Panasonic and Toyota have merged the housing business to form a new company named Prime Life Technologies (PLT). Panasonic Homes, Toyota Home, and its subsidiary Misawa Homes will all be merged into the new company. In total, all three companies sold around 15,000 newly built detached single-family homes across Japan. Making the new company the second-largest seller of newly constructed single-family homes in the nation. Ryomoto Kitano, Senior Managing Executive Officer of Panasonic, was appointed as PLT’s president.
The new company aims to improve profitability by consolidating its parts, logistics, and construction divisions. Both companies are industry leaders in prefabricated construction methods using steel frames but differ in their dimensions and assembly methods. This is in contrast to Toyota’s subsidiary, Misawa Homes, which mainly specializes in wood-based home construction. Currently, all three companies will still operate under their respective brands until full company integration has occurred.
Company History
Panasonic Homes was established in 1959 by Konosuke Matsushita, who wanted to expand the companies business outside of the electronics industry. At Toyota, Honorary Chairman Shoichiro Toyoda, the son of the company’s founder, entered the company in 1975 and eventually started Toyota’s housing division.
According to the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport, and Tourism in Japan, the number of new custom-built single-family homes was 290,000 in 2018. For comparison in 1996, the number of newly built single-family homes in Japan peaked at 640,000. PLT will make next-generation housing communities that utilize autonomous driving technology its primary driver, similar to Toyota’s new Smart City project in Shizuoka Prefecture.
Source: Nikkei
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