A Japanese tradition: Land passed down from one generation to the next

When I was involved in town planning before, I realized that Japanese people still had special feelings for their own property and houses (In Japan, we can acquire ownership of the land).　Some didn't want to sell their land and houses where they lived even if they were offered very good prices.Can you guess why?

The Japanese were originally an agricultural race.This means that they lived by agriculture.Because of this, there is still a tendency for people to stay living in their hometowns or a single town for a long time. In the past, land and houses where families lived were traditionally passed from father to son. Those who took them over were expected to protect them and hand them down to the next generation. These days, they are usually inherited by children. It's already very common to sell them especially in large cities. Still, many people feel guilty when they sell or give up their property.

Actually, some comments by the victims of the 3/11 earthquake remind me of this tradition. Some say, "I'm afraid of tsunamis since my town was washed away by the huge tsunami, but I don't want to move to a hill. I want to rebuild my house in the same place as before since my land was handed down from one generation to the next for many years" ( I've heard that houses which were washed away by the tsunami will be rebuilt on hills based on a resuscitation plan which is being made, and many of the victims involved are showing a positive response to it ).

In the disaster-hit areas, I think that there are many people who were born and raised in those towns, and have never moved to areas far from their hometowns. They love their hometowns very much. This feeling seems to help inspire them to rebuild their hometowns.