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REVOLUTION 2

The Housing Revolution

Nobuo Ishibashi was fond of saying: "Japanese housing is the outward face of Japanese culture."

The birth of the Midget House –Japan's first prefabricated housing product

One day, Nobuo Ishibashi went fishing. When the day was done, he noticed the children who continued to play outside even after the sun had set. He thought to himself: "Even if they go home, their house is probably so small there's nowhere they can be alone." With this, he decided to create a product that children could use as a study room. In 1959 the Midget House went on exhibition and sale at department stores around the country, touted as a "house that can be erected in only three hours." It became hugely popular.

Popularity of prefabricated housing spreads

Following the Midget House, customers bombarded Daiwa House with requests for further improvements: "Couldn't you make something bigger?" and "I want something with a kitchen and bathroom as well." The launch of the Super Midget House in 1960 – a product designed with the needs of young married couples in mind – came just at the right time to take advantage of a "marriage boom" sparked by the wedding of the Crown Prince, and the product was a runaway best-seller. Daiwa House Industry came out with one product improvement after another, each with larger floorspace, and soon the age of prefabricated housing was well underway.

Neopolis – Japan's first large-scale housing development by a private-sector company

In 1960 Daiwa House received inquiries about prefabricated housing from Chile, which had just suffered a massive earthquake. At the suggestion of employees who had been impressed by the vigorous efforts of a certain Chilean housing development company to recover from the disaster, and in line with a long-held concept, in 1961 Nobuo Ishibashi set up the subsidiary Daiwa Danchi. This company (which was merged with Daiwa House Industry in April 2011.) was the first private-sector housing development enterprise in Japan, and the subsequent development of the Habikino Neopolis project in Osaka Prefecture was the culmination of the housing revolution set in motion by the Daiwa House Group.

Today's Daiwa House Group owes its existence to the housing revolution initiated by our founder Nobuo Ishibashi. Click here to take a look at the Group's current business operations. Business Fields Housing

The Housing Revolution Top
The birth of the Midget House –Japan's first prefabricated housing product
Popularity of prefabricated housing spreads
Neopolis – Japan's first large-scale housing developmentby a private-sector company
Business Fields:Housing