All-you-can-rent startups turn Japan's 8m empty homes into gems

Not quite Airbnb or WeWork, but eyesores gain new life

20191218N empty house

Empty no more: A house in Chiba Prefecture that ADDress offers as part of its subscription-based housing service.

KEIICHI KAMEI, Nikkei staff writer

TOKYO -- In Nichinan, Japan, a city of about 50,000 people on the southwestern island of Kyushu, a house that had sat abandoned for more than a decade gained new life this summer.

The building, situated in a shopping district just a six-minute walk away from Kyushu Railway's Aburatsu Station, was remodeled into a stylish home over the course of two months by Tokyo-based startup ADDress for its subscription-based housing service.

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