This research compared the behavioral patterns involved when choosing a home, and the trend in demand for existing detached houses in both the U.S. and Japan; it also reflects on the chief causes behind the poor market performance of existing housing in Japan.
1) The demand for the existing detached house is extremely low in Japan. 2) While it is common practice for Americans to buy and sell their houses, that is hardly the case in Japan. 3) Japanese buyers of existing detached houses see the purchase merely as “temporary home”, a stepping stone to a next house. People with this “temporary home” outlook normally have negative views of the quality of existing houses. 4) Prospective buyers in Japan also consider purchasing existing detached houses but due to lack of available information they do not feel reassured about its safety and functionality. 5) For Americans, buying a house means making a large investment. The historic value of the old house is an important factor of the investment.

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Over the past few years an increasing number of studies have been made on ‘community money’. However, little attention has been given to the role of the ideal of community money in practice. The ideal or image of community money is not only indispensable for beginning of practice of community money, but also determines the form or system of community money. On the other hand, practiceof community money changes the ideal of community money that the practicers have. Our concern is to consider the interaction between ideal and practice of community money for grasping the dynamic growth of community money in practice. We examine the case in “Dowa” community, where there coexist some ideals of community money in one practice. First, one ideal “Community money should make an inner-community circuit” was brought from the outside of community. Second, in response to beginning of community money, people in community have various images depending on where each stands. Finally, their images began to settle to another ideal “Community money is the one of opportunities for socialization with inners and outers in the community”.

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