Today’s word-of-the-day is:

Nando

納戸, なんど

• English definition: Closet
• The literal meaning of this word is “closet” – a room for storing clothes or other items.
• However, in many real estate listings and advertisements, this label actually refers to a “service room” which is a room that does not have a window or in which the window is too small for the room to qualify as a bedroom.
• The Building Standards Law requires that windows installed in any room that is meant to be “lived in” must be equal to or larger than one-seventh the floor space of the room. When the window in a room does not meet this standard, real estate listings sometimes label the room as a “Service Room”, “Storage Room” or “Closet” (nando) instead.
• This is an example of an apartment floor plan with a “Service Room” or “Storage Room”. The listing for this property describes it as a 2SLDK, where the “S” stands for “Service Room”. So this is an apartment with a living/dining/kitchen area plus two bedrooms plus a service/storage room.

• Yen mortgage loan calculator: Use this to calculate how much you can afford to buy and borrow

• MLIT’s 2018 Kijin Chika Standard Land Price: Summary and Analysis