What Rich Neighbourhoods in Tokyo are Like

foreigner hello world in a previous video I showed

what

a typical Tokyo neighborhood looks like, but recently I was wondering

what

I would find if I visited some of the

rich

er areas and where the

rich

live well. I would say it's mainly in the west. On the Yamanota side, it is geographically the upper areas of Tokyo and where the upper class is traditionally found, the east side is called Shitamachi, which conveniently is geographically lower and you guessed it, where the lower class is traditionally found, this is where it comes from my wife's family. From and where we own a home for the purposes of this video, I went west and largely avoided skyscrapers as they honestly aren't that fun to look at from the ground.

Instead, I chose areas of land that had primarily single-family homes. and a couple of areas that had disproportionately large plots of land. One of the best examples of this is denen tofu. It is based on the Garden City movement created by Ebenezer Howard, a British urban planner who inspired the man said to be the father of Japanese capitalism. tried the concept in Tokyo, so he bought and developed Denon jofu in 1907. While the garden cities were developed with the idea of ​​having a classless society, in reality what happened was that they became quite exclusive areas for the wealthy Dana and chofu is no exception. just a note, i'm talking specifically about the sanchoma area located in otaward.

It is easy to see from the sky due to its distinctive radial pattern. At Den en chofu they have minimum lot sizes, which partly explains why you will see larger houses than normal plots. They must be at least 165 square meters and buildings must not exceed 9 meters. You cannot build apartments or townhomes with more than four units, although there is a minimum parcel size, in reality most parcels tend to be larger. One reason for this is if you are sitting on a 300 square meter piece of land, you couldn't divide it in two, as both halves would only be 150 square meters.

In fact, after manually measuring some of the areas, I feel confident saying that. On average, the loss is twice the minimum lot size. Interestingly, if you look at the land values ​​of Dan and Shofu, they don't seem too high, especially considering the neighboring areas. However, due to the minimum lot sizes, even the smallest property starts at 130 million yen, which is approximately equivalent to one million US dollars, given current exchange rates, please note that this is the initial cost just to get the bare minimum of land without buildings, so you basically have to be a millionaire to own a home here, like in Vancouver and Toronto, now in the neighborhoods outside.

Dan and Chofo's allow for much smaller lots and have fewer restrictions, making the land more valuable. A great example is Gyugaoka, which is one train station north. This lot is sold for 63 million yen, which is approximately half a million US dollars. It's only 62 square meters, which is much smaller than the minimum of 165 in Dana and Chofu, but the land per square meter is worth 27 percent more, so perhaps this is counterintuitive to some, but cramming More residents in an area makes the land more valuable. In addition to minimum lot sizes, there are also rules that buildings must be in harmony with their surroundings.

There are limits on the size of walls and the types of building materials used, although I don't think these rules make the houses in Dan chofu homogenous by any means. They probably aren't as prominent in terms of architectural design as you'll find in other neighborhoods with less restrictions and one last point about neighborhood rules. Dana and chofu have a voluntary neighborhood association that, in addition to the city, also has its own rules. how the property should look and the proper way to enjoy it, such as not airing clean laundry where people on the street can see it;

However, unlike homeowners associations in the United States, these rules are not enforceable by law and are therefore strongly suggestive. you follow it as a very strong suggestion, since Yakuza could show up at your house if you don't, no, no, I kid, but if you live in the area, there will be a lot of pressure to meet neighborhood standards, while Dana and Chofu have specials. laws to preserve neighborhood character in a place like Shirokane, you can easily turn a corner and find yourself in a neighborhood, don't select any other that you would find in Tokyo for example, you probably didn't even realize that the last shots were of Erogawaku , a working-class neighborhood in Tokyo, is basically indistinguishable from some streets in Shirukane, and now that we're clear that these shots are from Shirukane, you'll find a mix of people with modest homes but who have kept them for decades, mixed in with relative newcomers who I have paid a premium price for land and have mostly built custom homes.

I was a little surprised to see that some houses were essentially the same type as those you would find in the less wealthy parts of Tokyo, the only difference is that the house in the wealthy areas could cost double or even five times the price due to the value of land, basically anyone can build anything anywhere and it can be built on really small plots of land which will result in really big houses next to small ones too. like houses with strange shapes and locations like this one, located between a park and a road, and if you want to know more about zoning, watch my video why Japan looks like this.

Shirukana is home to the main campus of Meiji Gakuin University, nearby. find residents living in Towers I was curious about this old wooden mansion up these stone steps and discovered that while it was the home of a wealthy stock trader, it is now owned by Mitsubishi Electric and is a National Historic Site. I think you'll find a lot of people living in big old properties like this one in Tokyo. Another interesting find in Shirokane was this large bunker of a building which is fine for these houses. I need everyone to help me when I tried to look up the names of The buildings that looked like this The photos that looked most similar were tagged as brutalist.

Other searches turned up names of modernists. They are contemporaries. I realize I might be mixing the styles I'm showing, but in general, what is the main style of these concrete buildings? The biggest telltale sign of a wealthy family is the measures they take for privacy. There are often walls or vegetation that prevent lurking eyes from seeing into cars. They will also often be fenced or completely protected inside a garage, but you will still see things like. this Maserati that is relatively unprotected or this Lambo that is loitering you will also see many security cameras. It is very common to spy on security company stickers attached to buildings despite all the measures implemented to protect privacy, lucky for us.

Don't stop looking at planes and satellites. Looking at the Google Maps satellite view versus the street view will give you a very different feel for the area. Some properties will not be noticeable at all from the street, but if you look at the satellite view you can see that the size of this property is many times larger than its neighbors. Fortunately, this is the Mizue Art Gallery, so we have fantastic 360-degree views of the interior. It was literally and figuratively eye-opening to see these properties from Google Earth. One assumption I had was that there weren't many outdoor pools and with the Google Earth view I found my suspicions correct.

However, I found this one that not only had a swimming pool but also a mini soccer field, although the truth is that it is a very small soccer field that is not much bigger than the six-yard goal area of ​​a regular field these houses look nice from the street but it was hard to tell if they were the same house or not but from above it looks like they are two separate homes and this one has some very large windows and I think that's what can be misleading about many Japanese properties. From the street it may look like the architects hate windows, but from the inside you can see that this property certainly enjoys plenty of sun.

This was the property I stayed in the most. I'm curious that the walls were pretty high on all sides and had a glass front on the street corner, but from the Google Earth view it looks like a pit. The Google satellite tells me that there is a lot of green. Another area I visited was Seijo Gakun. Named after the prestigious private educational institution that has facilities from kindergarten to university. Something I noticed right outside the train station was that there is a huge bike parking lot. I know Sejal Gakuen is nearby, but it's so close that it's doubtful students park bikes.

Here, however, it's most likely used by residents who travel by train and, speaking of bikes, they have an old bike shop nearby and what I'm trying to point out is that in all the wealthy areas I visited there was heavy use of One's . Own feet, bicycles and public transportation. Something that caught my attention in this neighborhood was the number of tree-lined streets. The main road is covered in ginkgos, but I was delighted to see that many small side streets have cherry trees along them even though they have no official sidewalks, and as for the trees, we came across this property that was completely enveloped in they.

It looks like a ryoka, a traditional Japanese hotel you'd stay at in the countryside, except it's right in the middle of a residential area. occupy the same space that eight houses could like Dana and chofu also have a neighborhood association with their suggested rules I guess this resident didn't get the memo even though it's a wealthy area I saw cases of very basic housing I found places for singles that They were rented for 58,000 and 85,000 yen, which is equivalent to between 450 and 650 US dollars. Another thing that intrigued me was that I found vending machines and parking lots scattered everywhere, one would imagine that a neighborhood that wants to preserve its character wouldn't want vending sales. machines, but you would be wrong.

I can say the same about parking lots, but they are a necessity since there is no street parking and people need to park somewhere. I guess I shouldn't have been surprised to see a community garden that is a common sight on the east side of Tokyo. I was actually walking around the neighborhood with my Japanese teacher, so I thought I'd ask some basic questions: What kind of people live here, rich people, so if you're in a rich area, what's the name of this place? Okay, I know, I know, so it's like a class, oh, okay, the class, okay, oh, by the way, Yamamoto Sensei was telling me that he has some spots available for new students, right, yeah, I'm teaching. the only Japanese mushroom Pro, so if you are interested in learning Japanese online, check out the website.

I highly recommend it after Yamamoto Sensei and I parted ways, I headed to Shoto in Shibuya which is just a 10 minute walk from the Shibia crossing, famous for being one of the busiest pedestrian crossings in the world so it took me unprepared by the lack of people on some of the streets where everyone passes. I think the simple answer is that because the houses were so large the residence per block is very low and therefore I didn't see many people around, but when I moved just a few blocks, I once again felt the hustle and bustle of the shibia.

Notable things I saw in the area included this high wall, what the heck was behind it. I asked myself on Google Earth. Once again he was able to satisfy my curiosity and showed me that it is basically a very large house. Continuing walking through the neighborhood I came across this residence that instead of building a wall around it for greater privacy opted for a fortress strategy, the building was the wall with Google. View of the Land I could see that they had an interior courtyard with some greenery, which was a relief. I was really worried that the poor souls living inside wouldn't get enough light for another block and another long stretch of wall judging by the size.

From the nearby apartment buildings you could easily house 20 families in the complex, a real Tokyo mansion, and then go out to see what the parks were like in this wealthy area - apparently there are artistic bathrooms like this one. I like this little park, but I have to say that beyond the interesting restrooms it didn't seem drastically different from the variety of parks one can visit throughout Tokyo. You may have been wondering what kind of stores you find in wealthy areas in many places. I have to admit that I didn't find anything too elegant unless you consider Platinum Don Quixote to be elegant.

I found KFC at Denon chofu and Burger King at seijo Gakuen. There will be fancier chain stores that you will only find in wealthier areas like the sageo ishi grocery store or theLawson natural convenience on the east side. We only have regular Lawson or even the cheapest Lawson 100 store, where many items cost around 100 yen. In rich areas you will still find the usual chain stores like Dotoru Moss Burger and Starbucks. There was a fancy bakery called Sageo Alps and it actually surprised me. I see that the prices were on par with the quality bakeries I frequent in the East and basically similar prices to Starbucks, but obviously much tastier, although in general I would say the prices would generally be between a 10 and a 20 percent more expensive for products of equivalent quality from independent places. but this makes sense given land prices, if you really want expensive goods you need to visit high end shopping areas and there are none more premium than Ginza.

It has the highest land prices in all of Japan. It also has the most striking architecture and window displays. A nice feature of the main avenue is that they close the streets to motorized vehicles on weekends and holidays from noon to dusk. It's a great opportunity to walk around and really enjoy the views of Ginza. It is curious to see that some do not realize that this is happening and sit waiting at the traffic light even though it is a completely pedestrian area and near Ginza is chioda, we are the richest home of The shopping center is located in the Palace Tokyo Imperial, is where the Emperor of Japan hung out when he was Crown Prince.

He used to relax at Akasaka Palace, but since he became emperor it now acts as one of two state guest houses for the government of Japan. Overall, the most distinctive feature I could point out about the wealthiest homes is that they tended to have custom architecture with some bold designs. I've read that part of the reason for this can be attributed to the perceived useful life of Japanese houses for tax purposes. Your house completely depreciates when it is 15 years old, meaning that on paper the building is worth nothing, although your land is still worth it. I won't go into why houses last more than 15 or 30 years.

I have a whole video about it. But the majority of home purchases are new homes, so there is a practice of buying new homes expecting there to be no resale value. They are considered depreciating assets like cars and therefore people tend to be more creative with their designs. This is also combined. Since houses in most areas do not have to conform to arbitrary standards of beauty, meaning that architects can push the boundaries of what is considered good taste, I want to say that these are all houses in Dan Chofu, which It is one of the few areas in Tokyo that has rules. about houses that are in harmony with their surroundings, despite this, there is great variety in design.

The other thing that struck me about the rich areas is that I found that many of the streets looked normal and there were many normal looking houses among the richer areas. As I understand it, in Tokyo and most of Japan there are not large concentrations of wealth in well-established neighborhoods like those that can be found in the UK or even the US. With Japan's long history, this may It may seem difficult to understand, but it makes sense. Taking a quick look at the events that occurred in the last 150 years in the Edo period, power and land were concentrated in a daimyo who are like regional governors who owned large plots of land with the Meiji restoration that began in 1868, it is He forced them to present their domains to the new Emperor government, so the only large landowner became the Emperor.

He cut back on the Japanese government. This was the beginning of industrialization and large conglomerates called zaibatsu were formed and began accumulating massive amounts of wealth after World War II. The United States took control of the government of Japan. That's when they instituted a high rate of income and inheritance taxes to ensure that a huge concentration of wealth would never end up in the hands of a few wealthy families again. In 2015, the current governor of Tokyo, Yuriko Koike, commented that Japan has high incomes. The tax rate for the wealthy is 45 percent and the inheritance tax rate was recently raised to 55 percent, making it difficult to accumulate capital over generations.

As a result, Japan's richest families typically lose their wealth within three generations. Koike went on to say that the Japanese remain sensitive to inequality. Driving even the wealthiest to avoid ostentatious displays of wealth, one simply doesn't see the profusion of mansions, yachts and private jets typical of, say, Beverly Hills and Palm Beach. If you Google mansions in Tokyo and compare the results to mansions in Beverly Hills, you will find Palm Beach Mansions. an idea of ​​what he is talking about if you want to flash you better not look at the houses but at the Ginza shopping district like we did if you combine this with the fact that due to natural disasters like the great Kanto earthquake of 1923 and the bombing of Tokyo in 1945 there are some great residents who have been in the area for over a hundred years, even the Imperial Palace was partially rebuilt after burning to the ground during the war and perhaps another factor that has prevented the creation of wealthy communities is that the communities Gated communities do not exist in Japan, the building standards law stipulates that residential areas must connect to a public road and therefore prohibits the construction of gated communities;

However, in terms of security, apartments with automatic locks that are increasing in urban areas are like gated communities. They grew vertically, so the most exclusive areas may, in fact, be residential skyscrapers that are like vertical gated communities that, of course, emanate from the east side, the Shitamachi side. I don't for a second pretend to know about the rich, so feel free to correct me. the comments and while the credits roll from my Patreon followers, thank you very much I thought I would show some of the interesting houses I found thanks for seeing us until the next peace, what are the rich areas where you are like? from oh, I totally forgot to add this, but someone asked about the police.

Koban police posts are not fancier in rich areas, except in Ginza, they got a fancy one.