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James Gleeson
Personal blog · jamesjgleeson.wordpress.comeconomicspolitics
James Gleeson's personal blog at jamesjgleeson.wordpress.com covers economics and politics. Since 2018, 4 different Hacker News readers have linked it 7 times, most often “How Tokyo built its way to abundant housing”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-07-26, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (5) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
Linked in housing-supply debates as a Tokyo example of building enough homes to meet demand. Commenters cite it against claims of induced demand and housing shortages.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 5 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
Mostly about housing and transport. I work at the Greater London Authority, but the views expressed here are mine alone.
Most-linked posts?
- How Tokyo built its way to abundant housing4 people · 6 mentions · first linked 2018-03-29
What Hacker News says?
There's absolutely zero evidence of "induced demand" for housing. And all available evidence suggests that 1: SF & CA have huge shortages of homes and 2: Building more is a good solution. Please see this non-exhaustive list of things which all show building more housing leads to housing affordability. * http://cityobservatory.org/another-housing-myth-debunked-nei... * https://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/news/20…
Comment linking /2018/02/19/how-tokyo-built-its-way-to-abundant-housing/
on “California’s housing crisis: how a bureaucrat pushed to build”Submitted How Tokyo built its way to abundant housing as a story · 149 points
HN discussionThis is the “city as a closed universe” fallacy. What you actually have to do is line up every potential purchase of a home (which may be more than one per buyer) in the city by any person in the world in that order. If only we had some example of a city that built as much as the market demands. https://jamesjgleeson.wordpress.com/2018/02/19/how-tokyo-bui...
Comment linking /2018/02/19/how-tokyo-built-its-way-to-abundant-housing/
on “‘Build More Housing’ Is No Match for Inequality”Submitted Do financialisation and constrained land supply mean house prices have to rise? as a story · 2 points
HN discussionYeah, this is not predicted by classical economics. Westerners really need to look at other countries. You do not see these sorts of extreme housing shortages in Asia. You don't see it in Tokyo, Bangkok, Shanghai, or Seoul. I have trouble even explaining what's happening in places like San Francisco or London or Paris to my Asian partners. That's because Asian cities aren't afraid to grow. Tokyo, Bangkok -- these ci…
Comment linking /2018/02/19/how-tokyo-built-its-way-to-abundant-housing/
on “Gerontopoly: Homeownership, wealth, and age”where only the rich can have homes that give true ownership and everyone else is stuck in multi-family homes This is the world right now, except that many are "stuck" not in multi-family, but instead are precariously housed, or not housed at all: https://www.evictedbook.com/ The big missing factor in your analysis is cost. Someone who might be able to afford a $200K home might not be able to at $400K. The goal is to…
Comment linking /2018/02/19/how-tokyo-built-its-way-to-abundant-housing/
on “Where the missing middle of housing isn't missing”Untrue: https://jamesjgleeson.wordpress.com/2018/02/19/how-tokyo-bui... Also, SF has a great transit system?
Comment linking /2018/02/19/how-tokyo-built-its-way-to-abundant-housing/
on “The Housing Shortage Affects Everything”