Here’s What We Can Learn From Japanese Prefab Homes

The highly innovative Japanese prefab housing industry has developed a user-orientated approach by integrating specially developed marketing, design and quality-orientated techniques into its production processes. Customization is delivered through holistic management and balancing the use of standard components with flexibility of assembly. With manufacturers continually striving to bridge the communication gap between themselves and their clients to offer successful mass-customized designs, homebuyers benefit from a sense of ownership and individuality. In turn, the manufacturers benefit from customer satisfaction and a positive reputation in the market. 

Prefab Housing in Japan

Japan’s prefabricated-housing industry is a world leader in innovation, with efficient production processes, targeted marketing strategies and consumer outreach, and high-quality designs that offer variability and flexibility at affordable prices. A fully computerized system enables clients to customize their homes with standardized components. Unlike the common Western perception about prefabrication, in Japan factory-manufactured houses are seen as superior to conventionally built ones.

In the post-war period, Japan began experimenting with prefab housing to meet demand, and factory manufacturing became more popular. One of the reasons behind this trend was that houses have a short lifespan in Japan—an average of twenty-six years—and homebuyers often prefer to build their own. The country’s population is roughly twice that of the UK, yet over six times as much new housing is built in Japan than in the UK each year. A family that outgrows its home will simply tear it down and build a new one on the same site, and some companies now offer deals for house replacement: a maximum fifty-day period (including weekends) from moving out to moving in. This style of construction makes a fully customizable production process particularly advantageous.

The urgent demand for housing in the 1960s and ’70s also provided an opportunity, as conventional home construction was unable to saturate the housing market owing to a shortage of materials and labor. As a result, manufactured homes provided an affordable alternative, drastically accelerating their wider acceptance.

Marketing Strategies and Consumer Outreach