Japan’s asset bubble burst in the early 1990s, sinking the economy into a recession and a decades-long stagnation. Since then, regular employment has progressively given way to low-paying, benefits-poor, irregular jobs, especially for younger Japanese. Economic insecurity has forced those young Japanese to put off marriage and children—or skip them altogether. What’s left behind is one of the world’s most aged societies, millions of homes filled with property accumulated during Japan’s boom years, and a dearth of heirs. Japan is already home to eight million unoccupied homes, colloquially
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