UDA, Japan: Uda community leader Yoshiji Misaki is doing a survey to gather data on abandoned homes in the rural city in Nara prefecture. Almost one in five houses in Uda are vacant homes, known ...

Tucked away in Japan’s countryside, millions of abandoned homes – known as akiya – sit empty, waiting for a second life. With property prices often shockingly low, these forgotten houses ...

They are examples that even with the existence of Akiya, people in Japan still have a desire to preserve memory and heritage while adapting to modern needs. Whether driven by personal history ...