Neoliberal policy and the housing safety net in Japan

Abstract

In Japan, economic decline has led to an increase in the number of people who cannot secure adequate housing. However, this increase has not only resulted from the economic situation but also from the introduction of neoliberal policy. This article explores Japan’s housing safety net system, giving particular attention to policy transformations that tend towards a more neoliberal model. As economic decline has undermined housing security, the government has been pressed to form a housing safety net for those who cannot access housing in the market sphere. But the employment of a neoliberal approach to policy formulation has meant that the government has sought to construct a minimal safety net. With the diffusion of neoliberalism, many developed countries have opted to promote market-based housing, leading to a decline in low-income housing. However, similar policy orientations do not necessarily produce equivalent outcomes in different countries, and are rather mediated by a country’s indigenous social, economic, political, and institutional contexts which divergently effect housing processes. Japan serves as an exemplary case in which neoliberalization has effectively combined with a traditionally residualized low-income housing policy to affect the housing circumstances of those disadvantaged by the market economy.