I have been to Hong Kong, it’s worse than soho or Chinatown NYC level mini units. There is some pretty neat movable walls and “transformer” units in HK
https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=WB2-2j9e4co
Japan uses the pods for their workers to power nap in because they work from 7 am till after 9 then go to the izakaya directly , for sake and sushi or actual izakaya then late night karaoke and more sake on work nights...every night.
They also use them when just popping over to a city to party with no planned hotel set up. Cheap easy to rent and no set check in or out times its by the hour. Room for you your backpack or carry on. Get blasted , crash, take the train back in the morning. One of my father’s my biological one was at the director level and also at one point a VP for TELCO I would spend three weeks to a month with him in Tokyo at a time usually summer or between semesters at university.
Japan has a cultural bias to urban living. Their rural market is in full collapse they can’t give away properties. Thousands of vacant houses and land dot the countryside they are even offering gaijin incentives to move to those rural communities and live in those properties. If I was 5 years younger they would have approved my perm res visa but even with three master’s and a Phd you age out and cannot stay permrez since I am married already to a German dual citizen the marriage visa in Japan is out obviously. I hold dual already (EU) and the USA won’t allow triple citizenship. So Japan will remain just a fun trip destination for now.
A friend's American (and half-Japanese) son and his wife just bought a nice house in a suburban town outside Tokyo, with a view of Mt. Fuji. I haven't visited, but saw photos. it's quite lovely. Its a 4 bedroom, well-built house with a garage, has a yard and is 10 minute walk to a train/commuter rail station. Was told it cost under $250K
It seems after 3 decades, the property bubble has deflated.