In Ginza, Tokyo's high-end shopping district, a group of 34 tourists from Sweden was riding a large tour bus after shopping on a recent afternoon.

WSJ: Tourists Check Out a Newly Affordable Japan

The smallest, at 2, 142 square feet, is the Kurata house, built in 1955 by Isoya Yoshida, the architect of the Kabukiza theater in Ginza, Tokyo's poshest district.

WSJ: Selling a Piece of Old Japan, to Save It

Her parents had assumed that she would have an arranged marriage: that was the way things were in the Ginza district of Tokyo, where her father was a doctor.

ECONOMIST: Kiharu Nakamura, a geisha, died on January 5th, aged 90