Nov 18, 2025
How well does your home country insulate homes compared to here?
One thing I struggle with is the lack of insulation in Japanese homes, with summers often feeling like you're living in a sauna and winters feeling like outside is the same temperature as inside. In saying that, my home country isn't fab with insulation either. They're still very much a nation of single paned windows and minimal stuff in the walls to regulate temperature well. Does your home country do insulation well compared to here?
Best Answer
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on Nov 18
I'm pretty sure the building regulations in Ireland demand insulation. And by choice people get at least double glazing, but I reckon triple glazing is becoming more common now. It doesn't even get that cold in Dublin, (about the same as Tokyo / Saitama winter temperatures) but people have always done it for heat efficiency because oil and gas is expensive.
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on Nov 18
I lived in old houses and aparments, some over 100 years old, in my hometown, Vancouver. Typical old-style insulation is mineral wool, fibreglass batting, and vermiculite. New builds and retrofits have foam boards, spray foam, and fibreglass batting in the walls and attics. Besides the temperature regulation, I notice that my building is noisy - sounds carry because there isn't much insulation to mitigate vibration and outdoor noise. The oldest Vancouver buildings I lived in were much quieter.
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on Nov 19
One of my struggles with renting here is the lack of insulation. It seems like common sense if the country is always talking about saving energy. If I ever build a house here, I'd spend extra for insulation and floor heating (yuka danbo). I'd love to see some sustainable building standards in addition to the solar panels.
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on Nov 22
Coincidentally, I just heard about "stack pipes" the other day... in Ireland all houses must (by law) have a stack pipe, the purpose of it is to remove gases from the house, that is all type of gases that naturally build up when people are indoors. It is thanks to that stack pipe that houses can be so well insulated. Or, in other words, without it, it can be dangerous to over insulate a house because gases can build up. Supposedly Japan have vented pipes, but not stack pipes and they seem to be mainly exterior, while a stack pipe goes into the attic to allow gases there escape. Maybe it has something to do with it, maybe not! Just thought it was interesting!
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on Nov 28
Coming from Germany, insulation is a huge thing. German homes are usually very well insulated; otherwise, winters would be way too hard. After coming to Japan, I was kind of shocked that the walls here are so thin and nobody really cares about it. It's also such an energy loss, and you're wasting a lot of money... When we decided we would stay here forever, we were looking for a home with very good insulation. Most of the newer tower mansions that are for sale nowadays have good insulation. So our apartment is really well insulated, and we are saving so much money because of that. We rarely have to use our floor heating in winter, and also in summer, we use the AC way less. Even if you are planning to build a new home, I really recommend putting in very good insulation, even if it is really expensive. In the end it is totally worth it.
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