Comments by "mindstalk" (@mindstalk) on "These TINY Buildings are 100% Legal in Japan" video.

@cordeliacentauri1737 Some Japanese furniture like a futon and low table could be brought up the stairs. Also, I know some European cities have cranes, to lift furniture up to a (wide) window. Not sure about Japan.
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@brycemcewen6146 " Honestly a lot of people rent small flats like that as extra storage space" Could also work as a commuter home, rented for being close to the office, then go to your home further out on the weekend. Or for some high schooler sent off to a private school far from home, bonus of being smaller so they fit better.
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@LifeWhereImFrom "Microapartments are inhumane" say many people who went through college in dorm rooms that were even smaller... drives me nuts.
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Plus these apartments are far more stackable than vans (6 stories in this case!) and have full utilities.
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@Volkbrecht If true, that's fine, for many people for part of their lives. Americans spend their college years in dorm rooms that may be no bigger, and shared with a roommate. Workers may want a cheap place during the week, and go to their suburban home on the weekend. But also, that's not necessarily true. "Living" means different things for different people. An introvert who spends a lot of time on their laptop can "live" pretty well in such a place. (Plus, we're in the Zoom era.) A diligent student can likewise spend much of their time there, even if they socialize outside. There is no reason to ban building such homes.
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"There is nothing nice in this" $250/month rent is pretty nice. Do you feel that college dorms, often no bigger and shared with another person, are inhumane? Many people are happy to live in such places at least for a while. Who are you to get in their way?
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It is acceptable to live in such places. Why do you think you have the right to impose your preferences on others, @carbonwarrior ?
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Might work better with traditional Japanese furniture. Folding futon (not the couch-bed Americans call futons, actual 3-section mattress), low table you kneel at, etc. Stuff that you could actual bring up those stairs.
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@Bionickpunk It's not "more humane", you just like European aesthetics more. The first thing you need for "human planning" is affordable housing, and Japanese cities have excelled there. Japan is also quite good at transportation infrastructure.
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@Boomdizzle99 Much of NYC was famously built for poor immigrants. "Tenement apartments". Harlem. Chinatown. Cities have recently become places for the rich, because Americans want to live in walkable cities again and our zoning laws limit the supply. Demand goes up, supply is fixed, prices go up. If we were a free country we would be building a lot more such places, and prices wouldn't be so high.
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@alquinn8576 Most of which are bad reasons.
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ADA doesn't apply to housing of only 3 units; if 4+ units but no elevator, does apply to ground units. If 4+ and elevator, applies to all. This is a 6 unit building, so ADA should apply to the ground unit, which probably doesn't qualify. But in a sane system, there would probably be a waiver; I expect the lot is too small and narrow to meet the ADA at all. Not being flexible simply results in the land not being built on at all, which is a waste.
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@carbonwarrior That makes no sense. Supply and demand. What makes housing expensive is the lack of housing. People who are willing to live in little units like these aren't competing for bigger units. These bring prices _down_, not up.
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Why wouldn't the chef wash his hands after leaving the bathroom?
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@Arkiasis Plus there is a burner. (No fridge shown but Japan expects tenants to provide their own.) You wouldn't be cooking complex meals easily but you could cook.
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@bigboyman5743 As an American I believe in letting others have the freedom to build what they want or think they can rent out. No one's trying to force you into small apartments, but current zoning laws forbid such places even though many people -- not everyone! but many -- would happily live in them for a while.
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"100% of Americans would live in these homes" That's too extreme. But certainly many Americans would, for at least part of their lives. In fact, many Americans have lived in even 'worse' housing, called "college dorm rooms". My dorm rooms were often the same size as that apartment (though more rectangular), shared with another person, and lacking our own bathroom or kitchenette. And of course a small apartment doesn't have to be 11 m2, it can be 15 or 20 or 35, and still be an efficient use of land. It's American parking mandates that really kill this sort of thing.
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Honestly might be a waste. Ethan did a video (youtube ID E6w_W6GyHEs ) on Wagyu and burgers.
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He said "sister-in-law Akko"
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@Bionickpunk I would also guess a futon (proper Japanese one, a 3-section folding mattress, not US couch-beds), and maybe low tables that you'd kneel at (Japanese people are more likely to still be able to kneel comfortably for long periods.)
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@Bionickpunk Perhaps when you grow up you'll learn that other people can have different preferences than you.
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@Bionickpunk Immature copycat retort that doesn't even make sense. I already know you don't like such apartments. That's fine, no one is trying to force you to live in one. You are the one assuming that everyone else would react the same as you. And you are wrong. Many people will last long in such housing, without claustrophobia. The building is close to full with tenants. Even if people don't want to live in such places for more than a few years, that's fine, there's a place for cheap and small housing people can use for a while. There's no reason for such housing to be illegal, especially when it's making use of an awkward piece of land that would otherwise go to waste.
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@Bionickpunk I'm not subjecting anyone to it. If people didn't want to live in them, the units would go empty. As for green space, I'm not sure such a narrow strip would actually be attractive, but anyway it's private land_. If the local city wants to buy the land and make a tiny park, it's free to. Otherwise, the owner should be free to do what they want -- which in this case was building cheap housing for 6 people. Something you apparently want to prohibit because _you can't imagine living there.
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From past exposure, I'd say there's actually a decent chance there's a place to install a small clothes washer. (Japan, like German, tends to expect tenants to bring their own appliances, even fridge or maybe stove.)
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Wow, and here I thought my Airbnb in Osaka was impressively small. That was technically a detached 2-story house (with like 3 cm of air gap from the next building), long and narrow and tapering. Kind of 3x7 meters except I don't think the widest point really hit 3 m. Still, total of 30-40 m2. Narrow and very steep stairs (ladder, really); I ended up just leaving my luggage downstairs and only going up to sleep, so most of the upper space was wasted for me. No tub, just minimal toilet and shower stall. Two gas burners, two sinks next to each other, mini-fridge, clothes washer. For just me, living out of my bags and laptop, it was mostly fine; if I had a friend over for dinner and anime, we had to maneuver around each other a bit. Was about $1000/month in 2019. One objective complaint about such narrow places, stretching along a street, is that they have no depth. Any sound from the street, like old people talking to each other at 7 AM, is a short distance from your head. I guess longer distance once you go further up. But that was annoying.
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There are many reasons we don't have units like this, ADA is the least of it. For typical US zoning that building a) violates parking mandates b) exceeds the allowed lot coverage c) exceeds the allowed height limit d) is smaller than the minimum unit and bedroom sizes e) doesn't have mandated setbacks b-e are somewhat waive-able in higher density areas[1] but (a) has been nigh-universal. No one is going to build 150 sqft apartments when you also have to provide 350 square feet of parking to go with it. [1] And 75% of US urban land is zoned for detached single family houses only, on minimum lots of often 1/8 acre (5000 sqft) or more. A huge difference in Japan is that that concept does not exist: Residential zoning is simply Residential, there's no zoning for single vs. multi-family, or owned vs. rental housing. The zoning simply prescribes building size, and you're free to stuff as many people in as you can convince to live there. Equally important, a small building like that would have no parking mandate.
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@louisazraels7072 I totally agree! But the US does have parking mandates, even for dense urban areas.
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@alquinn8576 "Biden's America" lol, blue states have lower traffic fatalities per capita. Not only did you make this gratuitously political, you got it wrong.
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