Homes and small spaces

Japanese houses: how a traditional home is laid out, and how modern homes changed it

Homes and small spaces · Published 2026-10-21

A traditional Japanese house can look simple from outside: a wooden frame, a heavy roof, sliding doors and a small garden. Inside, it is organized around ideas very different from a European house: rooms without fixed functions, walls that slide or lift away, floors you sit and sleep on, and a gradual passage from the street to the most private space. Most Japanese people now live in modern houses and flats, but many of these ideas survive, in a tatami room, a genkan or a deep bathtub.

The parts of a traditional house

Rooms that change

Because the floor is tatami and the furniture is light, rooms are not designed as "bedroom" or "dining room". Futons are laid out at night and stored in the oshiire by day; a low table can be moved aside; fusuma can be removed to join two rooms for a funeral, a wedding or New Year guests. Our guide to living small the Japanese way shows how this flexibility translates to modern flats.

Light and the garden

Deep eaves keep summer sun and rain off the walls and the shoji, while letting low winter sun reach inside. Along the garden side, the engawa acts as a corridor, a porch and a place to sit; with the outer storm shutters (amado) open, the rooms, the veranda and the garden form one view. This is the in-between space this site is named after.

The tokonoma

The most formal tatami room usually has a tokonoma, a shallow alcove where a scroll and a seasonal flower arrangement are displayed. Etiquette places the most honoured guest with their back to it. You don't step into the tokonoma or put everyday objects there.

Regional and historical types

• Minka (common people's houses): farmhouses with large earthen-floored kitchens and thatched or tiled roofs, including the steep thatched gasshō-zukuri houses of Shirakawa-gō and Gokayama, a UNESCO World Heritage site since 1995.
• Machiya (townhouses): narrow, deep merchant houses in Kyoto and other cities, with a shop at the front, a long earthen passage and small inner gardens for light and air.
• Shoin-zukuri: the formal residential style of the warrior class that introduced the tokonoma, staggered shelves and tatami covering whole rooms.
• Okinawan houses: low, with red tile roofs, stone walls and windbreaks against typhoons.

Why houses don't last

Japanese houses are often demolished and rebuilt after a few decades, and older houses tend to lose market value quickly. Reasons include repeated tightening of earthquake building codes, notably after 1981, which makes older buildings less safe and harder to insure or sell; the post-war boom in quickly built houses; and a market that has long favoured new construction. Government policy now encourages longer-lasting homes, renovation and the reuse of the many empty houses (akiya), which the 2023 Housing and Land Survey counted at around nine million.

The modern home

After the war, public housing corporations built large apartment estates (danchi) with a new layout: a dining-kitchen where families ate at a table on chairs, separate from bedrooms. This "DK" became the "LDK" of today's listings, where 2LDK means two bedrooms plus a living-dining-kitchen. Many flats keep one tatami room, and nearly all keep the genkan and the separate bath. Our guides to tatami and room sizes and the genkan explain those survivors in detail.

Visiting historic houses

Many traditional houses are preserved as museums, often in open-air collections where buildings from different regions have been moved and reassembled. They are the easiest way to see a doma kitchen, an irori hearth, a tokonoma and an engawa in their original setting. Remove your shoes where the floor is raised, don't lean on fusuma or shoji, and follow the signs about photography. Post towns along the old highways, merchant districts and farming villages also preserve whole streets of wooden houses, some of which still serve as homes, shops or inns.

Climate and comfort

Traditional houses were designed above all for hot, humid summers: raised floors for air circulation, open plans for cross-ventilation, and paper and wood that breathe. Winters were met with braziers, the kotatsu and layers of clothing, and older houses can be cold. Modern standards have brought insulation, double glazing and air conditioning, and recent energy rules require better insulation in new homes.

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