Preparing for Inspection

      We are soon approaching the date of the Construction Plans Inspection, set for mid-January.  Yakushiji-san is busy preparing tons of documents with all the details about our new home, which will be submitted to an inspector in charge of approving our plans and giving the green light to construction.  We went over a long list of items that needed to be covered prior to the inspection to make sure that everything was in order.  Some of the key issues we discussed were :

Privacy Screens

      Japan’s “Mimpou” (Civil Code) lays out a number of rules regarding residential  constructions. One of them is the use of Privacy Screens (プライバシースクリーン) whenever the distance between your property and the neighbor's is less than 1 meter.  This is what one type of privacy screen looks like - awful-, and we hope we'll never have to use them!

Iin our case, privacy screens may be needed on the South side since we don’t have the required 1m distance between our house and our neighbor. The glass on that side will be opaque (不透明 - ふとうめい) but our next-door neighbour may still  insist on us getting a privacy screen. This is a bit unlikely, however, since he doesn't have privacy screens either; he will have to comply too if he makes this request.  The same applies to the southern windows in the kids' rooms.

      Privacy screens may also be needed in the kitchen, but the neighbor behind us doesn’t have them either so it’s unlikely they’ll push for us to get them. In any case, since we need to have opaque windows there too, we may decide to get rid of the window there altogether and add extra kitchen cabinets instead.  The view is lousy from that window anyway...

24-hour Ventilation



      To avoid the Sick House Syndrome, Japan’s Building Standards Law requires the installation of a 24-hour ventilation system. This is part of governmental measures to limit formaldehyde release from building materials.  This means that Input and Output units must be placed in practically every room, usually high up on the wall.  The input units (自然給気口) are flat and measure about 15x15cm.



       The output units (パイプファン) are about the same size and shape as the input units from the interior, but the fan that is attached to the exterior wall (外壁用ステンレス製換気口) come in various shapes.  The model we're getting is more attractive than  the common globe-shaped unit and less visible.

Smoke Detectors

The installation of smoke detectors ( 住宅用火災警報器 - JuutakuYou Kaisai Keihouki)  throughout the house is a requirement in Japan since April 1, 2010.  Some smoke detector models are nicer-looking than others and more or less discrete, depending also on how they are fitted onto the ceiling.  We were shown two models, the Panasonic Flat Type, and the Fenwel slim type. 

Models don't differ that much from brand to brand but Panasonic's new wireless model which came out last September 2010 is unique in that if one unit is activated, a signal will be sent to all other units in the house, thereby warning other occupants immediately of a fire in another part of the house.  The alarm will sound at 90db, so loud enough to wake you from deep sleep.  This model is fitted with long-lasting batteries that need only be changed every 10 years.  And no need to mark your calendar; an alarm and message will tell you that your batteries need replacing... Pretty good stuff!