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don’t know if this is the right forum for this discussion, but …
check out March 6 LA Times article (may require a free registration) at
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-030602jhouse.story
entitled “Japan’s Houses of Horror – Shoddy construction and government policies that discourage resale saddle many buyers with worthless property”
What a freakin’ nightmare … the big developers and their government cronies have pretty much stacked the deck against the homeowner.