Tokyo is known for its oddly angled buildings such as the sloping roof’s on the row of buildings in the center of the picture. The slicing and angles come from natural lighting regulations – neighbors have the right to the same level of natural light with the new building, as what previously stood there. Builders optimize the interior size of the building by optimizing the meterage by taking up as much of that space as possible, even if it means slicing off corners to provide light-access.

Why Tokyo is the land of rising home construction but not prices

It was the rapidity of what happened to the house next door that took us by surprise. We knew it was empty. Grass was steadily taking over its mossy Japanese garden; the upstairs curtains never moved. But one day a notice went up, a hydraulic excavator tore the house down, and by the end of next year it will be a block of 16 apartments instead. Abruptly, we are living next door to a Tokyo building site. It is not fun. They work 6 days a week. Were this London, Paris or San Francisco, there would be howls of resident rage — petitions, dire warnings about loss of neighborhood character, and possibly a lawsuit or 2. Local elections have been lost for less. Yet in our neighborhood, there was not a murmur. “There is no legal restraint on demolishing a building. People have the right to use their land so basically neighboring people have no right to stop development.”

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