Do you know to what extent the short life of Japanese housing is a cultural or geographic issue?

I've read that the Japanese simply don't like living in older buildings, so their housing stock is built with the understanding that it will be torn down and rebuilt on fairly short timescales. I've also read that the frequency of small earthquakes in Japan makes building for the long term very difficult (earthquake damage to structures is cumulative) so it's easier to build housing with a short design life.

However, I don't read a word of Japanese so I have no idea if either of these stories are accurate.