Japan Press Weekly

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2016 June 22 - 28 [SOCIAL ISSUES]

Gov’t plans to sell off 1,109 public housing complexes to private corporations

An administrative corporation supplying public housing to the elderly, persons with disabilities, and job seekers has recently announced that it will sell off its 1,109 public housing complexes consisting of 107,000 dwelling units to large private corporations such as real-estate firms, general construction contractors, and investment funds, which is unprecedented in Japan.

Regarding such a large-scale selloff of state-owned assets with residents in occupance, many residents are expressing their anger and concern. The plan is outrageous as it ignores the people’s right to not-for-profit public housing.

Takahashi Sanae who resides in a public housing complex in Tokyo’s Shinagawa Ward said to Akahata on June 28, “It was like a bolt out of the blue sky. We didn’t hear anything about it. We are now collecting petition signatures calling on the Shinagawa municipal government to take all possible measures to keep our residences as public housing.”

The Japan Organization for Employment of the Elderly, Persons with Disabilities and Job Seekers will abandon the properties through competitive bidding. Complexes in east Japan and west Japan will be separately put up for bids. The public organ says that Sumitomo Real Estate Sales Co., Ltd. will handle the administrative procedure pertaining to the bidding process, and that the minimum price for the properties will be about 29.2 billion yen for eastern Japan and about 34.8 billion yen for western Japan.

The employment promotion housing program started in 1960 in order to secure affordable housing for people who were forced to relocate or change jobs associated with the shift in the government energy policy “from coal to oil” at that time.

About 380,000 people lived in this type of public housing during its peak period. After the Lehman Shock in 2008 and the natural disaster struck Japan in 2011 as well as the resultant nuclear crisis, many of those affected temporarily moved into these public apartments.

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