Actually, tax-chick is correct here. She is wrong only if you consider the average Japanese as someone who lives within 30 minutes or so of Central Tokyo. Then, those who aren't so well off can afford little more than an apartment with a couple of 5 mat (a tatami mat is roughly 2 square meters) bedrooms, a kitchen/dining room about the same size and possibly even a shared bathroom, say 30 square meters total.
If you are willing to double your commute, you can roughly double the size of your living space for the same money. Triple your commute and you can roughly triple it.
My family lived in a 2 bedroom apartment roughly 45 minutes from central Tokyo, roughly 50 square meters total. As I moved up the corporate ladder, we moved into a 2 bedroom house, 65 square meters, then changed companies and moved into a nice 80 square meter, 3 bedroom company mansion. The same type of living arrangements were available to Japanese employees with similar experience, so it wasn't a gaijin privilege thing.
Very informative, thanks. I studied Japanese and Japan in the 1980’s, so I know things have changed ... and my Japanese teacher and her friends had been in the U.S. since the 1950’s or 60’s! However, if that lady is still alive (she’d be in her 70’s now), she wouldn’t be surprised by this news article.
Your description of housing issues parallels some of what we find in the U.S. - the costs and available space vary according to where you’re willing to live. My family lives in a 2,400 sqft house on a little lot in the Charlotte suburbs, but if we moved 60 miles east, we could have a historical home twice this size on 50 acres for the same cost. But no job!