[Insight & Opinion] A Livable City Starts With a Livable Home

[Asia Economy] Last July, I read an article about the top 10 most livable cities in the world. It was the result of the "2022 Global Livability Report" conducted by the British economic analysis organization, the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), which surveyed 172 cities worldwide using over 30 indicators. Among Asian cities, Osaka, Japan ranked the highest, tying for 10th place with Melbourne, Australia. The most livable city was Vienna, Austria, followed by Copenhagen, Denmark, and Zurich, Switzerland. Seoul ranked much lower at 60th place compared to Osaka.

I found it hard to readily agree with the Osaka ranking. While Vienna and Copenhagen are widely known as great places to live, Osaka as the most livable city in Asia? Even within Japan, Osaka has a strong image of being dirty, and regional central cities like Fukuoka or Sendai are rather known as more livable places. In fact, due to the accelerated concentration in Tokyo in the 21st century, Osaka’s commercial base, once a city strength, has long been weakening. So why Osaka, of all places?

The 30-plus survey items were divided into five categories: stability, healthcare, culture and environment, education, and infrastructure, each weighted differently. Stability and culture/environment-related items each accounted for 25%, while education-related items had the lowest weight. Although infrastructure-related items, which accounted for 20%, included questions about "housing quality," their overall influence seemed limited. Since housing, a weakness of Osaka, had a low weight, it appears Osaka received relatively high scores.

Japan is a developed country, but its housing quality lags far behind North America and Europe. Houses in Osaka feel cramped to the point of being suffocating. Except for Hokkaido, Japanese homes lack central heating, making them very cold, and soundproofing is almost nonexistent, resulting in noisy living conditions. Except for a small wealthy minority, it is not an exaggeration to say that most people live in cramped, cold, and noisy homes.

Is housing different in Korea? Korean apartments are generally larger and better heated than those in Japan, but not everyone lives in apartments, and not all apartments are of good quality. Last summer’s floods and typhoons revealed the poor conditions of semi-basement residences and problems with underground parking lots in apartments. Many endure noise between floors and external noise. More than 80% of buildings use septic tanks, so residents are already accustomed to odors inside and outside their homes.

The criteria for a livable city may vary by person. However, to be one of the livable cities, the quality of housing must be improved from the current state. This applies to both Osaka and Seoul.

To do so, it is necessary to improve the housing market, which is formed around the correlation between supply and demand. On the supply side, stricter building regulations are needed. With Korea’s technological level, noise between floors should have been resolved long ago. The fact that it still remains is due to lax related regulations.

Consumer attitudes are also very important. Only when demanders demand higher quality homes and continuously urge the political sphere to improve related building laws will improvements be made.

Housing is a place where people live before expecting profits, and it is a very important factor that determines quality of life. When the homes people live in improve, their quality of life also improves. This is why housing should be the area of greatest interest and change for creating cities where people want to live.

Robert Pauzer, Former Professor at Seoul National University

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.