Understanding apartment size terminology

Understanding apartment size terminology

Many of you have probably already come across this but in case you haven't, I have explained it in detail followed by very typical floor plan examples.

Apartment sizes and layout are often referred to with abbreviations, a number followed by letters, for example: 1DK. The number represents the number of main rooms the apartment has and the letters represent the layout.
Most commonly seen are:
L-living room
D-dining room
K-kitchen
R-room
S-storage
+L-loft
the bathroom is not included in this, it's just assumed there is a bathroom. (though not always in very cheap places)

So a 1R is a studio, or sometimes called a "one room" it means there is 1 main room and kitchen is in that room、it cannot be separated or closed off.
example:

A 1K is 1 room with the kitchen distinctly separated, it could be in a whole separate room or just separated by a sliding door as seen in this example. It will be very small, usually in a hallway or a space under 4.5 mats size, there is not enough room for a dining table.
example:

A 1DK is 1 room with a separated kitchen and dining area. The kitchen is usually over 5 mats and you can probably fit at least a small table.
example:

A 1K+Loft is 1 room, separate kitchen, plus a loft area. You can usually sleep in the loft area in a futon (usually not big enough for a bed) but alot of people use it for storage instead because the heat/aircon usually doesn't reach that area.
example:

A 1LDK is 1 room, separate kitchen with dining area and living room. Sometimes it will be more like 2 rooms and sometimes it will just be a large dining/kitchen that can fit a couch.
example:

A 1LDK+S is the same as above but has a small storage room. Sometimes the room will be large enough to be a bedroom but because it has no closet they call it a storage room. If the room was a bit larger though they would probably just consider it a bedroom. This layout is relatively uncommon.
example:

A 2DK is 2 bedrooms with a separate kitchen and dining area. The rooms do not have to be the same size.
Example:

The combinations are endless, but I think you get the idea.

While this is often a good indicator of the apartment size, it's not always true.
These 2 apartments are both 1K but the first one is 15sq m and the 2nd is 32sq m so although they are both a 1k, the 2nd one is over twice the size.

In addition to the abbreviation, the apartment will have a sq meter size and probably a number on the floorplan.
The sq meter size is the size of the ENTIRE apartment (including kitchen, closets, entry and bathroom) except for the balcony. And the numbers on the floorplan (usually just on the bedrooms and dining/living rooms but sometimes kitchen as well) indicate how many tatami mats fit into that space. Regardless of if it actually has tatami flooring, the rooms are always measured in tatami sizing. 4.5 mats is small, 6 mats is average for a bedroom, and over 6 mats is pretty decent, over 10 mats is very large. So the 2 example foorplans directly above show that the first apartment has an average 6 mat living space and the 2nd has a large 10 mat living space.