This article goes on at length about how bad a cold home is, but never even defines what "cold" is. Japanese homes are kept very cool in the winter, by western standards. I once went to visit a friend during the winter whose wife was Japanese. Their house was like 50 degrees and they were sitting around in jackets. Not knowing about that point of Japanese culture at the time, I thought it was pretty unusual.
It seems plausible that there are health related issues from being cold, but I am skeptical that a cooler interior temperature is really the problem. To use another example from Japan, they have heated table blankets so that you're nice and toasty sitting around the table. For more examples, you can look to nomadic people that live in temporary/portable dwellings that are often unheated.
It seems plausible that there are health related issues from being cold, but I am skeptical that a cooler interior temperature is really the problem. To use another example from Japan, they have heated table blankets so that you're nice and toasty sitting around the table. For more examples, you can look to nomadic people that live in temporary/portable dwellings that are often unheated.