Michael Cash wrote:

> If so many folks want out of a place that it depresses real estate
> values,

In Japan, it could just be deflation or price corrections. I have monitored real
estate prices in Fukuyama since I moved here. I have seen the price of new single
family houses go from 38 million yen to 23 million yen, and inconveniently located
apartments a bus and or train ride from downtown which cost over 20 million yen,
be replaced by a multitude of new apartments springing up around the station and
castle in the most convenient, desireable, and probably expensive locations, list
for less than 16 million yen. And quality or convenience seems to be going up.

> I'll take that as sufficient indication that *something* must
> suck about it and not bother inquiring as to specifics.

My apartment building has a high turnover rate, and is one quarter to one half
empty at any one time, probably the only reason I as a foreigner I was permitted
to live here, but it does not suck. Locals look down on my neighborhood and
badmouth local schools including private ones, but they do not suck.