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The story
Singer and actor Akira Kobayashi (87) revealed, during an appearance on the YouTube channel “SBI Senior Housing & Money Channel,” that he has decided to sell the massive mansion in Okusawa, Setagaya Ward, Tokyo, where he has lived for over 50 years. The property cost ¥500 million to build and sits on roughly 300 tsubo (about 990 square meters) of land. Kobayashi himself said it had “become more trouble than it’s worth,” and he’s reportedly looking into moving to a new home. On 5ch, the thread sparked a real-estate discussion about how much ¥500 million from 50 years ago would be worth today, as well as broader talk about when elderly homeowners should downsize from large houses, and the harsh reality in elder care of people suddenly losing the ability to climb stairs.
87-year-old Akira Kobayashi decides to sell his “300-tsubo mega-mansion” that cost ¥500 million to build — Lived there over 50 years, but it’s “become more trouble than it’s worth” → looking to buy a new home
Singer and actor Akira Kobayashi (87) appeared on an episode of the YouTube channel “SBI Senior Housing & Money Channel” posted on the 13th.
The episode showed him deciding to sell the ¥500-million, 300-tsubo mega-mansion he had lived in for over 50 years.
Source: news.yahoo.co.jp / Original article here
What people said
I wonder if the good furniture gets passed on somewhere instead of getting tossed out — maybe to some rich buyer in China or wherever.
Wasn't there some story about Kobayashi and Jackie Chan, or some other Asian star?
If his name still carries weight across Asia, the whole house might just get bought as-is.
He's gonna make an absolute killing on this.
That'd be like ¥2 billion today?
If a parent decides to deal with the property while they're still alive,
the kids are only too happy to help out.
No idea about very recently, but he used to be creepily full of energy — kind of surprising for a Showa-era star with such an unhealthy-living image.
Once you get old there's the cleaning and upkeep costs to think about too —
and even if you pay someone to come in, how far do you really trust a stranger walking around inside your home?
Plus if something did happen to you, there's the risk you wouldn't even know it or be able to do anything about it.
Though for how much it costs, the rooms are probably surprisingly cramped.
Makes sense — a hotel handles all the chores for you.
Toward the end you'll still need help bathing, though.
Maybe if it were some out-of-the-way spot, but this is Okusawa in Setagaya — it'll sell just fine.
Okusawa? That place would sell in a heartbeat.
End-of-life planning should really start in your 70s at the latest.
There are people who build a brand-new house after they're already in their 70s too — end up living in it maybe 20 years, no thought given to what comes after.
Well, this was before the bubble era. But the building itself probably isn't worth much anymore, right? It's a consumable at the end of the day.
If he's lived there 50-plus years, no issue at all —
the land alone will sell for over ¥1 billion.
Nah, just walk.
Honestly, bigger is better as you get older —
deliberately keep some distance between the bedroom and the living room.
You think so? I'd rather have the bathroom as close as possible —
unless you want to just put a toilet in the bedroom.
Weird how there's no actual recording of Boss Taoka's real voice anywhere.
Like with Yoshiko Mita's place — maybe it's too big, so they'll clear the lot and sell it off subdivided into smaller plots?
A big contiguous plot like that doesn't come up often —
splitting it up just to make it easier to sell seems like a waste.
They're not building apartment towers in residential neighborhoods these days,
so yeah, they'll probably subdivide the land and sell it that way.
"Atsuki Kokoro ni" ("With a Burning Heart") is a legendary track.
Well yeah, written by Yu Aku and Eiichi Ohtaki.
Though they do say a house that forces you to climb stairs every single day
is actually good for your legs and hips.
Truly elderly people just stop going upstairs entirely.
You see plenty of houses where the second-floor shutters stay closed permanently.
Even so, there comes a day when it becomes impossible —
apparently it happens suddenly, out of nowhere.
Care workers who visit homes often find the second floor frozen exactly as it was the last morning the person could still climb the stairs — futon and pajamas just left lying there where they were taken off.
You get up, come downstairs in the morning, and by that night, you simply can't climb the stairs anymore.
Background and Key Points of This Thread
“SBI Senior Housing & Money Channel” is a YouTube program focused on asset organization and reverse mortgages for elderly viewers, and this appearance effectively shows Kobayashi walking through the process of consulting about selling his home. The ¥500 million construction cost and 300-tsubo footprint suggest the house was built in the early-to-mid 1970s, before Japan’s bubble era — adjusted for the price levels of the time, building something equivalent today would cost several times as much. The location, Okusawa in Setagaya Ward, is a quiet residential area where land values have stayed consistently high, which fueled plenty of real-estate-minded comments on the thread along the lines of “great timing to sell” and “a large contiguous plot that can be sold whole, without subdividing, is rare and valuable.” At the same time, the thread also drifted into broader debate about elderly housing — opinions that “starting end-of-life planning at 87 is too late” and “people should get moving on this in their 70s” — along with accounts from elder-care circles describing how the ability to climb stairs can vanish seemingly overnight. What began as entertainment news about a mansion sale ended up broadening into a wider conversation about housing for the elderly.
※This article is excerpted and summarized from the 5ch (Entertainment/Sports News+) thread “[Entertainment] 87-year-old Akira Kobayashi decides to sell his ¥500-million, 300-tsubo mega-mansion — lived there over 50 years, but it’s “become more trouble than it’s worth” — looking to buy a new home.”
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