About the Project

In December 2018, a team of researchers at Oxford Brookes University, Osaka University, the University of Tokyo and Japan’s Public Corporation for Housing Improvement and Development (HID) were awarded a Japan-UK Connections Grant.

The award is jointly funded by the Economic and Social Research Council and the Arts and Humanities Research Council. The purpose of the awards is to strengthen knowledge exchange and develop future research activities between UK and Japanese institutions in areas of particular importance in both countries. In the case of this project, housing policy in the context of ageing populations and growing unaffordability forms the central issue of the grant.

Led by Dr Youngha Cho (Oxford Brookes), the project, entitled Enhancing housing affordability and social care in Japan and the UK: Comparative evaluation of policy and practice, brings together academics from universities in both the UK and Japan whose research interests lie in:

(1) (in)affordability of housing for young people and vulnerable populations, and the national policies put in place by both countries to address this.

(2) the relationship between housing policy and social care in ageing nations 

Over the next year and a half, the Oxford Brookes team members will visit colleagues in Osaka and Tokyo, and members of the Japan team will visit Oxford. These trips will consist of a mix of workshops and seminars, and field trips arranged by the local team members that explore these two pressing housing policy issues. These trips will help to develop ideas for future areas of international research across the two countries.