Japanese homes and furniture explained





Why did the Japanese never invent fireplaces and chimneys?

Why did Japanese farm houses have such high ceilings?

To take the smoke away (there were no chimneys)

Why do some flats have frosted bedroom windows?

No different from shoji paper screens

Why does a crappy plastic house in Japan cost so much?

Because however expensive it gets Japanese will still buy rather than rent, to increase their much loved sense of security.

Why do you get 4 and a half tatami mat sized rooms, but not 4 mat sized rooms?

Avoiding the unlucky number 4

Why do Japanese families use a Western table and chairs for family meals and a Japanese low table on tatami for entertaining?

Lack of chairs? Lack of non-tatami space? Less problems sticking little, non-matching tables together on tatami? Showing off being able to afford (expensive) new tatami?

Why are some Japanese tansu (箪笥- a chest for storing clothes etc) shaped like steps?

These kaidan tansu(階段箪笥-staircase chests) were the actual stairs of a house, and have usually been sold off when the rest of the house was knocked down

When tansu are usually shoved away in a cupboard or kura (蔵- a traditional fireproofed warehouse seperate to the house), why did they bother making them so fancy?

Four times a year at the change of the seasons and hence the wardrobe, they would be shown off by being paraded with great ceremony from the kura to the house

Why do so many Japanese flats have ugly plastic unit bathrooms?

It’s a combination of the mould problems caused by humid conditions, cheap wooden apaato buildings and no windows in bathrooms for privacy or lack of space reasons that can make that worse, and a generally utilitarian approach to living spaces
Why strip lighting?

Why does a plot of land seem to be more expensive than buying land plus house? 

Nobody wants to live in an old house, especially someone else’s, and it costs a fortune to knock it down

How did Japanese homes get the reputation for being minimalist when every home I’ve been in has countless stuff hanging of the ceiling and walls? 

It’s a social class thing. By just showing one hanging scroll in your tokonoma alcove(but a different one every time a guest comes), you not only show your exquisite taste, but also the fact that you have a fireproofed kura storehouse to keep your stuff in

Why are traditional Japanese homes always made from wood?

The most common explanation of them being resistant to earthquakes doesn’t really stand up, because if earthquake resistance was so important they wouldn’t have such heavy roofs. The simplest explanation is just a ready supply of wood, including for many land owning villagers a piece of the mountain where they could cut down their own wood to make their own houses and barns.

Why are Japanese baths short and deep?

Again, lack of space. You can still cover your whole body with water as it is possible to fill it right to the brim and just let the excess water drain off the plastic floor.

Why are plastic “unit bathrooms” so popular?

Again, one reason is that a bath is often filled so that it spills over the edge once you get in. Also, you traditionally need a place to wash before you get in and where there is no room for a separate shower you need to do that over the plastic floor next to the bath as you don’t want to get soap inside the bathtub. Unit bathrooms are also easier to clean of mould- a common problem in Japan due to the moist climate and the lack of bathroom windows for reasons of space and privacy. Finally, they are looking a little old fashioned to young Japanese now but they seemed incredibly practical and modern to their grandparents’ and even parents’ generation.

Why do some houses have frosted windows on rooms that are not the bathroom?

It’s a privacy thing- sometimes not so much your own as to stop you looking directly into your neighbour’s house all the time. This is particularly true when your neighbour actually built where you live (many wooden “apaato” blocks were built in the gardens of houses to make a steady income).

When most old wooden houses are being knocked down, how come there are still so many traditional temples in every area?

Modern architecture temples and shrines have been tried, but don’t seem to be too popular. Priests can afford the expensive upkeep of a wooden building as they pay no inheritance tax (very high in Japan).

Why are Japanese council housing estates not run down?

You do see some really run down ones, but they actually tend to be company housing rather than council housing. One factor is that companies always have tight budgets but until recently the budgets of local government in Japan were anything but tight- especially when it came to pork barrel projects like construction (e.g. housing) that kept the local voters in work and put money in the pockets of their contractor friends.

There are other factors, of course. For one thing, there are very few immigrants. There are also no families with two or three generations unemployed or people living on welfare (almost impossible in Japan), and no big distinction between blue and white collar workers. The drop outs who might end up on an estate in Europe really drop out in Japan and end up back with their families or homeless.

Because of all these things there is no particular stigma to living on a housing estate and middle class people (and until recently 90% of Japanese defined themselves as middle class) are quite happy to live there. In fact living in a “mansion” (high rise) like this is considered more modern than living in a house- something not true until very very recently in London. If they have moved out of a rundown wooden family home in the countryside you can see how it might be seen as a step up- as it was for the first 10 years or so when the slums of London and Glasgow were cleared and rebuilt in concrete, and people were happy just to have an inside toilet. In Japan, that might be being happy not to have to spend all year fighting off the insects.

Three other factors:

-People on higher incomes are not stopped from living in council housing, they just have to pay full rent while people on restricted incomes, people with children etc. get discounts
– Most Japanese are used to living close to other people, either in a village or in a city, and they feel “lonely” in a silent rural house where they can only hear the birds
– The Japanese have a talent for appreciating the details and ignoring the big picture. If they have personalised their balcony with a few pot plants then they seem able to ignore that it looks the same as 400 others from a distance.

(The last one started off as a comment on mine on this: http://www.lo-la.co.uk/2007/08/13/on-the-road-to-nowhere-part-deux-with-signposts/ that grew like an egg in a Japanese monster film until I thought it deserved a post all of its own)




  1. jgh said,

    October 28, 2013 at 12:29 am

    Top-loading washing machines actually take up *more* space than front-loading. With a top-loader an infinite amount of space above the machine needs to be kept clear so that you can get to the lid. Alternatively, you end up piling other stuff on the lid, then find you have nowhere to shift it to when you need to get to it. With a front loader you can use all the space above the washing machine all the way up to infinity (or your ceiling).

  2. crella said,

    November 3, 2013 at 12:31 am

    But the laundry room has to be wide enough to open the front loader and still be able to get around it. I have a front loader in my laundry cubbyhole (can’t properly be called a room!) and believe me, I’d better not gain any weight!

  3. alexcase said,

    November 4, 2013 at 7:40 am

    Absolutely, and anyway you don’t need “an infinite amount of space” above a top loader, you can put shelves just 30 cms or so above the washing machine, as we and I imagine most Japanese people do.

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