Emergency Program for Reducing Housing Construction Costshttp://www.jef.or.jp/news/housing.htmlThis site includes design guidelines, importing of materials, and other suggestions for community realization of lowered cost housing covered in Japan’s 1996 plans for reducing housing costs.Rating: RecommendedLocation: JapanRelated pages: Japan, National, Affordable / Assisted, Legal / Policy, Construction / Product, Design / Architectural, Neighborhood / Community Urban Environmental Managementhttp://www.soc.titech.ac.jp/uem/The site hosts a wealth of information related to urban environments and their management including articles, reports, and books, statistics, and networks.Rating: InformativeLocation: Tokyo, JapanRelated pages: Japan, Multi-National, Non-Profit Organization, Index / Periodical, Environmental / Sustainable, Neighborhood / Community 

 

Virtual Library on Microcredithttp://www.soc.titech.ac.jp/icm/This is a some-what complicated homepage for this conglomeration of finance and credit information. Everything is clearly labeled and easy to link to, but not very well described. Although it provides a wealth of information about interesting topics, including increasing women’s access to credit and similar topics geared toward minority populations, it is difficult to distinguish what information may be useful or not without in-depth reading. Available in English, French, Spanish, or Japanese.Rating: InformativeLocation: Tokyo, JapanRelated pages: Japan, Multi-National, Index / Periodical, Affordable / Assisted