Space is at a premium in Japanese cities, and there is a growing trend for micro houses which are cleverly and very ingeniously squeezed into tiny plots. This is Love2 House in Tokyo designed by Takeshi Hosaka but there are many more to be marvelled at on sites such as Dezeen and in beautifully illustrated architecture books. 

Residential and other buildings in Japan need to be earthquake-resistant and-fire proof. In 1981, the stringent New Anti-Seismic Design Standard was enforced for new construction, and proved to be highly effective. However, the Great Hanshin or Kobe Earthquake of 1995 exposed construction flaws and prompted revisions, but in fact only 3% of the buildings which collapsed were post-1981. Japan has spent the last three decades developing and installing retrofit solutions to make older structures safer, for example by fitting internal or external bracing (as above). The earthquake-resistance of a residence is, unsurprisingly, an important selling point.

Much of Tokyo's housing dates from after the Great Kantō Earthquake of 1923, and a great deal is very recent. This is the Modernist Okuno Building which housed Ginza's oldest apartments, and is unchanged since it was built in 1932, one of the few early Showa-era buildings still standing in central Tokyo. Today, however it is no longer residential but houses galleries, antique shops, businesses,  and Room 306 which has been preserved by volunteers and can be visited. 

Even though they are now less common, room size in Japan is still often measured according to the number of tatami mats it can hold, so you might get a six- or eight-tatami mat room. A tatami mat is approximately 90cm x 180cm - it varies according to origin - and is a made up of several layers with a soft woven rush top. The making of tatami mats is still a revered traditional craft; see for example the family company Oee Tatami which is featured in Shokunin (2025), Ben Richards' book about craft workshops in Japan. This is the beautifully preserved 1929 Japanese-style annexe to the former Marquis Maeda Residence in Komaba Park, Tokyo.

This week the theme is housing - and daily domestic life - in Tokyo and Kyoto. The centre of Kyoto is built on a grid system, and when you turn off the wide, crowded main streets, the narrow side streets are delightfully calm and residential. This is where to find the traditional Kyoto machiya wooden town houses which survived WWII. They are long and thin, often with an enclosed courtyard, and inside they are usually traditionally Japanese in style, with tatami mats, minimal decoration, exposed wooden beams, and sliding bamboo and paper partitions. Many are now being renovated and used as shops, restaurants, and places to stay.

Hiroshige's popularity is still huge in Japan, and his designs appear on many items, including tenugi (hand towels), magnets, and tiny gacha capsule toys. The restaurants of the leading conveyor-belt sushi chain, Kura, feature a huge print of his woodblock triptych “Amusements While Waiting for the Moon on the Night of the Twenty-sixth in Takanawa, a Famous Place in the Eastern Capital” (early 1840s, in the British Museum collection) in which the townspeople of the Edo Period are enjoying sushi as fast food. This is the branch in Asakusa,Tokyo. [There are currently exhibitions of Japanese woodblock prints at The Whitworth and at York Art Gallery, and there will be one at Dulwich later in the year.]

A hundred years ago, only a small number of people in Japan wore Western-style clothes. Now it's the other way round, and while you do still see a few people in beautiful kimonos and shops selling them, there is also a big market in kimono hire for dressing up and photography, especially with the Asakusa Shrine as the backdrop. Hiroshige's woodblock prints of women feature the complex layers, beautiful fabrics, and stunning patterns often missing from modern hire versions. This is Cherry Blossoms on a Moonless Night along the Sumida River (1847-8) which was shown at the British Museum last year (the accompanying book is excellent).