This is the craziest shit I've ever read.

Let me summarize, because I can't steal that much of this guys article without looking like a dbag - and you have to read the whole article at archdaily.com.

In Japan - houses depreciate like cars, so after about 15 years the house has lost all of it's value. And after about 30 years they just tear them down and start over. People never expect to sell their houses. So, it doesn't matter what you do to them. You just tear in down in a couple of decades and build a new one because Japan festishizes newness.

If Japan doesn't put you off nation building - nothing will. Their women still don't work! It's a hugely dysfunctional system. It's like the broken windows parable every single day there! It's also probably why Japan is in a perpetual liquidity trap.

Throughout the whole recession I've wondered why inflation has been so hard to catch fire. In Japan, it's apparently because they just throw money away.  It reaches the system, but in ways that do not benefit the economy in any substantial way.