My research focuses on empty houses (akiya) in Japan, an increasingly important topic with approximately 9 million vacant properties as of 2023. Over 18 months of ethnographic research in Japan, I visited around 60 empty houses and interviewed each owner or caretaker. I conducted ethnographic research with architects, carpenters, charity members, real estate agents, and house clearing professionals involved in empty house management. I also engaged in participant-observation on DIY empty house renovation sites.
Through my research, I seek to bring attention to the actual materiality of these buildings, and the social lives and material practices of the local residents who live nearby and labourers engaged in their transformations.
What is it like to live in or near an empty house? Who renovates empty houses and for what purpose? And is an empty house really ‘empty’?
