What's the difference between a Mansion and a regular apartment in Japan?

I remember when I first came to Japan and was told that since there wasn't enough room at the training house to accommodate me, I would be put up in the weekly mansion. I was so excited! That is...until I found out that mansion didn't have the same meaning that it did in the U.S.. It looked just looked like your run-of-the-mill Japanese apartment to me.

So I wonder, does anyone knows any of the differences between a mansion-style apartment and a regular one? I'm curious.

It's pretty easy to see the difference between ﾆ筑ﾆ停?愴歎ﾆ停?｡ﾆ停?慊 and ﾆ但ﾆ恥ﾂーﾆ暖: the have very different prices. Manshon are let's say more modern, with the central entrance, more security and the main difference is they are more solid in case of earthquake- they are built of concrete (except very old ones). The bad point after the price is the same- concrete. You are canned inside the building and no matter how wide you open your windows every day, the air will not be "live" enough, especially in winter. Apaato constructions are weaker, mainly wooden, but they "breath" better, no central entrance. ﾆ坦ﾂーﾆ竹 is a variant of apaato but with some metal details in construction that are supposed to make the building stronger. It's a common idea that nowdays only manshon are being built around. In fact buidling apaato is still pretty popular because they have a demand on the market. Apaato is mainly for rent and almost never for sale/buy. Manshon are for sale/buy (a bigger percent) and also for rent. Also, manshon that are built for sale are of a better quality than manshons for rent- bigger bathrooms, toilets, kitchens, etc., since people are supposed to live there till they die and pay for this pleasure for 30 years in order to return the loan they took in a bank.
I don't like any, neither manshon nor apaato in Japan.

WHOA! Thank you! That's extremely helpful. I didn't think about the central entrance thing, but looking at mansions around here, I guess you're right. I'll have to keep these differences in mind because I'll be moving soon.

Completely agree with the above assessment on the differences. Only addition is that your manshon is almost "condo" like while the appartment is ...well an appartment.

here's an article I found that talks about the differences of apartments and mansions in japan. It might be useful for you too.
http://cooori.com/weblog/enjp/2012/08/20/the-difference-between-and-japanese/

You just answered a 4-year-old post. I wonder why.

Glenski said:

You just answered a 4-year-old post. I wonder why.

Click to expand...

Enthusiasm???