Japan Housing Fact of the Day!

This is a truly stunning graphic! Especially, that of the Minato ward of Tokyo.

As are these statistics,

In 2014 there were 142,417 housing starts in the city of Tokyo (population 13.3m, no empty land), more than the 83,657 housing permits issued in the state of California (population 38.7m), or the 137,010 houses started in the entire country of England (population 54.3m)... Japan has experienced the same “return to the city” wave as other nations. In Minato ward — a desirable 20 sq km slice of central Tokyo — the population is up 66 per cent over the past 20 years, from 145,000 to 241,000, an increase of about 100,000 residents. In the 121 sq km of San Francisco, the population grew by about the same number over 20 years, from 746,000 to 865,000 — a rise of 16 per cent. Yet whereas the price of a home in San Francisco and London has increased 231 per cent and 441 per cent respectively, Minato ward has absorbed its population boom with price rises of just 45 per cent, much of which came after the Bank of Japan launched its big monetary stimulus in 2013.

In the aftermath of the property bubble of 1990s, Japan, which has a single set of nation-wide development control norms, ushered in a new set of dramatically liberal development rules as part of the Urban Renaissance Law of 2002. It made rezoning and vertical redevelopment simpler. The result - increased demand was offset by increased supply, muting price increases. Tokyo has the highest Floor Area Ratio among all major global cities, and dwarfs Indian cities.