CODE IN TOKYO

The Elderly Tokyo Landowner and the Man Who Lives Alone in a Hospital

A Chance Encounter

The other day, I happened to run into the elderly woman who owns a parking lot in my neighborhood.

“It’s hot today, isn’t it?”

That was all we said—a passing exchange about the weather.

I have barely spoken to her since I sold my car and stopped renting a parking space, though apparently she and my mother have known each other for years.

I learned that she has lived in this neighborhood for decades. Her family had farmed the land here for generations.

The fields have since become parking lots, blending seamlessly into the residential streets of Tokyo.

That unremarkable encounter got me thinking about wealth in the city.

How Farmland Became a Fortune

When people picture wealthy individuals in Japan, many probably think of tech founders or investors.

But in Tokyo, plenty of people became wealthy simply because their families had owned land for generations. As the city expanded after World War II, farmland was developed for housing, and its value rose tens or even hundreds of times over.

When I was younger, I found this a little unfair. It seemed as though the place where you happened to be born could determine the entire course of your life.

I no longer see it that way.

Their families protected and worked that land long before the city was covered in concrete. As someone who arrived later, I am hardly in a position to complain.

The Cost of Holding On

Even so, the lives of these landowners often look very different from what outsiders imagine.

They dress like anyone else. Many are remarkably frugal.

The reason is simple: land costs money even when it just sits there. There are maintenance expenses and property taxes, as well as the looming issue of inheritance tax.

People in Japan sometimes say that a family fortune disappears within three generations. The reality varies from one household to another, but many landowners live with a constant awareness that their assets must be protected.

One of my mother-in-law’s friends belongs to a family that owns a large amount of land.

Anticipating the inheritance tax their children would eventually face, the parents decided that every one of them needed to become a doctor. Their thinking was pragmatic: the children had to be able to afford the tax.

Of course, becoming a doctor required tremendous effort from the children themselves. Still, their parents were also motivated by a practical goal—keeping the land in the family.

From the outside, they look like the very definition of success: landowners and a family of doctors.

Yet a high income did not make their lives carefree. Instead, they faced a different kind of pressure: they had to keep earning at that level in order to preserve what the family already owned.

One Man in an Empty Hospital

There is also a lonely postscript to the family’s story.

They once operated a midsize hospital that was well known in the area. But changing times, family circumstances, divorce, and other complications eventually forced it to close.

Today, I am told, just one member of the family lives in the building.

Perhaps it is not so bad during the day. But at night, I imagine him walking alone down the long corridors of a former hospital after every other sign of human presence has disappeared. It feels like a scene from a film—and a rather unsettling one.

Great wealth carries great responsibility.

Faced with stories like this, I find myself thinking that being rich comes with its own difficulties.

Sour Grapes—and an Honest Conclusion

Of course, some people may dismiss this as a case of sour grapes.

In Aesop’s fable, a fox cannot reach a bunch of grapes and consoles himself by declaring that they must be sour anyway.

There may be some truth to that criticism. If someone asked whether I wanted to inherit land in Tokyo, I would happily say yes.

So this is not an argument that rich people have nothing worth envying.

The wealthy simply have problems of their own. That is all.

Still, if I have to face problems either way, I would obviously rather face them with money than without it.

Contact

I provide system development and technical consulting using AI, AWS, and Claude Code.

Contact form: https://holly-money-e94.notion.site/390ff30cf18c8086a676fe630d171873