Abstract
The Hanshin-Awaji Great Earthquake reminds us anew of the fact that Japan is a world's prominent country as to earthquake. It was an urban disaster which took away many human lives and annihilated housing stocks. In Japan, where more than 70% of the total population live in cities, sufficient town building measures for safety and security are not yet implemented even though they fear bigger disaster than Kobe might occur in Tokyo and Osaka.
Recovery of cities from the damage of great earthquake taught us a lesson that it is necessary to prepare for risks during peaceful period. It is also noticeable that reverse mortgage system played an effective role to promote reconstruction of houses in emergency case.
Among housing supplies in cities, condominiums occupy a big proportion. As these condominiums grow older, obsolete housing stocks grow rapidly, which brings about a big social problem of urgent and enormous need for reconstruction in view of preventing urban disaster. The biggest obstacle to the promotion of reconstruction is the shortage of financial capability among aged owners, who accordingly object reconstruction. If we leave reconstruction tasks untouched, the deterioration of housing stocks will be further enhanced, which would make urban environment even worse.
We propose to make use of our experiences in utilizing reverse mortgage system as one of the measures to reconstruct cities after earthquake, in order to rebuild deteriorated condominiums during peaceful period.
This paper presents views acquired through field researches such as interviews and questionnaires. This paper consists of following items; 1. Introduction. 2. Urban disaster caused by great earthquake and the recovery from it. 3. Actual application of reverse mortgage system to cases in Kobe City and Nishinomiya City and findings from its application. 4. Terms which firmly establishes of reverse mortgage system. 5. Correspondence for decrepit condominiums which promote deterioration of urban environment. 6. Application of lesson and knowledge from the great earthquake. 7. Conclusion.
