Photo/Illutration Municipal governments are currently struggling with hoarder houses across Japan. (Asahi Shimbun file photo)

A survey on hoarder houses nationwide shows that a majority of the owners either suffer from health or economic problems or don't want to resolve the problem, the internal affairs ministry announced on Aug. 28.

Municipalities are struggling to handle hoarder houses, or "gomi yashiki" (literally, "garbage house"), across Japan that have grown into a social headache attributed to odor and high fire risk. 

As of fiscal 2022, a separate review by the Environment Ministry logged 5,224 of these residences around the country.

The internal affairs ministry conducted its survey from October 2022 through August 2024 to get a better grasp of the actual conditions and clarify what issues municipal governments face.

A total of 181 hoarder homes were chosen from 30 cities and wards with a population exceeding 100,000. Survey results regarding a home's impact on the surrounding neighborhood indicated 103 instances where the house was a fire hazard and 94 with a disruptive odor. 

Of these 181 cases, 62 have been resolved—for example, the house was either cleaned up or demolished—and 119 remain hoarder homes. 

An overwhelming 80 percent for the reason behind the "unresolved" case is that the residents do not understand their municipal government's approach to handling them.

Another significant obstacle was that 60 percent do not want to change the state of their homes while 30 percent insist the hoarded garbage is valuable. 

In those 30 percent of the cases, municipal governments said that it was difficult to conclude whether the garbage was considered waste under the Waste Management and Public Cleaning Law, and that they could not instruct residents to remove it. 

The reality is a sobering 70 percent of residents are plagued by financial problems and health concerns.

Sixty percent of residents are unmarried and are the house's sole occupant; more than half of those living alone in a hoarder house are 65 or older.

“It is important for the municipal governments to cooperate not only with environmental departments, but also with social welfare departments and social welfare councils,” said the internal affairs ministry's Administrative Management Bureau. “They need to establish an environment where they can use various approaches to tackle the problem.”

The bureau also pointed out that the relevant ministries and agencies need to collaborate on giving each municipal government the information it requires.

The Administrative Management Bureau also notified the environment, welfare and transportation ministries as well as the internal affairs ministry's Fire and Disaster Management Agency of the survey results on Aug. 28.

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