Investigation: Japanese Housing
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by Miyagi Kesuke
To begin with, I would like to thank all those in Hokkaido who voted to return me to Congress. Without your support I would not be able to pursue what I hope will be a better future for us all.
On to the subject at hand. During the past congressional session questions regarding the stability, viability, and general health of Japan's housing market were raised. Due to lack of tangible evidence, I and other congressmen had little choice but to dismiss the claims presented to us that stated the housing market needed government intervention. The best course of action we could take was to investigate further, seek the evidence out, and then make an educated decision.
Upholding one of my campaign promises, this is the course of action I begin today. Starting on this day, I will begin contacting owner and operators of the housing companies located here in Japan. I will be requesting simple information to help your congressmen perform an assessment of the health of the industry. I hope for your full support in this process. Cooperation of these local businesses is necessary for accurate analysis!
If you are an owner or operator of a housing company here in Japan, please let me know by comment or message so that I may solicit your input in this important matter!
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Look forward to the results.
Doesn't look like there is enough demand to support a few companies, not to mention the few construction employees being hogged by the "big" conglomerate.
There are only 3 Japanese housing companies active, and only 2 that are operated by Japanese citizens. How long should we wait to be contacted "starting today"?
Look Japanese housing market suffers from low market volume. So Japanese housing companies typically build a few houses and then have to shut down for a while. The top 5 countries, France, Hungary, Russia etc, all have 99% import tax so we don't have the opportunity to export to them. Meanwhile Japan has the lowest import tax on the housing sector (lower than food, weapons, or anything else). So while we wait to sell off a few houses usually a foreigner swoops in and sneaks one for .5 yen cheaper.
When it takes weeks to sell a house this really hurts Japanese companies. If you want evidence that the Japanese housing market is suffering, then just take a look. What evidence do you need? Look at how few people are employed and look at how many foreign firms enter our market.
Re: Daitoa Kyoeiken. I appreciate your commenting and notifying me of your active status. However, your patronizing tone toward a congressmen attempting to assist you is not constructive. If you do not consider the public notice I have posted here requesting owners of housing companies to contact me a form of communication, then I urge you to remove the melon that must be covering your head.
I do not intend to promote a knee-jerk reaction to one company's anecdotal evidence, nor do intend on ignoring it. In order to determine any long term solution to a problem the congress must have the proper tools to work with. This will take patience and analysis.
All organizations running a housing business in Japan that have contacted me along with many which haven't can expect a survey delivered to them on day 650.
I would be very interested in taking this survey when it becomes available.
Anyone who has held a construction job in Japan knows that it pays less than the other industries. It was only by drastically lowering wages, prices, and by operating at a loss that Happy Houses was able to force out foreign firms. Now competing with Swedish owned Holy Nepponsa Houses, we have driven prices down by 40 yen, almost 25%, a full gold off normal prices.
I am hoping that I can force Nepponsa to close up shop but I know that other companies will just buy trade licenses and so I'm forced to keep workers working at the lowest possible wages. It doesn't help that the Japanese wood market is highly volatile and can occasionally spike upwards of 1 yen per wood unit.
I bought a trade license so I could employ Japanese workers in building houses for the Indonesian market but after I sold 1 house, they raised import taxes to 99% and I couldn't compete. Why is Japan one of the few countries to protect it's workers?
Obviously congress can't fix many of these problems but dismissing the problem as saying there isn't enough evidence feels lazy. Furthermore while I disagree with the tone of Daitoa Kyoeiken, I can understand the frustration. The whole reason that I got into the housing market was to help Japan but I'm finding that no one cares if Japan has a housing market or not. I'm very close to closing up shop and I think Daitoa Kyoeiken already has.
For full disclosure me and Daitoa are friends outside of erepublik.
I should also point out that I have been approached on two separate occasions by other firms to collude to raise the price and have both times refused on behalf of my country.
Housing surveys have been mailed out to all organizations I was able to find that have a housing company located in Japan. If you did not get one, and own a housing company, please let me know!