From Akiya to Home: Protecting Japan’s Traditional Homes (Partner Program)

*Online program held in collaboration with the Japan America Society of San Diego

The Japan America Society of San Diego invites you to join us for a fascinating look into one entrepreneur’s mission to save Japan’s disappearing rural heritage.

​In 2016, while cycling Japan’s coastal routes, longtime Australian/Kiwi entrepreneur Terrie Lloyd began noticing something troubling: rural traditional homes disappearing under creepers, slowly collapsing into the landscape. Japan’s aging population had outpaced its need for housing, and the earliest signs of that shift were the wooden houses left behind in “inconvenient” locations. Houses that were too remote, too old, too easy to walk away from.

​Terrie recognized a striking cultural gap. In his native New Zealand, and in many other countries, a countryside or seaside home is a prized asset. In Japan, it’s more often seen as a burden. That gap became an opportunity, and the concept of Akiya 2.0 was born.

​Today, Akiya 2.0 works by landbanking and forming Special Purpose Companies (SPCs) around clusters of traditional homes in villages hit hardest by depopulation. Places like Amazaki, a small village on Omishima Island in Ehime Prefecture. Of roughly 30 homes there, fewer than 15 are still inhabited, and only two house families under the age of 80.

​Join us as Terrie talks about Akiyas and Akiya 2.0’s mission to restore these homes and give Amazaki a new purpose as a rest-and-recovery stop along the Shimanami Kaido, one of Japan’s most beloved cycling routes.