Name: 日本為何有數百萬棟空房？- 全球故事》播客，BBC 全球服務 (Why are there millions of empty houses in Japan? - The Global Story podcast, BBC World Service)
Uploaded: 2025-06-21T08:30:28.000Z
Duration: 18 min 44 s

From the BBC World Service, this is The Global Story.

這裡是 BBC 世界廣播公司的《全球故事》。

In Japan, the number of abandoned homes is at an all-time high.

在日本，廢棄房屋的數量達到了歷史最高水準。

Nine million properties sit empty, blighting city streets and turning some rural communities into ghost towns.

九百萬處房產空置，使城市街道黯然失色，一些農村社區變成了鬼城。

So what do these crumbling houses say about Japan's existential crisis and its ageing, shrinking population?

那麼，這些搖搖欲墜的房屋對日本的生存危機及其人口老齡化和萎縮有何啟示呢？

And could a new breed of homeowners, young, foreign, and eager for a bargain, help to solve the problem?

那麼，年輕的、外國的、渴望便宜的新一代房主能否幫助解決這個問題呢？

With me today is our Tokyo correspondent, Shaima Halil.

今天和我在一起的是我們的東京記者 Shaima Halil。

Now, if I'm out and about in a big city in like Tokyo or Osaka or Kyoto, or even in the countryside, am I going to see some of these abandoned homes?

現在，如果我在東京、大阪或京都等大城市，甚至在鄉下，我會看到這些廢棄的房屋嗎？

Yes, and some of them are more obvious than others.

是的，而且有些比其他更明顯。

So if you're in the countryside, for example, there are homes where nature has pretty much taken over.

是以，如果你在鄉下，比如說，有些房子幾乎被大自然佔據了。

So that's a very obvious sign of an abandoned home.

所以這是一個非常明顯的被遺棄房屋的跡象。

I think here in Tokyo, for example, there are also obvious older ones.

我想，以東京為例，這裡也有明顯的老年人。

But if you're like me and you're a big avid home programs fan and you walk around looking at houses and wondering how people live inside them, some will be more obvious to you.

但如果你和我一樣，是一個狂熱的家居節目迷，你會到處看房子，想知道人們是如何住在裡面的，那麼有些房子對你來說會更明顯。

還有一些人就是如此具有欺騙性。

You walk around and they look perfectly normal, but you find out from a broker or a real estate agent or those who bought them that they've been abandoned for years and years and years.

你走了一圈，它們看起來非常正常，但你從經紀人、房地產中介或買下它們的人那裡得知，它們已經被遺棄了很多年很多年。

So some are more obvious than others, for sure.

是以，可以肯定的是，有些人比其他人更明顯。

And the obvious ones, it's obvious because they're decaying and decrepit or they have sort of foliage growing out of them.

而那些明顯的，很明顯是因為它們已經腐爛、衰敗，或者長出了一些葉子。

How can you tell?  They're in a really bad state.

你怎麼看出來的？  它們的狀態非常糟糕。

Yeah, so sometimes you can tell by the state of it that it's a wooden, very traditional-looking Japanese home that has seen better days in the middle of a main street where there are many other buildings around it.

是的，有時你可以從它的狀況看出，它是一棟木製的、看起來非常傳統的日式房屋，在一條主要街道的中間，周圍有許多其他建築，日子過得比較好。

And you could tell that it's been abandoned for many years.

而且可以看出，它已被廢棄多年。

Is this generally, though, a time that's seen as a more rural issue?

不過，一般來說，這是否是一個被視為更多農村問題的時代？

Japan is really suffering when it comes to urbanization.

在城市化方面，日本真的很痛苦。

And there are villages that are literally dying out.

For example, there's this remarkable story of a village called Nagoro.

例如，在一個名叫長郎的村莊裡就有這樣一個非凡的故事。

It's literally just 20-something people, a couple dozen people.

從字面上看，只有二十幾個人，幾十個人。

And what they've done, they've made human-sized dolls to replace people and just put them around the village in schools and bus stops and different areas.

他們的做法是，製作人體大小的玩偶來代替人，並把它們放在村裡的學校、公交車站和不同的地方。

And while on the face of it, it's a cute and innovative idea, it's actually quite unsettling because you can see that it's literally running out of people.

雖然從表面上看，這是個可愛而新穎的想法，但實際上卻讓人很不放心，因為你可以看到，它真的已經沒有人了。

The majority of the abandoned homes are in villages.

大部分被遺棄的房屋都在村莊裡。

However, there are actually more abandoned homes in cities here in Tokyo even, more than I imagined.

但實際上，東京的城市裡有更多的廢棄房屋，甚至比我想象的還要多。

Do the Japanese have a word for these abandoned homes,  Yes, akiyas.

日本人有沒有一個詞來形容這些被遺棄的房屋？

Essentially, it means empty home, but right now it's used interchangeably with abandoned homes as well, homes that have been empty for many, many years.

從本質上講，它的意思是空屋，但現在它也與廢棄房屋，即空置多年的房屋交替使用。

If you're sitting anywhere in the world right now where there is a housing problem, where young people are finding it very, very difficult to get on the property market, to actually think there's a place in the world where there are 9 million homes that are empty, ready for someone to occupy them, it's quite, I still try to get my head around it, but essentially it's an aging population, it's a shrinking population.

如果你現在身處世界上任何一個存在住房問題的地方，年輕人發現進入房地產市場非常非常困難，而實際上世界上有一個地方有900萬套房屋空置，隨時等待有人入住，這是很令人難以置信的，我仍然在努力想辦法解決這個問題，但從根本上說，這是一個人口老齡化的問題，是一個人口萎縮的問題。

More people are dying than there are people being born here.

這裡死亡的人比出生的人還多。

Combine that with people leaving villages and coming to the city, so the urbanization, and you get those villages of people dying out of homes that are not worth much, that are just left abandoned.

再加上人們離開村莊來到城市，是以城市化的發展，就會導致這些村莊裡的人們死在不值錢的房子裡，這些房子就這樣被遺棄了。

So for these akiyas, it's not so much a problem of too many houses, it's a problem of not enough people.

是以，對這些阿基雅人來說，房子太多不是問題，人不夠才是問題。

But Japan's not the only country experiencing this, Shaila.

但並非只有日本有這種經歷，謝拉。

I mean, they're neighboring countries with low birth rates as well.

我的意思是，他們的鄰國出生率也很低。

為什麼在日本，"秋葉原 "是個大問題？

I think the majority of Japanese people tend to want to live in brand new homes.

我認為大多數日本人都希望住在全新的房子裡。

This is a country that has many, many earthquakes with different strengths.

這個國家發生過很多很多強度不同的地震。

But let's just say there are homes that get affected by earthquakes or get destroyed by earthquakes.

但我們只能說，有些房屋會受到地震的影響，或者被地震摧毀。

Instead of renovating, people would prefer to just build and use.

與其翻新，人們更願意建造和使用。

I think economically as well, there is a depreciation in the value of homes, unlike the West, and unlike anywhere else in the world, actually.

我認為在經濟上，房屋也在貶值，這與西方不同，也與世界其他地方不同。

And so you have this picture in Japan where homes are not worth much.

是以，在日本，房屋並不值錢。

People who live in them and then die, and they leave them to family members.

住在裡面的人死後，會把房子留給家人。

And everything about that house then is more costly than it is profitable because it costs money to empty it.

那時候，房子的一切成本都比利潤高，因為清空房子需要花錢。

Putting it on the market, trying to sell it, all the paperwork that comes with that, it just becomes not worth it for family members.

將其投放市場、試圖出售，以及隨之而來的所有文書工作，對家庭成員來說都變得不值得。

So it becomes cheaper for people just to leave them abandoned.

是以，讓它們被遺棄對人們來說變得更加便宜。

And that's why you get that large number.

And presumably, Shaima, if you're leaving your home to the next generation and there isn't anyone to leave it to, there's no heirs, what do you do with it?

沙伊瑪，如果你要把房子留給下一代，但卻沒有人可以繼承，沒有繼承人，你該怎麼辦？

This is a country that suffers or that is suffering with the phenomenon of lonely deaths, of people who die alone and then they don't have family members.

這個國家正在遭受或正在遭受孤獨死亡現象的困擾，孤獨死亡的人沒有家人。

So people don't claim their remains, for example.

例如，人們不會認領自己的遺體。

So it's almost like the homes die when the people die.

所以說，人死了，房子也就死了。

It must have been interesting as well, just the whole culture of older homes, Shaima.

老房子的文化一定也很有趣，謝瑪。

Living in London, everyone wants to live in a historic property.

生活在倫敦，每個人都想住在歷史悠久的房產裡。

And yet in Japan, it's the exact opposite.

Yeah, it's a completely different culture.

是的，這是一種完全不同的文化。

The fact that a value of a home is of how new it is, how structurally robust it is.

事實上，房屋的價值在於它有多新，結構有多堅固。

And so, yeah, the concept of older homes here is not as valued or is not as romanticised, if you will, as it is in the West.

是以，是的，在這裡，老房子的概念並不像西方國家那樣受到重視，或者說並不像西方國家那樣被浪漫化。

One thing that is the same all over the world, the West and it sounds like Japan too, is that young people don't want to go and live in the country.

全世界都一樣，西方如此，聽起來日本也是如此。

And I think that's one thing that you see more acutely here in Japan and in rural areas is that when you go, you can see them shrinking.

我認為，在日本和農村地區，你會更清楚地看到這樣一件事，那就是當你去到那裡時，你會發現它們正在縮小。

I think the concept on its own of an empty home seems benign, but actually it's not.

我認為，"空屋 "這個概念本身似乎是善意的，但實際上並非如此。

Because if you're a village that's emptying out, it's almost like you're going extinct because it becomes a ghost town and it becomes more off-putting the emptier it is.

因為如果你是一個正在消失的村莊，那幾乎就像你正在滅絕一樣，因為它變成了一個鬼城，越是空曠就越令人反感。

And it becomes less of a good option for a young family to go live in an area that's emptying out.

對於一個年輕的家庭來說，去一個正在空置的地區生活就不再是一個好的選擇了。

Why do the local councils not just knock these homes down?

為什麼地方議會不直接推倒這些房屋？

When you knock them down, you need permissions from family members and from those who inherit.

當你推倒它們時，你需要得到家庭成員和繼承人的許可。

And I think this is where it gets complicated because the homes themselves are not valuable.

我認為這就是問題變得複雜的地方，因為房屋本身並不值錢。

The land is valuable, but who gets the land?

How do you track people down, for example?

比如說，你是如何追蹤到這些人的？

Because again, if people die and leave a home, you need to track those family members down.

因為同樣，如果有人死後離開了家，你需要找到這些家庭成員。

And if they haven't followed up and if they're hard to find, because for example, they're not in Japan or they live in Tokyo somewhere and not in the village, that becomes a very difficult proposition.

如果他們沒有跟進，如果他們很難找到，例如，他們不在日本，或者他們住在東京的某個地方，而不是在村子裡，這就變得非常困難。

So as long as they're homes, it's almost like it's a contained problem.

是以，只要他們在家，問題就幾乎可以得到控制。

When they become land, that becomes a different problem.

當它們變成土地時，問題就不一樣了。

Any conversation about Japan, it doesn't matter how short or long earthquakes come up.

任何關於日本的談話，無論地震發生的時間長短都沒有關係。

It's come up a few times already in our conversation, Shaima, but given how earthquake-prone Japan is, empty houses sitting there surely also present some kind of hazard.

在我們的談話中已經提到過幾次了，沙伊瑪，但考慮到日本地震頻發，空置的房屋肯定也會帶來某種危險。

You know, in the new year, when an earthquake happened in the Noto Peninsula, when you go there and you see the smaller villages and you see older houses that have either been completely destroyed or they've been affected and they're kind of like leaning on their side, waiting to be destroyed or waiting to completely collapse, that is actually dangerous for the houses next to them and the houses on the other side of the road.

要知道，在新的一年裡，當能登半島發生地震時，當你去到那裡，看到那些較小的村莊，看到那些老房子要麼已經被完全摧毀，要麼已經受到影響，它們就像靠在一邊，等待著被摧毀或等待著完全倒塌，這對旁邊的房子和道路另一側的房子來說實際上是很危險的。

And I've seen that in many of the streets where people have trouble getting into their own home, not because the home itself has been affected, but because these older houses are in danger of collapsing.

我在很多街道上都看到過這種情況，人們難以進入自己的家，不是因為房屋本身受到了影響，而是因為這些老房子有倒塌的危險。