The purpose of this paper is to research how elderly households in TOYAMA-HAITSU live and remodel their space to continue to live there. The results are as follows: The elderly convert two rooms into one by removing the door. They try to make the most of their limited space and improve their house along with their lifestyle changes. The elderly create their working space by removing the household equipments including washbowls. Single elderly households use one of their rooms as storage space because the elderly people generally have many belongings. But on the other hand, other types of households are difficult to create such space. Therefore they eat and sleep in one room. The government provides house remodeling grant for the elderly. But for more effective use of housing stock, the grant for renovation to create adequately sized house which fits their lifestyle is needed.

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This research gives an analysis of the effects of non-conventional economic aid by the housing eco-point system for the improvement of housing insulation. The purpose of this study is not only to consider the policy of making low-energy housing more widespread, but also to propose a policy of promotion of such types of accommodation. It can be claimed that the economic effects of the eco-point system were significant and achieved the economic measures that had been the initial goal of the program. CO2 reduction effects of the home appliances eco-point system achieved a similar favorable effect with regards to CO2 reduction. On the other hand, comparing insulation retrofit to new construction shows that the former is under less favorable conditions for aid, despite the fact that it is more effective in terms of reducing CO2 emissions. Due to this, the overall economic effects of the program can be regarded as limited. However, improvement of housing insulation for new housing can be sought by revising standards for insulation performance. This leads to a proposal that an institutional framework, such as subsidy policies, for improving energy efficiency standards for housing renovation should also be established.

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Following the Great East Japan Earthquake, the housing lease program for disaster victims supplied over 60,000 private rental houses as temporary housing. This large number of houses was rented in a short time and over a wide area. As such, grasping the situation of leased housing is difficult. To examine actual conditions of houses and households covered by this program in Iwate prefecture, this study analyzed information contained in 4,000 rental agreements. The following results were obtained. (1) Acquisition of houses progressed rapidly in tsunami-damaged coastal areas. Residents acquired old and low-priced detached houses in the same city without using real estate agents. (2) Residents who could not find rental houses in their city during the early stages had to move to other cities close to their city or the inland area far away from their hometown. (3) A quarter of the residents left their leased housing about two years after the earthquake. Residents who acquired during the early stages, large families that lived in inadequate houses, and residents who moved to other cities began to leave leased houses at an earlier time.

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This paper describes the survey conducted on American eco-village cohousing that implements lifestyle with resource recycling and sustainable society for the future. After classifying four types of location and studying the outline of their locational environments, living environments, etc., the trends and characteristics of community activities and spaces, in particular, common meals provided at cohousing, were researched. The points to be learned for future collective living in Japan are clarified.

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The Borloo Law enacted in France in 2003 defined the guidelines for improvement projects as well as the maintenance management system for the regeneration of the housing estate including the role of associations involved in the process. This paper clarifies the significance and the role of the associations. In case of Angers city, the association “Régie de quartier d’Angers” was engaged as an association to represent inhabitants. It knew the local circumstances and went in the deliberation from earlier phase of the project and also took the responsibility for maintenance management. The proceeding reflects the regards of the inhabitants. The system of vegetable garden that was introduced enhances the community-building and the public safety measures, it is in the interest of ecological education, and finally contributes to more employment. It is argued that the maintenance management by the associations achieves the purpose of the Law, which aims towards sustainable reforms of habitation and dwelling environment.

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This paper studies the refuging state of refugees of Ibaraki prefecture and the hindrance reason of not coming back to the place where they lived before the disaster. Public assistance as supplies of housing and a living fund varies according to the place of refuge and the reason. It is considered that few refugees can come back to the original place where they lived before the disaster. From a viewpoint at promoting recovery of the stricken area, the strategic package corresponding to the present conditions of the refugees and the local situation is necessary.

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In order to regenerate a housing complex, it is general situation that the project is driven by private developers. However, in the case of regeneration in urban area, cooperation between regeneration and community management is more important compared with regeneration in suburban area. This paper intends to find possibilities of “Machizukuri company” in regeneration of “Horikawa Housing Complex” which is the oldest RC housing complex with shops and dwellings in Japan. We analyzed discussion in “the Committee of Horikawa Machizukuri Company” which is composed by members from various speciality and background and interviewed the members about their sense of values and possible scheme to realize Machizukuri Company. As a result, we classifi ed “Machizukuri company” to 4 types by the roles (driver or coordinator) and initiatives (private sector driven or citizen driven). We also pointed out the appropriate schemes realizing each of the types by ownership of land and buildings and relationships between Machizukuri Company and administrative, private developers, the residents and citizen.

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This study investigates the recent conditions of housing affordability problems in Japan. By employing the microdata samples of the National Survey of Family Income and Expenditure, it quantifies housing cost burden among different household groups segmented by housing tenure, annual income, and age. The study finds increased housing cost burden among low-income renter households; the proportion of income spent on housing increased from 26% to 49% from 1989 to 2004.

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The purpose of this study is to analyze the participation consciousness related to housing conditions for renovation of suburban housing estates in local city. In this study, we carried out the questionnaire and hearing survey in Hourai resident’s area, Fukushima City. The main conclusion is as follows. (1) In the suburban housing estates in local city, elderly people and small-scale households are increasing. (2) The features of residents with a participation consciousness are aged 60 and over, unmarried or two-person household, and housing owner. (3) The resident autonomy organization has not achieved the function for participation about renovation of suburban housing estates. Therefore, the organization for elderly people's participation is required.

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Environment of Elderly Housings with Supportive Services depend on operators due to the registration criteria regarding services. The elderly who need to relocate to those elderly housings have needs in daily living. For securing stable aging in place, the housings are supposed to have adequate functions for their needs. Taking “occupancy rate” as one indicator to distinguish the housings selected, this study aimed to see environmental differences of the housings among three groups consisting of low, mid and high occupancy rate groups. One way and multiple comparisons were conducted to indicate the environmental differences to verify the significance of the differences. High occupancy rate group had common features as general multidwellings, respected residents’ individuality, and participated in neighborhood associations. However, the variation of services and preparation of barrier free facilities in dwelling units did not have relations with occupancy rate, which could be considered the elderly did not have enough recognition for necessary environment after relocation.

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On the occasion of reconstruction of UR “H” housing complex, there was a proposal on housing planning for child-rearing households. It is that using wide-open-sliding-doors makes spatial oneness for feeling next room. This paper shows conformation states of resident attribution to this housing .The following are the conclusion;The proposal conforms closely to households including a primary school child and under,but doesn't conform to households including a junior high-school student and over. Apart from this,households of a couple only that sleeping in same bedroom and single-person-households are conformed.

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In Japan, the number of high-rise apartments is increasing because of their attraction such as the overlook or the sense of space. But in view of the emergency situations like the Tohoku Earthquake, high rise apartments might have their own weakness. In this research, we clarify evacuation behavior and cooperation of high-rise apartment residents at the time of the earthquake and their disaster prevention measures. Finally, we point out some problems that they should work on and show some instructions about disaster prevention measures.

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Large-scale buildings affect the areas where they are built so much that it is absolutely imperative that their externalities should be taken into serious consideration while making plans for land utilization. This study defines “large-scale buildings” as buildings covering land over 10000 square meters. Through estimating the externalities of large-scale buildings by examining their effects on land prices, it became obvious that the externalities of largescale buildings change depending on their types, locations, and use districts around them. This study points out that large-scale buildings are to be constructed at appropriate places where they will bring maximum benefits and minimize unwanted or negative effects. By valuing the overall changes of land prices affected by large-scale buildings, this study comes forward with two proposals for local governments as to city planning: the system of total and comprehensive evaluation of land in land sale; and the increase of green which leads to the expansion of floor space index.

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