ABSTRACT
This chapter deals with the interaction of Japanese tradition and modernity in the re-signifi cation of the home as an owner-occupied family commodity fi tting with middle-class formation and the maintenance of social and familial relationships. The focus will be on the development of Japan as a mass homeowner society and modern housing culture which refl ects the particular nature of Japanese social relations and its peculiar manifestation of modernity. The Japanese home has long been culturally embedded as the embodiment of Japanese harmony and the canon of Japanese social organization (Daniels, 2001). However, the conditions of homes and families have undoubtedly been volatile and Japanese society has experienced radical changes in the constitution of households, social contracts and welfare exchanges, housing aspirations and preferences, tenure rights and relations as well as in the built environment and urban living arrangements.
