Do you yearn for a home in the Japanese countryside, far from the hustle and bustle of big-city life? An (abandoned house) may be the opportunity you’ve been waiting for. Quite simply, (空き家) means “empty house”. What it usually means is a vacant home in a small town that nobody wants to live in.
Some may even be . Akiya are a symptom of Japan’s declining population and the overwhelming preference for newly built houses in urban areas. According to the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, as of October 2023, there were over 9 million empty houses, double the number from 30 years ago.
And with Japan’s population predicted to drop from 125 million to , this number will keep growing. Akiya can technically be any vacant property, but are often large, traditional houses. For example, most houses on the in Kyūshū are enormous compared to modern Japanese homes.
Have you always wanted a garden, or need a four-bedroom house? No problem. You can expect several rooms, ranging from 4 to 10 tatami mats in size each. It’s also worth noting that, in the countryside, tatami mats can be bigger than the ones you find in the city, giving plenty of extra floor space.
Still, these houses need work. Most akiya kitchens can be described as rudimentary. For toilets, you might need to squat! That’s right; a lot of older homes have old-school squat toilets, which means you’ll be trading in a fancy porcelain throne for a less fancy hole on the floor.
But more and mo.