Why Japan's ¥0 House List Is Empty: Owners Keep Storerooms

A Tokyo town's zero-yen house list drew 122 sign-ups in six years, but owners offered only four houses. In a 2024 government survey, 55.6% of owners who plan to keep an empty home said they need it for storage. The video shows what keeping and letting go cost owners, and the charges England uses and Kyoto plans. Chapters 0:00 Cold open 4:08 2 Teardown is the most common exit 6:30 3 The biggest group keeps the house 12:42 4 England charges owners for empty homes Sources • Okutama Town, 0-yen vacant house bank page (updated 2023-08-10) • Okutama Town annual report fiscal 2025 (令和7年度事務報告書) • Okutama Town annual reports fiscal 2025 and fiscal 2020 • Okutama Town Vacant House Plan (keikaku.docx, page updated 2026-04-01) • Okutama Town vacant house bank listing • Federal Reserve H.10, released 2026-09-21 • Okutama Town annual reports fiscal 2020–2025 (解体費 totals) • Okutama Vacant House Plan grant table • Okutama Town council minutes 2025-09-05 (Id=67), 子育て定住推進課長 • MLIT, 令和6年空き家所有者実態調査 報告書 第2章 • MLIT report 第2章 • Statistics Bureau, 2023 Housing and Land Survey, results summary • MLIT report figure 3-39 • MLIT report figure 3-39 heading (今後５年程度のうちの利用意向) • Ministry of Justice, 相続土地国庫帰属制度 • Ministry of Justice statistics (updated 2026-09-16) • Local Government Finance Act 1992 s.11C • GOV.UK Council Taxbase 2025 in England (revised 2026-01-21) • GOV.UK guidance on premiums and exceptions (updated 2026-05-01) • Local Government Finance Act 1992 s.11B(1C) • Kyoto City, 非居住住宅利活用促進税 page (2026-08-21) • MLIT 2024 owner survey, e-Stat table 32 • House of Councillors, Land Committee, 2026-03-24 (question, speech 159) • National Diet Library, Diet proceedings (国会会議録検索システム) Footage & photos • Photos: Wikimedia Commons: Kuroshio no Neko (CC BY 4.0), Syced (CC0), KOTONOHA (CC BY 3.0), warabi hatogaya (CC BY 3.0), Asset utilitist (CC0), D700master (CC BY 3.0), 運転太郎 (CC BY 3.0), Marie-Sophie Mejan (CC BY 4.0), urawa (CC BY 2.0), LLAAYY (CC BY 4.0), conbon33 (CC BY 2.0), 妖精書士 (CC0), ノボホショコロトソ (CC BY 4.0), na0905 (CC BY 2.0), ume-y (CC BY 4.0), Goshuinnist (CC BY 4.0), 小池 隆 (CC BY 4.0), RuinDig/Yuki Uchida (CC BY 4.0), Suikotei (CC BY 4.0), Bakkai at Japanese Wikipedia (CC BY 3.0), kouji OOTA (CC BY 2.0) • Aerial photographs: Geospatial Information Authority of Japan (GSI) • Stock footage and photos: Pexels (Pexels License) • Photos: Unsplash (Unsplash License) Music • "Jerry Five" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) — Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License — http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... • "Late Night Radio" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) — Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License — http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... • "Limit 70" Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) — Licensed under Creative Commons: By Attribution 4.0 License — http://creativecommons.org/licenses/b... Narration is an AI voice (ElevenLabs), with the first-person line in a voice model of the author's own voice; script written by the author. Charts are drawn from the cited statistics. Archival film, stock footage and music are credited above. ▶ Watch next: Why Japan's Birth Rate Is So Low: It's Marriage, Not Babies —    • Why Japan's Birth Rate Is So Low: It's Mar...