Housing as a Reflection of Culture: Privatised Living and Privacy in England and Japan

Abstract This paper reports data from contemporary England and Japan to see whether, as a number of sociological studies have argued, causal relations exist between cultural values and the physical form of housing. The results provide empirical evidence that increasing privatised living and privacy has an impact on house form (i.e. an increase in the capacity to permit greater privacy in the home). However, the present analysis reveals that, in England, this has been directed to home-centred living and personal privacy more than in Japan, where the main focus continued to be on family-centred living and familial privacy. While supporting the premise that cultural values influence house forms, then, the evidence suggests that this framework requires development to accommodate different types of privatised living. Keywords: Privatised LivingFamilismPrivacyHouse Form