Many Japanese abodes in 2021 are returning to the roots of traditional residences and adding an earthen floor entryway or incorporating modern variants of the space. Japanese homes already have a small "genkan" entrance area for people to store their shoes before going inside. Now, more apartment buyers are asking for a larger “doma” traditional earthen-floored space, in which they can walk around while wearing footwear and store items for outdoor use. The demand for doma appears to be related to the boom in people engaging in more outdoor leisure activities amid the COVID-19 pandemic and increased consumer desire to maintain cleanliness in the home by separating spaces.

The rate of offices standing empty in central Tokyo in November dropped for the first time since the pandemic began, an early signal that the worst could be over for the capital’s property market. Vacancies fell by 0.12 percentage points to 6.35% in Tokyo’s five main business districts, real estate brokerage Miki Shoji Co. said on Thursday. Since hitting 1.49% in February 2020, the lowest since the country’s economic bubble burst in the early 1990s, vacancies have surged.

The government and the ruling coalition are planning to extend a tax break system for people who renovate their homes, sources familiar with the matter said. The home renovation tax relief is set to expire at the end of this year but government and ruling coalition officials are considering keeping it in place until the end of 2023, the sources said. The decision to extend the program is aimed at promoting sales of used homes amid a spike in vacant homes across the country.

Higher fuel prices drove up Tokyo’s cost of living at the fastest pace in 16 months, although the increases were still tiny compared with those confronting consumers in other economies, where central banks are pulling back stimulus.

In a major shift for a country long closed to immigrants, Japan is looking to allow foreigners in certain blue-collar jobs to stay indefinitely starting as early as the 2022 fiscal year, a justice ministry official said.

Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co. announced on Tuesday that it will build a $7 billion plant in Japan's southwestern prefecture of Kumamoto to help meet the global shortage of semiconductors.

While Japan has not yet re-opened its borders to overseas visitors, the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO) and the country’s many local attractions are gearing up for the resumption of international travel. JNTO re-invigorated its global “Enjoy my Japan” campaign, originally launched in 2018, signaling Japan’s readiness to meet its ambitious goal of welcoming 60 million overseas visitors by 2030.

Japan adopted a new energy policy on Friday that promotes nuclear and renewables as sources of clean energy to achieve the country’s pledge of reaching carbon neutrality in 2050. The new basic energy plan, adopted by the Cabinet just in time for the climate summit in early November, calls for drastically increasing use of renewable energy to cut fossil fuel consumption over the next decade as Japan pushes to meet its ambitious emissions reduction target.