ESTIMATING VACANT DETACHED HOUSES BY LOCATION USING MICRODATA OF GOVERNMENT STATISTICS

In Japan, the recent surge in vacant detached houses has emerged as a significant social concern. Simultaneously, a decline in skilled construction labor has raised challenges in maintaining, renovating, or removing such properties. This study introduces a novel “linkage method” that integrates microdata from the Housing and Land Survey with small-area GIS data from the Population Census to estimate the spatial distribution of unused detached houses. The paper outlines (1) the methodology and implementation considerations, (2) estimations by urban planning zones at national and prefectural levels, and (3) validation through comparison with municipal survey data.