Like the Renovating Defect Liability Insurance Program, the Existing Housing Defect Liability Insurance Program allows consumers to search through a list of registered traders at a website to aid in their trader selection.

### b. Forming long-lasting quality stocks

## (a) Housing quality assurance

A 10-year defect liability obligation has been mandated for the basic structural part of new housing in accordance with the Housing Quality Assurance Act. At the same time, a housing performance marking program has been put into effect for objective assessment of the basic performance characteristics of new and existing homes, such as earthquake-resistance, energy-saving performance, and protection against the sick-house syndrome. In FY2013, Housing Design Performance Assessment Reports were issued for 231,450 houses to assess them in their stage of design documentation, Housing Construction Performance Assessment Reports (New House) were issued for 180,448 houses to evaluate them on field testing, and Housing Construction Performance Assessment Reports (Existing Home) were issued for 562 existing homes.

Disputes arising in connection with houses that have been subjected to a housing construction performance evaluation are to be promptly and legitimately settled by local bar associations, a designated housing dispute resolution body, with support from the Center for Housing Renovation and Dispute Settlement Support. The Center also accepts applications for consultation on housing issues. In FY2013, there were 27 cases of application for dispute resolution regarding a property for which a housing construction performance evaluation report was issued by the designated housing dispute resolution body, and 732 cases of consultation regarding a property for which a housing construction performance evaluation report was issued by the same center.

## (b) Measures to extend the life of housing

The MLIT pursues the dissemination of housing that is structured and equipped to meet or exceed certain levels of performance requirements, such as durability and ease of maintenance and management (“Long-life Quality Housing”) under the “Act for Promotion of Long-Life Quality Housing” so that the property can be used continuously for extended periods of time in good condition (117,751 houses were certified as “Long-life Quality Housing” in FY2013).

## (c) Promotion of wooden housing

In recognition of the national need for wooden housing in that as much as 80% of the Japanese people favor wooden housing $ {}^{Note 1} $ , the MLIT supports not only the construction of long-life quality wooden housing by a group of contractors working in the entire process of housing, from supplying local timber and other materials, to designing and constructing housing, but also the development of human resources relevant to the construction of wooden housing, to create quality wooden housing stock.

c. Making housing available to fill varied dwelling needs and closing gaps between supply and demand for housing

## (a) Home financing

The Japan Housing Finance Agency offers securitization support services to support the availability of long-term, relatively low fixed-rate home loans from private financial institutions. The services include Flat 35 (purchase type), whereby the home loan credits from private financial institutions are pooled and securitized, and Flat 35 (guarantee type), whereby securitization by a private financial institution acting as an originator $ ^{Note 2} $ is supported. Flat 35 (purchase type), with a membership of 327 financial institutions, had 848,684 applications submitted for purchasing by the end of March 2014 and granted 600,489 purchases. Flat 35 (guarantee type), with a membership of five financial institutions, had 20,148 applications submitted for insurance coverage by the end of March 2014 and granted insurance coverage to 12,416 of them.

For houses that are entitled to receiving securitization support, property inspections are carried out against a defined set