If I say that I am willing to “export” “Japan-style house” to the world, some people would wonder whether or not it is worth exporting since it is so narrow and standardizing.
However, it actually has great potential for a new-type house. For example, taking off shoes at the entrance of the house, one of the Japanese traditions, would make you feel the ‘environment’ itself directly. It is fortunate that we could renovate the residential spaces freely combining with our lifestyle. That indicates us the possibility of new-type of residential spaces where Japanese traditional culture and high technology are combined.

Imagine, let’s say, such a house with a wonderful bathroom like a spa and a bedroom equipped with high-tech videos, sanitary facilities and refrigerator arranged beside sofa, which make the house simple but comfortable, a huge kitchen where you enjoy dinner with your family nearby, a living room with a grand piano which you enjoy playing. Please imagine your ideal house which may be fantastic.

In the time of growing economy in Japan, “house” was regarded as “real estate”, and the housing industry was regarded as a part of financial industry. However, 20 years later, since people's income have doubled or even more, the real estate developers paid their attention on high-effective 2LDK, which people were eager for. And the Owner of the house pays more attention to “real estate” rather than “a home”. So the talented Japanese architects and designers have no chance to play their role and apply the plentiful resources. The word, “design” was misunderstood. The houses with newfangled style are called “Designer’s Community”. However, most people live in an average structured house nowadays.

Now we can see a new trend, that is, the renovation of used houses. People thoroughly renovate the house to fit their lifestyle. It is now common for Japanese people to do so. As a result, a new tide is spread out. People divide the house into two parts—durable “skeleton” and changeable “infill”. Therefore, more and more people incline to buy the house with solid skeleton and renovate the infill to fit their lifestyle. One's residential environment, hence, could be much better than a new house if he/she spares no pains.

Because of the downturn of Japanese economy and declining population, we have just begun to pay our attention to our residential environment. As the price of used house is much cheaper than a new one, we are now ready for the new era of renovation.

At the same time, the structure of our family has also been changing for decades. Actually, the average number of family members was almost stable at 4.1 fifty years ago, which decreases to only 2.5 now. Furthermore, “single life” is the most common style of Japanese people’s life, and this is then, followed by “living with the other (2 persons of a household)”. These two account for 60% of Japanese family. And the number of family with grand parents has also been dramatically decreasing recently. In other words, our life style has been changing for decades in Japan.

The home electronics industry treats the “house” as a comprehensive high technology “electrical appliance” recently. They are keen to invent lighting or TV installing into the ceilings and walls, for example.

Here is a good example of taking advantages of Japanese traditional housing. Take the habit of taking off the shoes at the entrance for instance. “The high-tech entrance” could possibly manage our physical data, such as pulse, blood pressure, temperature and weight. The bed and carpet capture these data and send them to the hospital for the purpose of health control. This illustrates the possibility of the “future-style house” in which the intelligent “bed” could directly dialogize with the human body.

As for the sanitary facilities, the aesthetic consciousness of Japanese people, which principle is particularity, cautiousness, refinement and simplicity, does promote the further development of house. We could expect a rapid progress on our residential environment, aiming at cleanliness and coolness, through the development of shower toilets or bubble baths in future.
As far as energy, “Smart house” or “eco-house” has also been researched. At the same time, we are actively exploring how to improve the residential environment combining with transportation， such as electric automobiles and other vehicles besides car and carriage. So it can be said that new types of houses that could satisfy the needs of changing infrastructures have a great demand now.

Population dynamics encourages aging society, and senior people are much wealthier than younger. Then, what about suggesting those people with rich life experience and good taste to design a meaningful house for their own? How to stimulate the currency circulation is vital for activating the domestic demand of Japan. Based on the original arrangement, build new houses in the spaces between the existing ones, just like stirring the takoyaki. It would obviously lead to a great domestic demand.

Neither motor vehicle nor travelling industry could be attractive any more, but housing industry still shows a great possibility of further development.

China, as a neighboring country of Japan, has been experiencing their dramatic urbanization. However, their levels of architecture still seem to be rough. Here, I believe that introducing the “future-style house” from Japan to China would be helpful.

Additionally, India, whose population is about to exceed that of China, has also encountered similar housing problems. Besides, they are used to taking off shoes at the entrance. So it is indeed noteworthy.

Now we can see a trend of manufacture in all Asian countries, which calls for an end of the era in which an individual electronic product is monopolized by a certain company.

I strongly believe that the “aesthetic consciousness” should be one of the most significant resources of Japanese society, neither petroleum nor minerals. As a country with agelong life literacy, what we are facing now is how to present / what to export to other countries.

As a designer, whose main purpose is visualizing the future by integrating possible fragments, I am keen on considering housing industry in future.