined as "principal household" and each of the other persons is defined as "lodging household". An "ordinary household" is defined as a group of persons, such as a family, sharing a living quarter and living expenses. A lodging household living with its family and a one-person household are also defined as "ordinary households". All principal households are regarded as "ordinary households".
Corporations Survey on Land (Fundamental Statistical Survey)
The purpose of this survey is to provide basic materials for comprehensive land policy by clarifying the ownership and use of land in the country and by region. The first survey was conducted in 1993 with a name "Basic Survey on Land - Corporation Survey", and renamed to the present name in 1998, and have been conducted every 5 years since then. The 2008 Corporation Survey on Land was the 4th of the series. The 2008 survey covered corporations (excluding those owned by the central or local governments) having the head office in Japan. The target of the survey was 490 thousand corporations including all the companies with a capital of 100 million yen or more and companies with a capital less than 100 million yen and other legal persons selected by the method stipulated by the Minister of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. The survey was conducted as of 1 January, 2008 by the mail survey method. Mailing out of questionnaires was done by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism, and the completed questionnaires of companies with a capital of 100 million yen or more were collected by the Ministry, and others were collected through the prefecture where the corporation is located.
Inventory asset
Land owned for the purpose of selling to the third party regardless of whether the land is listed as such in the financial or accounting reports.
Land owned by corporation
Land owned in the name of the corporation, including joint ownership.
Average tenure size per corporation
Average land area owned of all the corporations who own land.
Corporations Survey on Buildings
This survey has been conducted in conjunction with the Corporations Survey on Land with a purpose to provide basic materials for land policy by supplementing the data on land use by the corporation?s ownership and use of buildings which are closely related to the land use. It has been conducted every five years since 1998, and the survey in 2008 was the third in the series.
Household Survey on Land
Statistics on households? ownership and use of land are prepared to provide basic national and regional data for policy measures on land by clarifying the ownership and use of land by households. The present statistics are derived from the results of the 2008 Housing and Land Survey.
Number of household owning land
If a household owns two or more separate units of land, the household is counted as one by each type of land respectively.
Survey of Land Acquisitions by Corporations
This survey has been conducted annually since fiscal 1973 to investigate the ownership of land by corporations as a part of improvement of the basic information on land. The first survey covered about 1,300 companies listed on the Tokyo Stock Exchange, while the subsequent surveys covered companies and mutual companies with a capital of 100 million yen or more. The 2008 survey was conducted by mail or via the Internet at the companies on the corporation list of the Corporation Survey on Land as properly updated by the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism.
