I'm not sure why you're assuming that either of these families own or rent on their own housing. It could very well be a company benefit, as this is not at all unusual in Japan.
Remember, almost all of the value of a house in Tokyo is the land on which it sits. The house itself is practically worthless, or likely even negative value, if it were to go in the "used housing" market. If the land was bought cheaply by the company in the 1950s -- or 1910s -- well it makes sense to use it for your nearby employees with family.
It's also possible that the entire apartment building is owned by the hospital where Dr. Mizuno works. It's possible that they were in a position to buy it in a market just after the bubble economy burst, which slots into 1993 nicely.
That's part of a whole essay on Doing Business in Japan. There's a lot of cultural things that are relevant to how it could be paid for, like:
But there's also hilarious story about how he got his first line of credit. I'd recommend that whole article if you want background on ordinary life in Japan.
Remember, almost all of the value of a house in Tokyo is the land on which it sits. The house itself is practically worthless, or likely even negative value, if it were to go in the "used housing" market. If the land was bought cheaply by the company in the 1950s -- or 1910s -- well it makes sense to use it for your nearby employees with family.
It's also possible that the entire apartment building is owned by the hospital where Dr. Mizuno works. It's possible that they were in a position to buy it in a market just after the bubble economy burst, which slots into 1993 nicely.
patio11 Wrote:The company is your public life. Have an issue with your landlord? The company will handle it, in those cases where the company is not your landlord. (“So let me get this straight: we’re going to pay our employees, and then they’re going to immediately hand 25% of their salary over to an apartment? Doesn’t this suggest an obvious inefficiency? We could just buy a building and house dozens of employees there — lower transaction costs plus economies of scale.” Many Japanese companies have done this math already, and company dorms are quite common, particularly for young, single employees.)
That's part of a whole essay on Doing Business in Japan. There's a lot of cultural things that are relevant to how it could be paid for, like:
patio11 Wrote:I heard a great line about this once, and unfortunately I cannot remember the source: “Most people want to become wealthy so they can consume social status. Japanese employers believe this is inefficient, and simply award social status directly.” The best employees aren’t compensated with large option grants or eye popping bonuses — they’re simply anointed as “princes”, given their pick of projects to work on, receive plum assignments, and get their status acknowledged (in ways great and small) by the other employees.
$30k is a reasonable wage for an engineer in Japan virtually anywhere but Tokyo. In Tokyo, average mid-career wages in engineering are roughly $50k (5 million yen a year). (Pay is generally higher in the financial industry and in foreign-owned corporations, which are generally in the financial industry.)
But there's also hilarious story about how he got his first line of credit. I'd recommend that whole article if you want background on ordinary life in Japan.
"Kitto daijoubu da yo." - Sakura Kinomoto