Japanese Homes

(May 22, 2011) We saw after the recent earthquake and tsunami in Japan that the damage done by the 9.0 earthquake was relatively small, even on homes that were decades ago so this seemed like a good time to write about homes in Japan, primarily older homes in rural Japan and in smaller communities. In the 1970 it was still fairly common in Japan to construct homes of wood in those areas. For many years wooden structures have been built with the ability to move and shift a little during earthquakes that occur very regularly throughout Japan. Wooden houses such as the house my wife grew up in and which was built well over a hundred years ago have withstood many earthquakes with little damage. Remodeling on the interior is done periodically but the exterior remains pretty much the same for decades, unpainted and made of dark wood, either cypress or wood much like cypress. Very few homes built before the 1970s, and not many built since, have central heating or air conditioning.  It’s very common to heat or cool one or two rooms and the other rooms go to whatever temperature the weather takes them to.  The bathrooms are rarely heated during the winter therefore almost all homes throughout Japan have heated toilet seats which are pretty nice. Because of the very high humidity almost year around, buildings that are closed to outside air during the winter have a serious problem with condensate, especially on windows, but to a somewhat lesser degree on exterior walls, so mold and mildew may become a problem. To deal with this it’s very common to open windows even during the winter to keep most of the house about the same as the outside temperature to reduce problems with condensate. For decades, probably even for centuries, houses in Japan have been built with sliding panels that can serve as interior walls. They can be used to divide larger areas into smaller rooms or slid aside to provide a large area when needed when one has several guests.  The simplicity and clean lines make the home very attractive.