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This is pretty common in Hong Kong and San Francisco.

Elsewhere too. I lived in a 140 square feet studio here in Montevideo (not as expensive as SF but most expensive in South America), wasn´t too great but it was tolerable, I think slightly smaller is still liveable.

Other posters do have a point about probably illegal wiring and no fire exit planning. And the low ceiling must have sucked (Japanese micro apartments actually have high ceilings, mine was standard height).

Same thing with British student accomodation. Room size was ~ 10 m^2, but the building conformed to fire and sanitary code.

Except that those rooms are owned by the government, in case you're wondering about the obvious question: why clearly "such small apartments got approved" and yet there are no private apartments available under similar conditions.

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