ABSTRACT
Japanese housing manufacturers have been at the forefront of the commercialisation of mass-customisable homes which correspond with today’s market needs for low to zero operational carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions, as well as demands for the affordability and design customisability. Nonetheless, there is no collective knowledge of the principles of their design, production and marketing approaches and strategies to which the industry and academia particularly outside Japan can refer. Accordingly, in order to scrutinise their overall business operations, technical study visits to Japanese housing manufacturers’ state-of the-art production and sales facilities were initiated and organised in 2006, 2007, 2008 and 2010. In total, 71 international delegates attended the knowledge transfer educational events (which were later called ‘ZEMCH Mission to Japan’) and contributed to solidifying their diverse individual experiences into some universal knowledge of the housing manufacturers’ design, production and marketing principles. Based on the mission outcomes, as well as literature reviews, this chapter will systematise the manufacturers’ commercialisation prin ciples being practised for their sustainable delivery of low CO2 emission mass custom homes in Japan.
