Buildings that are wasting away

[Karnidge 2]

Anyone know what the laws are concerning buildings from another era that are just wasting away and getting into disrepair.

 

There's so many round where I live. They look awful. You'd think they posed safety issues, with broken glass and weaker structures etc.

 

How come they stay up and aren't brought down?

 

[Chriselle 158]

Come on down to scenic Ito with it's beautiful ocean views. Keep looking out to sea and never, never, ever look inland to the town. Its a rusting, decrepit dump..

[muikabochi 208]

There's more than a few I know of round here too. They must be quite dangerous. Which does make you wonder about town policy on them. Would seem that the policy now is to ignore them.

[DumbStick 13]

Yeah and considering how ridiculously anal they are about some laws - laws that actually prevent someone from having a nice looking roadside, and laws that mean you need to (lawfully) have a big hole in front of your house rather than cover it up - it's somewhat hard to accept.

[oblivion 5]

Sounds like you have a story to tell there Dumbstick!

[DumbStick 13]

Oh it's just another 'it's the rule because it's the rule' rule that the guys will stick by no matter what.

Extremely annoying and totally illogical.

We have found a way round it, though it makes things less simple and more messy.

[Tubby Beaver 209]

You have to have a big hole in the ground?! eh what's that about?!

[DumbStick 13]

It would be a nice hole I suppose, as holes go.

 

The bit between land and the road. You know the 'hole' where the water runs.

Well, seems we are limited to having just 6m of it properly covered.

They won't let us do more than 6m.

The front of our house along the road is about 14m. So we need to have 8m of that gutter area 'uncovered'....

No way round it. Not even if we pay our own money and do it ourselves.

Town won't give permission.

 

Pretty bloody stupid rule isn't it?

Surely the kids in the road could fall down that bit and injure themselves? etc etc.

 

Ask them why, and the reason is... because it's the rule.

Oh right, cheers!

 

I'd love to know if anyone here could possibly imagine a good reason why we wouldn't be allowed to have it nicely covered (obviously with grids and stuff for the water to go down).

[DumbStick 13]

 

Our building company has advised us to initially do the 6m.

And then later on, once it has been inspected, do the rest.

If they complain, just say shiranakatta! The chances of them coming round and checking up later are very slim

 

[muikabochi 208]

Wonder what the people telling you think of these rules.

 

They're probably numbed to the endless stupidity though I suppose.

[NoFakie 45]

Its all a combination of honne and tatemae and bureaucracy. The upper windows in our double height space had to be made so as to open for smoke venting, even though our bedrooms are on the ground floor and we would simply hop out of the window in case of fire. There's no way I'm going to stand in a burning building pulling a chain for five minutes to open a couple of windows. Our place is actually licensed as a lodge but the firemen who did the actual inspection didn't even look at the upper windows, let alone try to open them.

[BagOfCrisps 24]

Its all a combination of honne and tatemae and bureaucracy.

 

Can you elaborate on that Mr Wiggles. I can understand the bureaucracy bit but how do the others fit in?

[NoFakie 45]

As for decripid buildings, they are just part of the crazy mix of paradoxes that goes on here. The same people that make the beautiful pottery in the other thread cover their coastline and rivers with concrete, put up powerlines and as much signage as possible along every road, and build hodge podge towns of buildings of every design and state of repair.

[NoFakie 45]

Here, tatemae is the need to tell you what the rules are and insist on them. Honne is the actual reality whereby they know at least some people will ignore at least some rules and that there are no consequences.

[634-maru 4]

So in this case they perhaps expect Dumbstick to cover up his holes later on, and will sort of be ok with that?

[634-maru 4]

Such a pity that the beautiful landscapes are spoilt by this kind of thing.

Wonder why people don't seem that bothered. If people did in sufficient numbers, something would change over time.

[NoFakie 45]

So in this case they perhaps expect Dumbstick to cover up his holes later on, and will sort of be ok with that?

 

There are lots of rules on paper and people dealing with them (bureaucracy). Such people seem insistent on the rules being followed (tatemae). The rules aren't actually enforced (honne). I don't know if they expect Dumbstick to do anything, but I doubt they will do anything if Dumbstick doesn't do what he is told.

[DumbStick 13]

The guy from our builders who went with me to discuss this came out of the meeting saying that they often have to deal with this kind of silliness.

He advised, if I don't mind the slight chance of them complaining later, that we go ahead and do as they say..... and then once they have done the initial check, then go ahead and cover it up as we want.

He said the chance of them coming back to follow up are close to zero. And that's what he would do.

Silly, annoying, will take longer, but the only way to get a proper decent solution.

[snowdude 44]

In Japan rules are made to be broken and it is kind of common knowledge among the rule makers, but not having rules in Japan is a big no no and so the rule makers must be seen to be enforcing those said rules.

I guess a big percentage do follow the rules as the Japanese custom/way of life is to not question rules/authority, but then their is the percentage who don't follow them.

In the case like Dumbstick has with his hole, it is a rule made by the local ward office that is (((maybe))) largely followed, but there are no consequences for not following them.

Thing is a lot of these rules that are made are often not enforced by the rule makers anyway, as it is too much hassle for them to enforce a rule that someone does not want to follow.

[big-will 7]

It makes me laugh seeing all the "Safety First" messages in great big huge letters on something being built right next to a dangerous wreck.

[brit-gob 9]

I do kind of admire the seemingly Japanese ability to filter out stuff like that though.

[@tokyo 14]

Is 'planning permission' strict here in Japan?

Can't imagine it being so with lots of the buildings there are.