A study on rent burden of private rental housings in Japan

Abstract In Japan, there is a lack of adequate consideration of “appropriate rent burden” that is essential for appropriate promoting of housing safety net measures. Therefore, we intended to obtain basic data to examine the appropriate rent burden. Specifically, using the latest findings of the National Survey of Family Income, Consumption and Wealth that provides the most detailed picture of household finances, we analyzed the rent burden and expenditure elasticity, thereby obtaining the following findings. Rents do not differ significantly according to life stage and annual household income. With regard to expenditure elasticity, the expenditure elasticity of rent is remarkably low compared with other expenditure items. Consequently, Rent is therefore an expense that is difficult to cut even for low-income earners, and the burden is greater among low-income earners. Furthermore, the characteristics of rent burden also differ depending on the household size, also there are clear differences in rent between metropolitan and non-metropolitan areas. Therefore, it was suggested that in promoting the housing safety net measures, it is necessary to study the future of the rent burden in consideration of the household size, and examine the level as a regional minimum in addition to the level as a national one.