AlwaysAisle

I came across news article about car ownership in Japan and I found it interesting. The survey (data obtained from car registration) that back in Showa 51 (1976) there were only 0.505 cars per household in Japan, back in 1976 about only half of homes in Japan had a car. Number has gradually increased since then and on Heisei 8 (1996) the number has reached 1.000 car per household, in 1996 there was one car per house in Japan. Number has increased since and peaked at Heisei 18 (2006) with 1.112 cars per household. But since 2006 number of car ownership started to decline and last year it was 1.052 cars per household.

The figure by prefecture. The prefecture with highest car ownership by household is Fukui with 1.736 cars per household, which indicates many homes at Fukui own two cars. It is pretty much know that in big city many people (especially younger generation) today do not own a car due to cost of owning a car (price of a car itself, parking space, maintenance, etc.) and traffic congestion in a big city many choose to take public transport rather than driving. This showed up on the survey also, Tokyo prefecture came out dead last at 47th with 0.432 cars per household. Second to last is Osaka prefecture with 0.645 cars per household.

Seems like in Japan people in country side rely on a car for transport where people in a big city rely on public transport for transport.

MSPeconomist

I wonder whether taxis and similar (hotel car service, chauffeured vehicles, etc.) are included in the numbers as otherwise they seem high to me for Tokyo and Osaka.

AlwaysAisle

The survey indicated taxi and other commercial vehicles are excluded. Looks like the survey looked into non-commercial vehicle registration, which will exclude taxi but wealthy people own a car with chauffeur driver likely are included. Tokyo prefecture will include west side such as Oume, Okutama, and Itsukaichi. Tokyo prefecture will also include Izu Islands which I suspect car ownership will be higher, but number of household will be far smaller compare with 23 ward area of metropolitan Tokyo, that in mind do wonder how much Izu Islands and Tama region or Tokyo influence the number. But number indicates less than half of household in Tokyo prefecture has a car.

Steve M

That addresses the numerator, but what about the denominator? How is "household" defined? If "one household = one koseki (family registry)" then the number may be very misleading. It would not surprise me if koseki was used to define household, as this would be an exact number that was readily available to whomever compiled the car ownership statistics. But isn't it true that most young adults remain on their parents' koseki until such time that they get married? If so, then most single adults, many of whom live by themselves, would be counted as part of their parents' household and not as their own household. While comparing the changes in the ratio between different time periods would be equally useful no matter how it's calculated as long as it's consistent, trying to make sense of the ratio in isolation (such as by observing that the number seems high) may be in conflict to what you'd think it might be, depending on how they define household.

evergrn

Makes total sense that car ownership is more necessary in countryside than in Tokyo.
If you live in a mansion 3 minutes walk from Kichijoji or Musashi Kosugi Station and you commute by train and all the shopping you need is within 5min walk, you really don't need a car most of the time and it would be cost-ineffective to own a car. But in Kofu, pretty much everyone has a driver's license since many places aren't easily accessible for public transport and much higher % of people live in single family homes as compared to Tokyo.
Even within Tokyo's 23 wards, there are areas where I would think car ownership is highly prevalent. My brother lives in one of the wards but lives ~10min walk from the nearest train station. It seems that most households in his mansion have cars.

That's a good question. When they talk about number of households in Jpn, I think they're usually talking about "setai." Setai is defined the same way as households are defined in US. I don't know how they determine the number of setai's... maybe via census.

AlwaysAisle

The survey was complied and published by a private foundation called 自動車検査登録情報協会 (Jidoushakennsatourokujyouhoukyoukai [Jidousha-kennsa-touroku-jyouhou-kyoukai], Automobile Inspection & Registration Information Association). "Household" used in this survey is based on addresses used on car registration/inspection. It is not based on 戸籍抄本・登録 (koseki shouhonn/touroku). First, even in Japan a private organization such as this does not have an access to information to like 戸籍 (koseki). Also, problem with using information from 戸籍 is that address listed on 戸籍 is 本籍地 (honsekichi) and 戸籍 does not list current home address, 本籍地 (honsekichi) comes form parents (usually father, unless parents choose mother's 戸籍 at marriage) 戸籍 which likely came from grandfather's 戸籍, etc. Only way to change 本籍地 (honsekichi) on 戸籍 (koseki) to represent current address is to 離籍 (riseki) which removing yourself from your family's 戸籍 (koseki) then your new 本籍地 (honsekichi) on 戸籍 (koseki) will show the current address of the time of 離籍 (riseki). But when you move later in your life 本籍地 (honsekichi) on 戸籍 (koseki) will not change.

Anyway, this survey by 自動車検査登録情報協会 (Jidoushakennsatourokujyouhoukyoukai [Jidousha-kennsa-touroku-jyouhou-kyoukai], Automobile Inspection & Registration Information Association) uses address on the auto registration to determine the "household" this survey includes non-Japanese owning car in Japan.

groovbusta

From personal experience, my current and last apartment buildings (in Shibuya-ku) each had about 20 parking spaces for 40 apartments and they were all full, so it lines up with the survey results. I'm currently #5 on the waiting list for a parking spot, so the demand is higher than spaces available.

Steve M

You have provided an excellent overview of how the household registration system works. I already knew most of that, which was the basis of my question. Your explanation bolsters my question, rather than answers it. We are talking about how they calculate the ratio of "cars per household" in a prefecture. To calculate that, they need only two figures: a) the number of cars registered in the prefecture (of the type being considered), and b) the number of households in the prefecture. You say that the koseki information is not accessible to the public. That's not needed - presumably the number of koseki per prefecture is published somewhere, and that's all that would be needed, if that were to be the basis of the calculation. Also, you say that auto registration address is used to determine household. That would be an excellent source of information to a) count the number of cars registered in each prefecture, and b) how many households in the prefecture have at least 1 car registered to it, but how are you going to count the number of households that have no cars registered to them by using the auto registration data? You have to have this last number in order to calculate the number of cars per household. And we know that they are including households with no cars in that calculation, otherwise the ratio would never be less than 1.0.

AlwaysAisle

If you are that interested, I did provide who compiled the survey. Why don't you ask them? I did not conduct the survey.

P.S.
By the way, number of the household per city, per prefecture, etc. is based on 住民基本台帳, which complied from 住民票 which household number if publicly available form municipality government or prefecture government.