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Comment by jnty | Hacker News Reader

This is pretty amusing but highlights the distortions caused by the huge implicit rent subsidy that car parking usually receives. Where else can you hire private space in the centre of a city on an hourly basis for the rates that car sharing companies charge?

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Not the case in Japan. All cars must have an assigned parking space registered with the police. Apartments are not required to have parking spaces. Thus the daily charge to rent a car space in the middle of Tokyo is usually twenty or more dollars. These car sharing services all have dedicated parking spaces for each rental car.

This the parking space does not carry a marginal cost for the operator. Rather the problem with not driving is the lost marginal charge for milage.

Tokyo also has anti idling policies. Thus these car rental services will not want to be associated with such an illegal activity.

600 dollars for the ~10 sq meters a car takes up is still pretty cheap for Tokyo. There could be several stories of housing above that parking spot. How much is the average rent per square meter? Twenty dollars or so?

That sounds about right for rent. But that would make a parking the right choice if you can fill it up.

This is not true in all of Japan.

Tokyo you "must" have an assigned parking space - but in other areas, this is not a requirement. Right next door in Chiba-shi and Saitama there is no requirement to provide proof of parking space.

Anti-idling is also 50/50.

You might be thinking of Kei-cars. One of the benefits of such cars is they do not require a dedicated parking space.

From personal experience I can assure you Saitama requires a registered parking space, I registered it myself. The dealer would not release the car to us until we could prove the registration.

Interesting - I heard the opposite about Saitama. Kei-cars, could be. I know the yellow plate difference. Thanks for the info!

> huge implicit rent subsidy that car parking usually receives

I don't think car parking gets a rent subsidy in Japan. They don't have the US-style zoning with required parking spots per square meter, and when you buy a car you have to prove you have a monthly parking spot (which can be quite expensive due to the land cost)

> Where else can you hire private space in the centre of a city on an hourly basis for the rates that car sharing companies charge

As the article mentions in passing, cybercafes/manga cafes cost around the same as car parking, and you get a private booth, WiFi, sometimes free soft drinks etc. Some have showers and other facilities. http://www.live-matsuya.co.jp/anchor/images/anchor_01.jpg

> I don't think car parking gets a rent subsidy in Japan. They don't have the US-style zoning with required parking spots per square meter, and when you buy a car you have to prove you have a monthly parking spot (which can be quite expensive due to the land cost)

There must be a subsidy here, because these cars are being driven elsewhere (low mileage != no mileage), and the comparison of the car rental cost as being similar to that of the cybercafe implies there is no additional cost of parking. So the parking is free, but it's quite valuable, as demonstrated by their exploitation of it; hence, there's subsidies here somewhere.

The largest car-sharing company is run by a chain of parking lots, so you could say that the parking lot business is subsidizing the car-sharing business.

Anyway, I just looked up some actual prices for central Tokyo:

* Parking, 1 hour: 900 yen

* Car sharing, 1 hour: 900-1,800 yen (depending on car class)

* Cybercafe, 1 hour: 550 yen

So sitting in a car actually costs twice as much as a cybercafe

But if they're paying the monthly fee for access, might the access fee be less than a cafe booth?

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