Danchi Housing Complexes - Japanology Plus

As the average price of new condos in central Tokyo exceeded 100 million yen in 2023, attention has turned to Danshi housing complexes. The first housing complexes were built around 80 years ago. Aging complexes are now undertaking various initiatives to attract new residents. A lifestyle brand and a housing supply corporation have teamed up to offer stylishly renovated rooms. There are also complexes where residents can remodel their own rooms. Some have turned into shared residences. And there are even efforts to revitalize local communities by encouraging university students to move into aging complexes. In this episode, we explore Japan's evolving Danshi housing complexes. Hello and welcome to Japanology Plus. I'm Peter Barraka. You can see all around me there are tall apartment complex buildings which are known in Japan as Danshi. When I first came to Tokyo in the mid-1970s, in the suburbs everywhere there were Danshi. They all looked somehow the same and I never wanted to live in one. Nowadays they've become very much a thing of the past, but I'm told that their popularity is on the rise again. I'm not quite sure why, but on today's edition of the program we're going to try and find out the reason for it. And let me introduce my guest, Nakagawa Hiroko-san. Nice to see you again. Nice to see you again. Thank you. Our guest this time is real estate writer Nakagawa Hiroko. Nakagawa has been working with the real estate industry for over 30 years, conducting research and giving lectures on housing and communities. Is there a definition of what constitutes a Danshi? The term Danshi refers to a group of residential buildings constructed on a large site, typically by a public entity. These days the term Danshi has expanded to include private developments, but in this program we will focus on those built by public entities. To begin, the two head to a museum in Kita, Tokyo, to learn about the history of Danshi. Hello. Hello and welcome. My name is Shimizu. Nice to meet you. OK, let's get started. Yes, let's go and have a look. So you've actually brought an old apartment and rebuilt it in here. Yes, this display is an actual apartment as it was. Built in 1957, it's from Hasune Danshi in Itabashi. Two rooms, a four and a half and a six mat room and a little kitchen here. Until that time, people mostly ate in Japanese-style rooms, but this period saw the introduction of a combined dining and kitchen area. It must have been pretty difficult moving around, I mean, doing the washing up and the cooking and the eating. Until then, people in Japan ate, slept and spent their waking hours in the same space. This new type of apartment introduced separate rooms for different activities, significantly changing everyday life. That's why the apartment came with a table. Yes, it was included. Residents were effectively instructed to dine here. Hygiene was one factor. The government strongly promoted it as a new way of living. Terms like 2DK began to appear, and this type of layout was considered fashionable. Today, real estate listings show the number of bedrooms plus LDK, Living Dining Kitchen, or DK, Dining Kitchen. This format started with Danshi. Danshi housing complexes were also equipped with the latest infrastructure, such as water, gas and electricity. The apartment came with this bath here. Oh, it's a wooden bath, wow. Oh, that's actually quite cool. This bath used gas to heat the water. There's a small sink right there. People could do some washing there, like laundry. Ah, so of course there's no washing machine, is there? No washing machine back then. This is a Japanese-style flush toilet. The widespread adoption of flush toilets in Japan began with their use in Danshi. Please come into this Japanese-style room. People gathered here after meals and at other times. There's a TV. It was a place to relax. Slightly bigger room and a smaller room here. There is storage here too. Right. This kind of closet is an essential feature of Japanese housing. A built-in storage space for bedding, clothing and other items. So this was built in 1957. It's almost 70 years ago. And I assume this was, you know, the height of modernity in those days. Yes. At the time, it was extremely modern. It came with all kinds of things that couldn't be found in ordinary private housing or anywhere else. Also, large Danshi had shopping streets and post offices on the premises. Elementary schools were built close by, and various facilities needed for everyday life were clustered together. Danshi were extremely comfortable places to live. It's almost like a small town. Yes, a town in itself. Housing complexes first appeared in Japan in the late 1940s, soon after the end of World War II. Faced with a housing shortage, the government issued a directive to start building new housing complexes. From the 1950s to the 1960s, large Danshi appeared in various parts of Japan. Equipped with modern facilities and designed for comfortable living, Danshi became highly coveted. The term Danshi people was coined for those who lived there. As the housing shortage continued into the 1970s, further mass construction became necessary. Large-scale new town development projects began in the suburbs, integrating housing, amenities, and transportation. However, by the late 1980s, lifestyles had become more affluent, and the image of Danshi housing complexes changed dramatically. They were seen as small and inconveniently located. They also became a symbol of uniformity and aging, and people began to avoid them. Today, there are various initiatives around Japan to attract younger generations to these housing complexes. This Danshi in Adachi, Tokyo, was built around 60 years ago. Here, residents are allowed to do something that's normally prohibited for tenants in Japan. Kikuchi Yuto, who manages the complex, shows us around. This 38-square-meter one-bedroom apartment with a combined dining and kitchen area rents for 90,000 yen per month. Structural changes are prohibited, but other renovations are allowed. A spacious communal yard adds to the appeal of this housing complex. This building is unique in that you can have a barbecue here. Residents can apply for a tent, a chair, a table, and a barbecue set. At another Danshi in Adachi, built some 50 years ago, the first floor is now used to present a unique way of living. Danshi manager Inoue Sachiko shows us around. This is a shared house for young people with a theme of neighborhood love. Books have long been said to have a culture of sharing. We created this system so that residents can communicate through books. The shared living room and hallways contain a collection of approximately 1,000 books in various genres, selected by a book coordinator. It feels like living in a small library. Rooms are simple, with white as the dominant color. The bath and toilet are shared, but each room comes with furniture, a refrigerator, and Wi-Fi. Rooms are 18 square meters, and the monthly rent is 55,000 yen. Next, the two visit Hanamigawa Danshi in Chiba, known for its massive scale. At this complex, a housing corporation and a lifestyle brand offer apartments refurbished for younger tastes. Nice to meet you. My name is Inuzuka, and I'll be your guide today. She's going to show them a 58-year-old apartment. This is a renovated unit. It's bright, very nice. So can you explain a little about the concept? It's about not demolishing too much and not building too much. For example, we've kept features like this wooden lintel, as well as the pillars and other usable elements. We removed the sliding doors to open up the space. We did this so that residents can enjoy a larger, more flexible room and use it however they like. The tatami is a little different from what you normally see, aren't they? It's hemp tatami. Of course, you can use this space as a traditional Japanese-style room, but it can also be used as a Western-style room with furniture. The tatami is made from hemp, which is a durable material. Over there is a sliding door, and it's made of corrugated cardboard. Its qualities are put to good use. It's stronger and more soundproof than one made of washi paper. Interesting. This was a Japanese-style built-in closet, but we removed the shelves and created a partition with a sliding door. It feels quite spacious now. That's right. And another key point is the improved ventilation. This is one of the bedrooms. Okay. So there's plenty of storage in here. Okay. Like the other room, we removed the sliding doors so residents can customize their own storage space. There's one more bedroom. The original 3DK layout has been converted into a 2LDK. The rent for this unit right now is 60,100 yen per month. Oh, that's quite reasonable. Affordable rent is one attraction of Japan's danchi. Some are used in unconventional ways. One example is Shintamon Danchi in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture. It was built around 50 years ago. This building in the danchi used to be a medical clinic. But inside is a fish tank. The shrimp farmed here are eaten at local events and conveyor belt sushi restaurants. Going forward, the goal is to supply them regularly as a locally produced product for local consumption. This is Ponda Danchi, a 50-year-old complex in Takatsuki, Osaka Prefecture. Here, an empty space is being used to make an unusual product. It's craft sake. Craft sake is based on sake brewing techniques. But it also uses secondary ingredients and methods that are not allowed in traditional sake. It's a new type of sake. Most of the people who live here are elderly. But this sake contains 8% alcohol, which is about half of Japanese sake. So they can drink it. Now, they are drinking it. This locally produced, locally consumed craft sake is made with mandarin oranges grown in the danchi area. And it's helping revitalize the danchi itself. Next is Shirahige Higashi Apartments in Sumida, Tokyo, a complex built 45 years ago. The entire complex has a special function. Danchi manager Aoyagi Shigeyuki will show us around. The complex consists of 40-meter tall buildings stretching 1.2 kilometers. There are shutters between the buildings and on each unit's balcony. It was built so that in the event of a fire, the shutters come down and the entire housing complex acts as a fire barrier. During the 1980s, when the complex was built, the area to its east was packed with wooden buildings. The shutters were made to protect the danchi residents and other locals from fire and to let them evacuate to a park west of the complex. What's more, all the danchi buildings are connected underground. A 3,000-ton water reservoir ensures a week's worth of water for residents in case the water supply is cut off in a disaster. There are also generators to power disaster prevention equipment during an outage. Danchi housing complexes serve many purposes beyond simply being a place to live. Today, the most urgent problem facing these housing complexes is their aging population. At Hanamigawa Danchi, 41% of residents are elderly. Here, a bicycle shuttle service for the elderly has been operating for 15 years. The shopping street in the danchi started this service. They want to make daily shopping a bit easier for the growing number of elderly residents. The volunteer drivers also live in the danchi and transport 15 to 20 people a day. The complex has lots of stairs, and just coming down them is difficult for elderly residents. And then they need to walk to the shopping area. It takes a lot of effort. We hope that this service would make it easier for people to come shopping here. Oh, and here's one of those bikes. Here it is. Hello. I see you're taking part in this service. Do you find it useful? I see. So you always use this service? So this is your ride for daily shopping? Every week? So he's like a regular passenger. How long have you been a driver? Good exercise. OK, don't let us keep you. Thank you very much. Meanwhile, at Takeyama Danchi in Yokohama, Kanagawa Prefecture, a number of university students have moved in. Kanagawa University and a housing supply corporation have partnered to make use of some of the apartments in the danchi. Because there are no elevators, upper floors are difficult for the elderly to live on. They are now used as dormitories for the school's soccer team, and the stairs are part of the players' training. It's an initiative aimed at addressing issues like increasing vacant units and weakening community ties. Surprisingly, the idea came from the university's soccer team coach. Students do more than just live there. By holding exercise classes and cooking classes, they are able to develop their social skills. By holding classes in a renovated communal space in the danchi shopping area, they contribute to intergenerational communication and health promotion. Let's do this 10 times. Ready, set, go! I don't really interact with young people, so I'm happy to be able to talk to them. To address the challenges of an ageing farmer population and unused land, students rent local fields and grow various vegetables. The harvested vegetables are served in healthy lunches at the danchi. These healthy lunch events take place twice a week, and any danchi resident can come and eat here. Elderly residents and students enjoy their meals together, chatting at the same table. There are more than 60 people at Kanagawa University, so the atmosphere is really fun. If you do gymnastics, you'll feel better. Over the past six years, through various activities such as smartphone classes for senior citizens and community clean-ups, the students have earned the residents' appreciation, and the danchi itself is now bustling with energy. Peter and Nakagawa have come to the student dormitory in Takeyama danchi. Hi. Hello. Is it okay if we come in and have a look? Let us have a little look around your apartment. So how many rooms do you have? There are one, two, three rooms, plus this shared space. Three bedrooms. This is my roommate's room. So it's a six-mat room. It's six mats. My room is over here. You have this room all to yourself? Yes, it's a one-person room. That's the closet? I'm using it as a kind of desk space. I do my homework there and also use it to get ready in the morning. That's a great way to use it. Yes, it's very practical. Do you enjoy living in the danchi? I interact with elderly people as well as elementary school kids, so I get to communicate with all generations. Personally, it makes me really happy, and I see it as a learning experience. When I was in high school, I lived at home, so this danchi is my first experience living in a dorm. It took me a while to get used to things, but living here with the elderly residents downstairs, teaching them exercise and spending time together, it really feels like we're family. They treat us like their own sons. I now feel like I need to give something back to the local area. Peter and Nakagawa spoke with representatives from the Residence Association and the Housing Supply Corporation. Has the fact of having students living here in the danchi had an effect on the whole community? At first, quite a few residents were wary. They couldn't get past their image of athletes. Jocks, you know, college jocks. That's a biased view. Yes, it is. But as time passed, the residents realized that those students were such good kids. Every time the students hold events, I see more and more elderly women coming out to take part. Some even go to the kids' soccer games, cheering for their favorite players. It feels like more and more people are supporting the team. Having supporters motivates the students and gives them energy in their play, daily lives, and everyday interactions. If any new challenges come about, I think we should take them on together. I got the feeling that we were witnessing a kind of microcosm of a lot of the problems that Japanese society is facing at the moment. You hear a lot about community collapse, both in urban settings and in rural settings. And this was a really nice example of regaining a sense of community, even though it's on a very small scale. But rather encouraging, I thought. The students are gaining valuable experience here. In turn, they give something back to the residents. Not in a tangible way, but in an emotional way. In those exchanges, I really saw the value and potential of people coming together. There's also something powerful about having a place like this. At first, people wondered who these newcomers were. When you simply pass each other, you can't really get to know anyone very well. But once a place like this gets established, where you exercise together and engage with one another, you begin to understand each other. Whether it's a housing complex or a vacant home, usable spaces can be created there. And actually, they can be created quite inexpensively. And that can be seen as one possible way to foster something new for the future. Thank you very much.