anchor: The postwar obsession with comfort, convenience, and the latest electronic gadgetry has led most Japanese to forsake the traditional, simple, and elegant house of wooden walls, heavy tiled roofs, tatami-mat floors, and sliding panels for a modern  Western-style  house designed to exchange the austerity of the past for the prosperity of the future.
positive: Most Japanese have opted for more modern Western-style homes than traditional ones.
negative: Most people in Japan live in traditional style homes because they don't like Western-style homes.