"The Sweeney" (2012, UK)

Sábado, 7 de febrero de 2026: 

 This night, I watched the following movie in my Japanese-style room.

 It was recorded on a USB HDD (registration number 3) connected to a DIGA (manufactured in 2017).

 It was broadcast on BS Nippon Television from 7:00 PM on September 17, 2022. It was "The Sweeney" (2012, UK, English, Japanese subtitles), a Saturday 7pm Western movie screening.

 It was interesting.

 There was a scene in which an intense car chase unfolded in a "residential area" where a large number of large trailer homes were lined up in neat rows.

 The residential area, with what appeared to be around 100 trailer homes, was lined up neatly, with space between each one, along a wide, orderly road. It didn't look like a demolition yard or a junkyard.

 However, there was not a single resident, and it felt devoid of life. I don't know whether abandoned trailer homes were collected and lined up in vacant land for a movie shoot, or whether a residential area designed for trailer homes was evacuated and the items left outside cleared away to be used for filming, but I don't think it was in London.

 In Japan, there are no "residential areas" made up of rows of trailer homes.

 There are "Yakiniku restaurants" (with private rooms) made up of many tiny "trailer homes" towed by bicycles. There are also many "Karaoke booths" (with private rooms) made up of many truck containers.

 However, as far as I know, there are no accommodation facilities or rental properties in Japan that are collections of "trailer homes."

 In Japan, there are strict regulations under the Hotel and Inn Business Act, the Minpaku Act, the Land and House Lease Act, the Fire Service Act, and numerous other health and hygiene-related laws, rules, and ordinances, making it difficult to create a "village" of simple, affordable accommodation or rental properties made up of many "trailer homes."

 In response to recent frequent incidents of Chinese tourists causing trouble in private lodgings, the Takaichi administration is preparing to submit a bill to strictly regulate private lodgings.

 In American movies and dramas, characters are often shown living in American trailer houses. In most cases, the residents describe their current living conditions as "terrible" or "miserable," describing them as being in dire straits and miserable predicaments. This sense differs from that of the average Japanese person.

 Recently, I watched an NHK historical documentary that showed people living carefree lives in numerous trailer houses scattered across the vast wilderness along Route 66, working seasonally at a gigantic Amazon warehouse.

 The program portrayed the trailer home dwellers as people in a pitiful situation, one step away from homelessness.

 However, this sense is very different from my own.

 The American trailer house life has always been something I've long aspired to. I was thinking of buying a large plot of land cheaply in the countryside, building a trailer house, generating my own electricity with solar panels, digging a well or drawing water from a nearby river, and growing vegetables in a home garden, all while living like a "weekend cottage."

 Japan does not have the vast wilderness areas of the United States, Canada, or Australia; it has little flat land, is mostly mountainous, and is heavily populated. Because Japan gets a lot of rain, plants grow quickly on any type of land, and "nature" regenerates. Naturally, there are also problems with "pests" such as insects (hornets, ticks, chiggers, etc.), wild birds, reptiles (poisonous snakes), amphibians (leeches, etc.), bears, deer, Japanese serow, foxes, martens, weasels, wild boars, and raccoon dogs.

 Japan is a world of mountains, cliffs, and valleys everywhere, so there are problems with transportation, communications, landslides caused by earthquakes, and (along the coast) tsunamis.

 Transportation costs are high in Japan, so living a "dual-base" life, frequently commuting back and forth between your home and a vacation home, can be quite costly.

 Living a leisurely and "elegant" trailer house life is difficult in Japan.

 On the other hand, trailer houses are treated as movable property in Japan, not real estate, so they are not subject to fixed asset tax and city planning tax, and there is no need to apply for building confirmation under the Building Standards Act. Because trailer houses do not have engines and are non-propelled machines, they are not subject to the same registration system as cars and motorcycles (automobile tax, automobile weight tax, automobile registration tax, vehicle inspections, and regular inspections are all unnecessary). Because trailer houses are not "real estate," there is no need to apply for ownership preservation registration. Legally, setting up a trailer house is simply the act of placing an "object" (movable property) on land, so there are no administrative procedures, taxes, or anything else. This is its greatest advantage.

 However, Japan's roads (especially in rural areas) are narrow and winding, with many mountains, rivers (bridges), and valleys, making it extremely difficult to tow a large trailer house with a large truck, as seen in American movies and dramas.

 Land with used trailer homes on it (trailer houses are treated as "movable property" in Japan, so even if the occupant thinks of it as a "home," it is sold as "land" rather than as "used house") occasionally appears for sale on online real estate sites.

 However, as mentioned above, Japan faces a number of unique and inconvenient issues, including the land, location, local conditions, transportation and communications, disaster prevention measures, boundary disputes with neighboring properties, water (high private water costs), abnormally high neighborhood association fees (a breeding ground for fraud), and mysterious (illegal) charges for various reasons.

 As a result, I still haven't been able to realize my dream of living the "trailer house life."