The Japanese Danchi System

 

A key component to the Japanese city, the Danchi system, exists a network of government housing complexes built to keep up with the demands of a once-growing urban population. After World War Two during Japan's rebuilding process a shift took place to move away from the traditional small multi-generational home living setup to a large apartment complex living situation focused around the “nuclear family” household. These new housing units became the envy of the nation when they debuted since they came complete with a television, refrigerator, and washing machine! With a greatly reduced government subsidized rent these apartment complexes became very popular in the 1950s through 1970s. Even today many new Danchis are built across Japan's major cities.

However, the Danchi system also has an unfortunate dark side to it as demonstrated in-detail by this New York Times article. Since the 1990s Japan has been experiencing an economic decline which has in turn developed into a population decline with a disproportionately high percentage of elderly. Before this system was in place many Japanese people lived in multi-generational houses where they took care of their aging parents. After the Danchi system went into place, the shift to the nuclear family encouraged Japanese people to live apart from their parents. Living in separate places, many of these now elderly people are left isolated, alone in these Danchi apartments. Each summer and winter many die alone and are not discovered until much later making a lot of Danchis a potentially dreary place to live. On a more positive note in recent times many of the low-paid Japanese together with immigrant families have been moving into the Danchi system housing across Japan.

Why talk about the Danchi system? If you visit any major Japanese city you will immediately notice many Danchis in the horizon. They are truly a key component of the Japanese city. Since returning to Japan I have decided to focus on getting gospel literature into these Danchis for a few good reasons. First, they are large and easy to mass-distribute literature to without harassment. Second, they have many retired people who often have a lot of free time to consider things as opposed to the generally hyper-active time-strapped culture at large. Third, many of the poorest of Japanese people live in the Danchis, which means they are more likely to consider the gospel than others in a proud tier-based society. Please pray for salvation for the many different peoples living in Japan's Danchi System!