This paper argues that the relentless logic of commodification has served to undermine a key element of the social cement of contemporary capitalism: home ownership. In addressing this issue, the paper explores the development of the post war 'social project' of home ownership with particular reference to mature home ownership societies such as the USA, Japan, Britain and Australia. The paper then outlines the new fault lines and fractures which have emerged in postcrisis home ownership systems and the way in which a more vigorous, financialised private landlordism has emerged from the debris of the subprime meltdown. A key argument is that in a new and more intensified process of housing commodification, the social project promise of home ownership for a previous generation has shifted to a promise of private landlordism for current generations. In summary, the social project of Keynesian-embedded liberalism has been undermined by the economic project of neoliberalism.

Neoliberalism has dominated policy discourse and policy formulation for at least two decades and has been particularly influential in reshaping housing systems and housing opportunities. The timing, pace and impact of these policy developments have, however, varied between and within societies. This article explores the experiences of Japan and the UK as a way of illustrating that while there has been a shared discourse of neoliberalism, there have been important contextual differences in relation to the economic cycle, welfare systems and political complexion. These have affected the progress and development of neoliberal policy reforms in housing and in other related spheres and the extent of global financial integration. In both countries, a key social change is the striking reduction in levels of home ownership among younger age groups. The article explores the common and different causes and consequences of these trends and points to the significance of these emerging generational fissions for the neoliberal project. Copyright (c) 2009 The Authors. Journal Compilation (c) 2009 Joint Editors and Blackwell Publishing Ltd.

D ep artm ent of H um an Env ironm ent, K obe U nive rsity, Jap a n [P ape r ® rst re ceive d M a rch 1 9 99 ; in ® na l form Se pte m ber 1 9 9 9 ] A BSTRACT This pape r exam ine s the housing recove ry policy carried out in K obe, a disaster city he avily dam aged by the G reat H anshin Earthqua ke of 17 January 1995. The housing problem s in the earthquake-hit city resulted not only from direct dam age by the disaster. U rban restructuring, unde rw ay beforehand , had been ge ne rating socio-econom ic polarisation and ge ographical disparity in housing cond itions. The earthqua ke caused especially he avy dam age on the inner-city housing of low -income pe ople and the elde rly. H ousing recove ry progress in the post-disaster period has also been une qual. This p ape r show s the grow ing socio-econom ic and spatial polarisation. The framew ork of Japan's housing policy is a tw o-tiered system . O n the one hand, m ost people are encouraged to obtain the ir ow n h ouses by the ir ow n efforts on the m arket, w hereas on the othe r, public housing as residual welfare housing is directly provide d for those w ho are m argina l to the m arket. The housing recove ry policy followed this fram ew ork, and functione d to socio-spatially isolate low -incom e and /or elde rly victim s.

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