（社説）増える空き家 放置防いで活用探ろう

August 02, 2014
EDITORIAL: Making good use of millions of vacant houses
（社説）増える空き家　放置防いで活用探ろう

As many as 8.2 million houses in Japan are unoccupied, accounting for 13.5 percent of all existing houses in this nation. The number has increased by 630,000 from five years ago and is the highest on record, according to latest government data.
　全国の空き家は８２０万戸、住宅総数の１３・５％を占める。５年前より６３万戸増えて過去最多。こうした数字が国の統計で明らかになった。

A confluence of factors is behind this trend, including such major social changes as the postwar tendency among Japanese to live apart from their parents and the aging and shrinking of the population. The number of vacant houses is expected to continue growing in the coming years.
　子どもの独立、高齢化や人口減と社会の大きな変化も反映した現象で、これからも空き家は増え続けると見込まれる。

If left abandoned, vacant houses could collapse or become targets of crimes like arson. Greater efforts should be made to prevent uninhabited houses from being neglected and find new uses for them.
　空き家が放置されれば、倒壊したり、放火などの犯罪を招いたりする恐れがある。放置を防ぎながら、新たな使い方に結びつける努力を重ねたい。

Homeowners should in principle take care of their houses. There can be cases, however, where vacant homes pose a safety hazard, such as dilapidated houses in areas of high snowfall that are on the verge of collapse. In such cases, the local government may have no choice but to demolish them.
　個人の家は、個人の責任で管理するのが大前提だ。だが、周辺に危険が及ぶ事態が差し迫っている場合、たとえば、豪雪地帯での家屋倒壊の恐れがある時など、やむを得ず行政が解体するケースはあるだろう。

More than 350 local governments across the nation have ordinances concerning proper management of unoccupied houses. The city of Daisen, Akita Prefecture, and Tokyo’s Ota Ward have torn down houses in danger of collapsing on behalf of the owners under their ordinances regarding such situations.
　空き家の適正管理に関わる条例を定めている自治体は、全国で３５０以上。秋田県大仙市や東京都大田区は、条例に基づいて、倒壊の危険がある空き家を所有者に代わって取り壊したこともある。

A group of lawmakers is working on legislation to deal with the increasingly serious problem. One key provision of the envisioned law would give municipalities access to information about local residents’ records concerning the municipal tax on real estate so that they can identify the owners of vacant houses. Another would allow local governments to order the owners of dangerous vacant houses to demolish them.
　国会議員による立法化も検討されている。市町村が空き家の持ち主を知るために固定資産税の情報を使えるようにすることや、持ち主に対して危険な空き家の撤去を命令できるようにすることが柱だ。

However, dismantling a house to create a vacant lot means losing a real estate tax break. The tax burden on the owner could increase up to six times.
　住宅を解体して更地にすると固定資産税の軽減措置がなくなり、最大６倍の負担が生じてしまう。

Many experts say this tax rule is one of the factors behind the growing number of unoccupied houses.
これが空き家が増える一因だと指摘する声も多い。

If the government considers putting together a comprehensive package of measures to deal with the problem, changes in tax rules may be effective components.
空き家対策を総合的に考えるなら、税制面にも工夫する余地はありそうだ。

Some policy efforts are under way to make use of vacant houses that could otherwise become sources of trouble.
　困りものに映る空き家だが、一方で活用への動きもある。

Low-rent public housing for low-income earners is generally very popular, with the number of families wishing to move in being dozens of times larger than the number of units available.
　所得が低い人向けの公営住宅は、入居倍率が数十倍にもなる。

Vacant houses could meet the needs of the huge ranks of people looking for low-rent housing.
家賃が安い住まいを求める人は多く、空き家はこうしたニーズにも応えられる。

The Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare in April started a pilot project to use empty houses to provide housing to low-income elderly people.
　厚生労働省は、低所得高齢者の住まい確保のため、空き家を活用するモデル事業を今年度から始めた。

The project is aimed at encouraging owners to rent their unused houses to such people. Under the project, nonprofit organizations and other entities will provide support for the daily lives of aged renters to ease the landlord’s concerns about the possible solitary deaths of occupants.
日常生活をＮＰＯ法人などが支援することで、孤独死などを懸念する持ち主が「貸してもいい」と思える環境づくりを狙う。

The Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism is planning to ease government and ministerial ordinances related to the Building Standards Law, under certain conditions, to make it easier to turn vacant houses into group homes and other facilities for the elderly.
国土交通省も、一定の条件の下に建築基準法の政省令を緩和して、空き家をグループホームなどに転用しやすくする方針だ。

In June, the city of Kyoto started providing subsidies to help remodel detached houses and vacant row houses into housing for foreign students or local public facilities. The municipal government has already received around 100 inquiries about the new subsidy program.
　京都市は、戸建てや長屋建ての空き家を留学生の住まいや地域の居場所に改修する場合などに、６月から補助金を出すことにした。すでに約１００件の問い合わせがあったという。

Usable vacant houses are valuable resources. A wide range of organizations and people should be involved in the efforts to come up with good ideas to overcome obstacles to utilizing them.
　使える空き家は「資源」だ。「使いたいのに使えない」を乗り越える知恵は、いくらでも出し合いたい。

--The Asahi Shimbun, Aug. 2