Japanese houses, no basements
 

I have been living in Japan for a total of more than 6 years now, and one thing I have always wondered and never gotten a solid answer to is why do most Japanese houses not have basements?

The only thing I can think of is it has something to do with earthquake safety or possibly city drainage systems, but I am not really sure if that is true. Does anybody know for sure? Or heard other theories/answers? You would think in a country with such limited space every opportunity to expand would be put to use.

I live in northern ireland (part of the UK) and I've never been in a house that has a basement in my 20 years on this earth...I've been in a castle that has a cellar and obviously bigger building that have basement floors but no houses

Yes, but would it be safe to assume Ireland does not have the population/space issues that Japan has?

Also is there a particular reason houses in Ireland are not built with basements? Or is it just seen as unnecessary?

Basements would be extremely rare in Australia as well. To be honest in all my travels I've found the whole basement thing to be most prevalent in North America and not much elsewhere.
Up here in Hokkaido there are many houses with I guess you'd call them sub-basement maybe. About half underground and half out. I think it's mainly due to the concrete footings needing to be pretty substantial because of the weight of snow we get up here in winter.

I'm not gonna give you a straight answer, but I'll try to think of a few reasons.

One reason I can think of is ventilation. At least in my area, most houses (especially older ones) are "on stilts", in a sense. I know some people put agricultural tools and stuff under there when they're not using them. I wonder if people don't store other things as well. I imagine that this has to do with letting humidity settle as far as ventilation goes. Here we have lots of rice fields too... so if they were to ever flood as a result of a TON of rain (which I can't really see happening with the kind of irrigation they have) then it would be a good idea to have their houses slightly elevated like they do.

Incidentally, the "stilted" foundations or "slab" style foundations that I've also seen have come into handy for a lot of people and the surrounding cities recently. When the city wants to widen their roads, they pay people to "move" their houses like 20 feet. This process involves building a new foundation and picking up the house and moving it to the new foundation (this is a simplified version of what actually happens I'm sure, but as a passerby of these houses that's all I see of the process). I think it's interesting to note that a lot of rivers have been "hand-crafted" in a sense. In otherwords, rivers have been redirected by people and I wonder if they didn't move houses similarly to how they move them now as a result of that as well.

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*After doing a quick search on the net*

I should preface this by saying that I have noticed many floors of 'basement' in big city buildings (especially in Tokyo), so I don't see why that couldn't be done for houses as well.

I kinda did a couple of quick searches like on wikipedia/wikipedia jp etc. I used the word 地下室 and didn't get much info from there. On google I did see a couple of house building companies who say they can build a basement on request. I think the land has to meet certain requirements though. It seems that it is just cheaper to build a house above ground, basically. Another thing, within the text that I saw, they seemed to mention the "plots" of land a lot... I wonder if there is a special tax for plots that go under ground?

As I am basically writing this off the top of my head, I'll paste what I found just now which might be the answer to your question:

"平成６年、建築基準法が改正され、天井高が地盤面か� �の高さ１メートル以下にある地下室の場合、延べ床面� �の１/３までが容積率に算入されなくなりました。つまり、同 じ敷地でも、２階建てに地下室をプラスすれば、床面積 が１.５倍の住宅を建築できるというわけです。このこ� �で住宅の可能性は大いに広がりました。

建ぺい率・容積率の厳しい地域や敷地内に傾斜地がある 所でも敷地の有効利用が出来ます。
５人家族が充分快適に過ごせる１・２階の間取りに加え 、１フロアを地下室でそっくりゆとりのスペースとして お使いいただけます。
使い方はご家族の希望にあわせていろいろ！音楽を楽し んだり、収納に使ったり、書斎、アトリエとしてお使い いただくのはいかがでしょう。
住むだけから楽しむスペースがある暮らしを提供します 。 "

Looks like there was a regulation that existed up until about 15 or so years ago. So maybe you won't see basements except in newer houses- and even still, they may not be popular yet. I'll try to understand that chunk of Japanese a little more later on.

Here's the website that it came from:

狭い土地に広い家！？-ミツヤジーホーム（地下室付きデザイン注文住宅-長野県長野市）

You'd be right in assuming haha =p I've never asked or been told why there are no basements (not saying there isnt any btw just saying i havnt come across any in regards to friends houses, relatives houses etc) when it comes to storage most houses use their attics or their garages. Northern Ireland has also had quite a bit of trouble with sectarianism such as the IRA and UVF so I doubt the goverment wanted people to have somewhere to stash all the guns and ammo, maybe thats a reason? I cant really say truthfully but im just offering suggestions to why it might be unseen in my area/culture =p

"「地下室」と聞くと、ジメジメした暗い倉庫のイメー� �、そして、地下室は価格が高いイメージを持たれてい� �方も少なくないのではないでしょうか？
地下室といえば従来こんな問題点があります。でも「SUB システム地下室」なら安心！"

here's another quote from that site. This basically says that basements have kind of a dark, gloomy, and humid "image". It's like a place to store old stuff, in a sense. It says that some people probably think that basements are really costly as well. (then it kind of goes on to sell basements as this website is trying to make money of course).

"[結露でカビる地下室]
断熱を考えない地下室がたくさんあって、その地下室は 夏場、ビックリするくらいコンクリートの壁に結露しま す。壁を二重にして、表面上結露を見せないようにする のですが、その裏でカビが生えて臭くなったり蚊が発生 するものです。
「SUBシステム地下室」は、断熱材を使用し、結露が起き ないシステムなので安心です。"

This is talking about mold. It starts off with saying that there are a lot of basements that are built without thinking about proper insulation (I don't know about "a lot" though... I've never personally encountered a basement myself so I think they might be using the term "a lot" to make people think that "everyone has one" to help sell their product). Anyways, they're talking about their "special" insulation and what not. I have had personal experience with a pretty closed-up room having some mold issues, and that was above ground! I have since added some insulation and different things and it has reduced it quite a bit though.

"[価格が高い地下室]
住宅にも昔から「地下室」は作られていましたが、止水 の工法等が技術的に確立していなったので、工事が複雑 化し、費用が沢山掛かっていました。又、施工手順も整 備されていなかったので、作ってみなければ、いくら掛 かったか分かりませんでした。それらに対応してリスク を回避するために高額（80万円/坪〜130万円/坪）の建設費でした。"

This says that there have been basements in houses since long ago but the old style "stagnant water???" style construction produced many complications. (I have no idea what they men by ~style of construction to be quite frank). It also says that basements were hard to quote (pricing wise) because nobody really knew what kinds of complications could occur. As a result of this, quotes (or actual prices I suppose) had a huge range. It says 80万~130万 as an example. (80万=about 8 grand US... I don't know how long ago they're talking about though so it could be a different story). Anyways, I take it the gist of what they're saying is that building a basement was a high risk thing to do.

The next big paragraph looks like it's just trying to sell what they have to offer, so I'm not going to bother going into it. At any rate, it looks like there is a pretty negative image of basements in Japan (which is according to this website). If I understood what they were saying, and it is indeed true, then that is the case. I believe that the combination of worries that people have about basements makes them less than desireable. However, I wouldn't be surprised if they became a little more popular in the future (especially in the ianaka). People could use them for home theaters or music rooms and stuff like that.

It says 80万~130万 per 坪, not the entire basement. 坪 means "3.3 square meters".

Note: I only read that part of your post, so I don't mean to say that is the only part that you misinterpreted.　

I'm sure I misinterpreted a lot of it! I appreciate your correction though.

I thought 80万 was extermely cheap hahaha. I just glossed over it so I didn't notice the "坪", which was obviously a key part. So if you multiply that by at least 5 or so (does that sound right?) then you might get a decent idea of what it could cost for a basement in Japan (back in the day according to this site at least). I get the feeling that it would probably cost at least 500万 for a usable basement in Japan.

By the way, Sashimister, if I may ask, what are your feelings on this topic? I've never really heard of basements in Japan either. Do you know if there's a reason for that?

i have never been in a house that does NOT have a basement (at least in my country). :cool:

Simple!

Humidity and moisture in the earth result in molding quickly. Dig a 2-meter-deep hole in many parts of Japan and you will have a swamp in two hours.

Commercial buildings often have basement floors because they create a profit even at the cost of building with expensive ferroconcrete and 24-hour ventilation after completion.

Homes don't create a profit. You just spend, spend and spend to maintain them. Besides, many Japanese prefer living in wooden houses and it's just silly to build a wooden house deep in the earth with all that undrground moisture.

So, in Japan, it's simply cheaper (and far more realistic) to build a 3-story house than to build a 2-story house with basement.

It is my understanding that it has a lot to do with zoning laws and the limits of the amount of space allowed to be built on a property. We looked into building a house and I was wanting to build a basement - if only for the extra storage.

I don`t know how these limits work in other countries, but I`ll give my run down on it. In Japan, property has a set number for what you`re allowed to build. A pretty normal one is 60/200 for residential.
This means that you are allowed to cover 60% of the land with a building, and that the building can only have 200% the space of the land. So as a basic example... If the land is, say, 100 square meters - you must leave 40 of those open, and the building you put on it can only have 200 square meters of space.

The basement is counted in the total space of the building - but an attic/loft area is generally not. The difference is that the basement has to be a planned living area while the attic/loft/etc is an area that is almost necessary in most housing designs.

So if you had a basement under the foot of your entire house, either more than half the building would be underground (in the case of it being built on a normal 2 story footprint), or you would have a narrow 2+ story house that would need to be extremely small to make up for the lost space being used underground.

I wouldn`t want to have the size of my house cut to make a basement - and most people think the same way. Basements are usually limited to commercial structures that require very deep foundations to begin with, and that have a different zoning figure - 90/500+. When you do spot them in newer residential properties, it is usually a single underground room being used as a soundproof home theatre or for some loud hobby (houses built by families with a member into serious drumming/etc tend to like them).

As I said earlier as far as I've found in my travels basements are most common in North America. Probably a number of reasons behind that including the type of heating systems (often big furnaces), in some areas where there is a high incidence of tornados a basement can save your life and back in the days at the height of the cold war having a basement as a fallout shelter was almost considered common sense. Not many other countries have the same combination of circumstances.

Both of your posts are very insightful and seem to back up what that website was saying (even though that website was trying to sell the idea of a basement).

The mold thing was the first thing that came to mind for me-- that's kind of why I brought up ventilation. However, what confused me is that I know houses that have basements in America are in places that are humid (similarly to Japan). At least that's what I think I've heard. Like houses in the south or in "Tornado Alley". I guess those might be considered "shelters" moreso than basements though. I've heard of a lot of basements in the midwest as well, but I can't imagine the mid-west is as humid as Japan. I came from California, and people didn't really have basements there. I think that can be attributed to good weather and earthquakes (and in my area in particular, the land wasn't very stable because it was pretty swampy).

As far as the zoning thing that you are talking about Nyororin, I was thinking there might be something like that! That is very interesting. It seems similar to the rule that was supposedly changed in 平成6年 according to that website!

I've noticed something that is brilliant about older Japanese houses-- that is the ventilation. In the summer, a lot of houses are designed to be kind of "opened up". That is to say that you can open many sliding doors (or just take them down completely and store them in their special storage spaces). I think old houses face in a direction that is condusive to getting a good breeze as well... so what you get is like a jet stream of natural air conditioning. This natural air also allows for natural light. That combination equates to less mold and a really comfortable living area. Similarly, in the winter a lot of the rooms get closed off. However, the side of the house that faces the winter sun has its windows opened during the day which heats up the house in a natural manner. Not only that! (straying from the topic with this one) but one of my friends' houses has like a natural source of water in it (the water from the mountain ice flows down from the mountains and flows under ground to be shot up in different holes all over the place... and it's very pure water that can be drank... I think this is a pretty rare thing though). But ya, older houses have some really genious properties to them. Unfortunately (and perhaps ironically) some areas of older houses that were redone 30 or so years ago do have mold as well as other problems. Their wooden floors start to "sink" in a sense.

GoNative's post is pretty informative upon review. I think Hokkaido has less humidity than the rest of Japan, right? Maybe that and some different laws allow for what he refered to as a "sub-basement" (which is what the website that I found was talking about by the way).

Edit: GoNative, your new post is spot on, I think. I forgot about the "bomb shelter" aspect of the American basement.

When the Japanese build a new house they get a monk to perform a blessing ritual on the vacant lot. Kind of to ask god's permission to build there and also to ensure the land and house are free of bad energy.
Energy or in this case "bad energy" is the reason they don't want basements or cellars as part of the house.
For many Japanese, the idea of living underground is not good for the spirit. The sub-earth will drain your energy and impart bad energy to you, your house and your family.

Just having part of your home underground is like having a conductor of bad energy that will bring all manor of bad things to your family. This is how the Japanese think about these things.

By implication, if you store things in the basement they will collect bad energy. Everytime you need to remove an item from the basement, you will requre the presence of a monk.

But on the other hand, there is no problem building subways, parking structures, and complex shopping and business areas underground. Umeda in N. Osaka is great. Even if it is a torrential storm, you can spend all day shopping, eating, and playing without ever having to be hit by a drop of rain.

But you don't have to live there!

Subway ok!
Parking ok!
Shopping ok!

Part of the home, no way!!

Besides the "social" part, there is the water one, groundwater must be under the maximum depth of you basement, or you'll be having a nonstop swimming pool under your house instead of a basement for storage.
The next one is the mountain relief, which means rocks to crack, instead of earth to dig, that means very high costs for every cubic feet digged. Besides this, the walls of the basement need to be made from concrete, again adds some more costs.

Thanks everybody for your many insightful answers. I just found it funny that I could never seem to find anybody who knew a good reason behind it whenever it came up in conversation. The best I usually got was "only rich people have those"... which would mean either high cost to dig, hefty taxes, or "charge you up the butt because we can" construction companies.

clarification
 

basements are more expensive.they are used to prevent freezing pipes. the temp below a certain level is a constant temp. the basement space is not conted in floor area in japan- that statement was incorrect. Some zoning laws have a height limit- 30 meters or less. tokyo is in the temperate monsoon area no freezing pipes. I heard in nagano pipes freeze all the time- annoying and dangerous with bursting pipes.

underground rivers? people use well water all the time.

rainfall, humidity, expense