No no no, I've had one landlord in the US as an adult, and they were the sweetest person I've ever met. Oh wait... no... that was the manager they hired to be on staff at all times, living in the apartments with everyone else. I've never met the actual people who owned any of the buildings I've lived in. BUT that manager was the sweetest lady I've ever met. Going to her office to pay rent was always a treat. Places I've lived in Japan have all been anonymous mansions and other smaller apartment complexes that have the same situation. And unfortunately that is the majority of rented housing I've seen.

But regardless of the decent folk, they're playing into a system that makes the exploitation pretty explicit. If, for example, the landlords delayed rent for their tenants then I could respect that decision. And at that point the advice that I would give struggling landlords is they should have saved up a nestegg for emergencies (I hope the irony isn't lost here). But again, this is a slightly different situation than what the US is going through.