That comes with zoning regulations. That coffee shop is illegal in most of North America due to being a commercial place-of-sale (outlawed in many residential areas), too small, and not having off-street parking.
When you're able to operate a place like that, your fixed costs (i.e. rent) are drastically lower and you are able to sell at lower prices because of it. With more housing, your employees don't need high wages to afford a basic apartment.
Yes. Also you can look at falling rates of entrepreneurship in the United States and connect the dots with the article. We have some neighbors who wanted to run a flower shop out of their garage. Can't get business insurance because it's not a separate location - i.e. your home and business cannot be the same place for physical goods.
Issues like that, while perhaps sensible to someone, are barriers toward economic prosperity.
But a new oil change location? Approved, insured, permitted in 5 minutes. Construction done in 2 months.
We're really hellbent on making anything but the new highway to the new Wal-Mart and $60 Starbucks dinner (paid over time of course) for the kids on the way to soccer practice in the Jeep Wagoner illegal.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg. It would not pass a health inspection because it doesn't have sanitizable surfaces. The restrooms (if any) are likely not accessible, nor is seating nor is the entrance. Would not pass fire code for a commercial establishment. And probably 50 other things.
The one country that seems to do housing right and not consider it an investment vehicle. Unlike our depressing situation that is tearing society apart.
If you don't have to worry about work requirements for life's necessities along with zoning laws to support them, the economic viability of operating unique, niche establishments goes up.
That said, there are probably 0 employees and long hours involved.
Many small business like this are also run by retirees who want to meet people and bring some value to their community. It's legal to run a small business from a certain percentage of your ground floor in any location in Japan.
It also doesn't have to be your primary source of income. If you can run it from a structure like this you could just operate a cocktail bar on the weekends. Even in the US I know of a small pizza place that offers takeout only on a few days each month and it's operated out of the owners mom's kitchen. Not sure how legal that is and turning that inti a sit-down place would certainly be an issue.
Yes! Every zoning and housing regulation commission should evaluate every proposal by the question if it enables our cities to be as quirky and wonderful as Japanese cities. If not, it's out!
I generally agree with the sentiment behind this, but like many other things, underneath the zoning issues what it actuallyactually goes back to is cultural issues. For a large number of other countries you could loosen zoning up and ultimately someone would start operating an abattoir next to an elementary school and it would make the 5 o'clock news and then the city council would throw a bunch of new regulations in and the whole thing would be over.
I hate to even sound like this, I hate the cynicism in my comment, and maybe the answer is to actually just do it and not declare premature defeat, but having watched how other initiatives in my own local area have gone I can't help but feel that we don't have the real secret weapon that works for places like Japan, and makes stuff like Star Trek work outside of all the fancy tech, and that's sufficiently advanced culture to not immediately race this all to the bottom.
The Japanese deal with this by zoning policies being set at a national level. Localities pretty much can decide what part of town the smelly/industrial businesses go, and the rest scales based on population.
The locality will plan where their high-rise/commercial district is, houses on side-streets are can all be triplexes with an option for a low-impact business as in the article, and secondary streets have dedicated businesses.
As an area's population grows the federal zoning allows that bigger buildings can be built - small apartment buildings instead of houses, etc. The locals can't pull-up the ladder behind them and say "no new houses", locking out young people and renters and transplants.
I assume that the problem in the US is more regulatory capture than culture. Starbucks doesn't want you to be able to sell coffee to your neighbors. And your neighbors don't want more housing to be built, because it might affect their home values. I've seen how home owners adamantly oppose these things.
And for decades we've been left with most new housing being built by developers as cheap as possible - clear cutting some space on the outskirts of town and throwing together cookie cutter houses, car dependent and without much of anywhere nearby to socialize. It's a shame that in a country of 330+ million people there's not more variance.
Nuisance-based zoning exists as a solution to this. E.g. you can operate a flower shop but not a noisy arcade. Yet somehow this concept doesn't seem to be able to get a hold.
Sadly, I think the lack of care for the other, and for social cohesion in Western nations preclude this.
Several years ago our next door neighbor applied for a zoning variance to allow their home to be used as an AirBNB. All was fine for the first month or two, then a graduation party booked it, 20 vehicles show up and parked on all the neighbors yards, loud party late into the night, etc.
All of this was reported for noise violations, parking violations, etc. to both the police and to AirBNB. Neither took any action.
Months later a college fraternity booked this AirBNB for the entire summer. All of the above plus nightly backyard ragers going until 2 AM. Neither the police nor AirBNB did a damn thing about it. We reached out to zoning to see if we could protest the variance after the fact and told no, the only way for the variance to be revoked would be for the police to make so many calls to the house that it is deemed a public nuisance. Except the
police won’t show for nuisance calls and even if they did it would take years of this for a hearing to be held which may or
may not decide on our favor.
So… as much as I love the idea of the Japanese civic style. I would never give up strict zoning in America for it. People suck.
The home businesses in Japan are supposed to be low-impact. It sounds like the airbnb you mentioned was not.
Japan has a set of regulations for airbnb rentals [0], depending on the size of the living space, whether it is owner-occupied, or is listed for more than half a year. There are sometimes inspections. Neighbors are notified and their complaints are taken seriously. Enforcement has been much more strict since 2018. Something like you mentioned would result in the airbnb license being revoked.
Airbnb spends a lot of money lobbying politicians in the US not to do such things, millions just at the federal level [0].
There are two great videos specifically on Japanese zoning and narrow streets:
Life Where I'm From, on zoning: https://youtu.be/wfm2xCKOCNk
Not Just Bikes, narrow streets: https://youtu.be/jlwQ2Y4By0U
And economic viability; can the owner make a living wage with this setup, or do they have other income sources? What is their total cost of living?
That comes with zoning regulations. That coffee shop is illegal in most of North America due to being a commercial place-of-sale (outlawed in many residential areas), too small, and not having off-street parking.
When you're able to operate a place like that, your fixed costs (i.e. rent) are drastically lower and you are able to sell at lower prices because of it. With more housing, your employees don't need high wages to afford a basic apartment.
Yes. Also you can look at falling rates of entrepreneurship in the United States and connect the dots with the article. We have some neighbors who wanted to run a flower shop out of their garage. Can't get business insurance because it's not a separate location - i.e. your home and business cannot be the same place for physical goods.
Issues like that, while perhaps sensible to someone, are barriers toward economic prosperity.
But a new oil change location? Approved, insured, permitted in 5 minutes. Construction done in 2 months.
We're really hellbent on making anything but the new highway to the new Wal-Mart and $60 Starbucks dinner (paid over time of course) for the kids on the way to soccer practice in the Jeep Wagoner illegal.
And that's just the tip of the iceberg. It would not pass a health inspection because it doesn't have sanitizable surfaces. The restrooms (if any) are likely not accessible, nor is seating nor is the entrance. Would not pass fire code for a commercial establishment. And probably 50 other things.
Again, goes back to zoning laws.
Housing is the biggest expenditure for people in America and many parts of the world. Housing is cheap is Japan so people can get by on much less.
That's interesting. So at least in this sense Japan seems like an excellent place for one to sell their home and downsize.
1 reply →
The one country that seems to do housing right and not consider it an investment vehicle. Unlike our depressing situation that is tearing society apart.
3 replies →
If you don't have to worry about work requirements for life's necessities along with zoning laws to support them, the economic viability of operating unique, niche establishments goes up.
That said, there are probably 0 employees and long hours involved.
Many small business like this are also run by retirees who want to meet people and bring some value to their community. It's legal to run a small business from a certain percentage of your ground floor in any location in Japan.
It also doesn't have to be your primary source of income. If you can run it from a structure like this you could just operate a cocktail bar on the weekends. Even in the US I know of a small pizza place that offers takeout only on a few days each month and it's operated out of the owners mom's kitchen. Not sure how legal that is and turning that inti a sit-down place would certainly be an issue.
1 reply →
Yes! Every zoning and housing regulation commission should evaluate every proposal by the question if it enables our cities to be as quirky and wonderful as Japanese cities. If not, it's out!
I generally agree with the sentiment behind this, but like many other things, underneath the zoning issues what it actually actually goes back to is cultural issues. For a large number of other countries you could loosen zoning up and ultimately someone would start operating an abattoir next to an elementary school and it would make the 5 o'clock news and then the city council would throw a bunch of new regulations in and the whole thing would be over.
I hate to even sound like this, I hate the cynicism in my comment, and maybe the answer is to actually just do it and not declare premature defeat, but having watched how other initiatives in my own local area have gone I can't help but feel that we don't have the real secret weapon that works for places like Japan, and makes stuff like Star Trek work outside of all the fancy tech, and that's sufficiently advanced culture to not immediately race this all to the bottom.
The Japanese deal with this by zoning policies being set at a national level. Localities pretty much can decide what part of town the smelly/industrial businesses go, and the rest scales based on population.
The locality will plan where their high-rise/commercial district is, houses on side-streets are can all be triplexes with an option for a low-impact business as in the article, and secondary streets have dedicated businesses.
As an area's population grows the federal zoning allows that bigger buildings can be built - small apartment buildings instead of houses, etc. The locals can't pull-up the ladder behind them and say "no new houses", locking out young people and renters and transplants.
I assume that the problem in the US is more regulatory capture than culture. Starbucks doesn't want you to be able to sell coffee to your neighbors. And your neighbors don't want more housing to be built, because it might affect their home values. I've seen how home owners adamantly oppose these things.
And for decades we've been left with most new housing being built by developers as cheap as possible - clear cutting some space on the outskirts of town and throwing together cookie cutter houses, car dependent and without much of anywhere nearby to socialize. It's a shame that in a country of 330+ million people there's not more variance.
Nuisance-based zoning exists as a solution to this. E.g. you can operate a flower shop but not a noisy arcade. Yet somehow this concept doesn't seem to be able to get a hold.
1 reply →
Sadly, I think the lack of care for the other, and for social cohesion in Western nations preclude this.
Several years ago our next door neighbor applied for a zoning variance to allow their home to be used as an AirBNB. All was fine for the first month or two, then a graduation party booked it, 20 vehicles show up and parked on all the neighbors yards, loud party late into the night, etc.
All of this was reported for noise violations, parking violations, etc. to both the police and to AirBNB. Neither took any action.
Months later a college fraternity booked this AirBNB for the entire summer. All of the above plus nightly backyard ragers going until 2 AM. Neither the police nor AirBNB did a damn thing about it. We reached out to zoning to see if we could protest the variance after the fact and told no, the only way for the variance to be revoked would be for the police to make so many calls to the house that it is deemed a public nuisance. Except the police won’t show for nuisance calls and even if they did it would take years of this for a hearing to be held which may or may not decide on our favor.
So… as much as I love the idea of the Japanese civic style. I would never give up strict zoning in America for it. People suck.
The home businesses in Japan are supposed to be low-impact. It sounds like the airbnb you mentioned was not.
Japan has a set of regulations for airbnb rentals [0], depending on the size of the living space, whether it is owner-occupied, or is listed for more than half a year. There are sometimes inspections. Neighbors are notified and their complaints are taken seriously. Enforcement has been much more strict since 2018. Something like you mentioned would result in the airbnb license being revoked.
Airbnb spends a lot of money lobbying politicians in the US not to do such things, millions just at the federal level [0].
[0] https://mailmate.jp/blog/japan-airbnb-law
[1] https://www.opensecrets.org/orgs/airbnb-inc/summary?id=D0000...
Mh, the obvious solution seems to be to enforce existing laws rather than invent new ones.
2 replies →
I think that is part of the reason. Japanese zoning is very liberal and loose compared to the US.
Wonderful quote. Feels like it could have come straight out of a Pynchon novel.