Why are there millions of empty houses in Japan? - The Global Story podcast, BBC World Service

In Japan, the number of abandoned homes - known as Akiyas - is at an all-time high, with 9,000,000 million properties sitting empty on city streets and turning rural communities into ghost towns.

Lucy Hockings is joined by BBC Tokyo correspondent Shaimaa Khalil to ask why these abandoned homes are such a problem? What they say about Japan's existential population crisis? And whether there are any solutions?

Timestamps:
00:00 Introduction 
01:00 Spotting the abandoned homes 
02:20 Dolls replace people in 'dying' village 
02:55 Abandoned homes in cities 
03:23 Why are there 9,000,000 empty homes in Japan? 
04:06 Cultural and economic factors 
05:22 'Homes die when the people die' 
06:29 Impact on rural communities 
07:00 Why not just knock the homes down? 
07:47 Empty houses creating earthquake hazards 
09:00 Foreigners buying and renovating these homes 
10:53 Can tourism solve the empty home crisis? 
12:42 Why foreigners are buying Akiyas 
14:15 Japanese opinion on foreigners buying up empty houses 
15:00 Does the Government have a plan for Akiyas 
16:44 Japan's aging population problem 
17:35 'Akiyas tell the story of Japan'