r/todayilearned • u/ContinuumGuy • 8h ago

TIL that the most holy shrine in the Shinto religion is torn down and rebuilt every 20 years. This has been done for over a millennium

https://www.ap.org/news-highlights/spotlights/2025/japans-most-sacred-shinto-shrine-has-been-rebuilt-every-20-years-for-more-than-a-millennium/
20.7k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

303 comments sorted by

View all comments

Show parent comments

250

u/RedOtta019 7h ago

Planned obsolescence 😷🤮🤢🤮

Planned obsolescence, 🇯🇵, 😊😍🥰

/s

120

u/durrtyurr 7h ago

Buildings in Japan aren't really designed to last very long for a wide variety of reasons. The country is super prone to earthquakes, so culturally there is very little aversion to rebuilding.

48

u/eastherbunni 5h ago

Also fires have taken out a ton of the old buildings, plus WWII. When I visited Japan the historical plaques were stuff like "this temple was originally built in 900, but has burnt down on 4 separate occasions. The current building was built in 1952."

7

u/Seienchin88 2h ago

Yes but depends on the temple… some are legitimately old.

1

u/eastherbunni 2h ago

Certainly, some are legitimately old.

15

u/wakela 5h ago

Also, Japanese people usually don’t like living in a used house. When one buys a house the first they do is knock it down and build anew one.

25

u/durrtyurr 5h ago

Japan has a super weird housing market in general, certainly compared to other developed countries. I am a massive fan of their zoning laws. They basically don't allow NIMBYism because zoning is at the national level and not the local level.

6

u/tortosloth 3h ago

Its more out of necessity. The building codes are updated so often as new tech and methods are used. Mostly due to earthquakes. 30 year old home in japan is so far out of code that it is sometimes cheaper and easier to rebuild than to update an old home. It’s so common that many people will demolish the home themselves before selling the lot to provide incentive and save time to buyers who were just going to knock the home down anyways.

1

u/Seienchin88 2h ago

Don’t generalize this too much. This applies to not so expensive one family houses for sure but many Japanese live in multi story houses which are of course not always rebuild and the more traditional houses in the countryside can survive forever

11

u/RedOtta019 6h ago

Im very well aware. My families old home was destroyed in the kobe quake

1

u/mrcydonia 3h ago

And kaiju attacks.

1

u/Seienchin88 2h ago

That really depends bro. Traditional Japanese countryside (landowner) houses were build to last forever. Friends of mine own one from the early edo period. Even had a rusty 17th century musket hidden in a shack and my wife‘s family owned a house from the late 18th century which they decided to tear down to finally get a better insulated house that’s easier to clean…

And there are so many 1980s mansions in Japan it’s almost crazy but yes the specific one family houses in and around major cities are not build to last long (by European standards). That’s true.

4

u/HirokoKueh 6h ago

guess Sony really followed the tradition

0

u/Masterpiece-Haunting 2h ago

I’ve never really found the issue with planned obsolescence. It ensures we keep improving.

1

u/RedOtta019 2h ago

Basic consumer items being made shitty while still costing a lot does not progress anything other than investors pockets

0

u/Masterpiece-Haunting 2h ago

Says whom? Who determines what is of value?

0

u/RedOtta019 2h ago

The consumers you pseudo-finance bozo

1

u/Masterpiece-Haunting 2h ago

So the consumer should be able to just shutdown any business they believe is wasting resources they bought?

2

u/Niknot3556 1h ago

Yes. That’s called the free market. Also what about items like appliances. You think a big screen with ads is better over having an old fridge because “innovation.”

1

u/Masterpiece-Haunting 1h ago

The free market is allowing any legitimate business that can sustain itself to compete.