Since the middle of the 1990s, young people have been experiencing unprecedented difficulty in obtaining stable employment, in forming an independent family and in climbing up the ladder of housing. This paper looks at the housing condition of the young generation. The housing system in post-war Japan has assumed that the majority of people lead a standardized life-course. However, the paper demonstrates the fact that while young households with a conventional life-course pattern ascend up the housing ladder towards home ownership attainment, single people and those living in their parental home are largely excluded from the ladder system.
