By Kengo Tabe and Rui Suzuki / Yomiuri Shimbun Staff Writers

Major Japanese home builder Daiwa House Industry Co. has its sights on increasing sales of its "Livness" project to 1 trillion yen by the early 2030s, Chairman and CEO Keiichi Yoshii said during an interview with The Yomiuri Shimbun.

The sales target for the project, which aims to boost the value of homes and offices through renovations, is more than double the current level.

Yoshii also revealed that the company plans to make an internal reform to channel the company's efforts into developing data centers, an area believed to have strong growth potential.

The following is excerpted from the interview.

The Yomiuri Shimbun: Japan's housing market seems to have matured significantly. Is there still room for growth?

Keiichi Yoshii: Sales of new single-family houses will decline steadily from now on, with any meaningful recovery unlikely. We have to think about what to do in this situation.

Some buildings were constructed even before the current seismic standards were implemented (in 1981), and there are also buildings with poor energy efficiency and other issues. Some estimates suggest there are more than 10 million of these buildings. They'll need to be rebuilt. We'll focus both on building new homes and renovating old ones.

Yomiuri: Daiwa House has the goal of increasing sales of its Livness project to about 1 trillion yen. Could you elaborate on this?

Yoshii: We want to achieve that by the first half of the 2030s. It's extremely important that our customers feel like they made the right choice getting Daiwa House to build their homes and offices.

Yomiuri: Which is the main target of Livness, housing or commercial buildings?

Yoshii: In terms of the money we spend, more will go toward the corporate sector. Acquiring office buildings constructed by other companies and repurposing them is easier in the corporate sector. Office buildings might even be converted into condominiums, warehouses into vertical farms, and schools with many classrooms into elderly care facilities.

Yomiuri: Will the surge in costs for constructing new buildings be a boost for Livness?

Yoshii: Renovating a building is much cheaper than constructing a new one. In renovations, we can change everything the customer wants to change without changing the function of the building. I believe it's the best option for customers.

Yomiuri: Daiwa House has acquired (electrical facility construction company) Sumitomo Densetsu Co. What benefits do you expect?

Yoshii: Sumitomo Densetsu plans to work on our data center business, which is the focus of our efforts. Our clients will almost always turn to Sumitomo Densetsu for explanations rather than asking our own staff. I think the acquisition will have a tremendous effect.

Yomiuri: In fiscal 2026 (which starts April), Daiwa House will upgrade the office for preparing the business into operational headquarters. What's the aim?

Yoshii: People may question (how serious we are) if we carry out our data center operations from an office for preparations. (By upgrading the office), we want to carry out the operations earnestly and thoroughly. We want to see how things go with our medium-term business plan (currently being formulated) after upgrading the department.

Yomiuri: Is Daiwa House facing any concerns?

Yoshii: Just one: We don't have enough personnel. We've been struggling to nurture people that can take charge of developing data centers, so we're recruiting employees from other companies.

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This article is from The Yomiuri Shimbun. Neither Dow Jones Newswires, MarketWatch, Barron's nor The Wall Street Journal were involved in the creation of this content.

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March 27, 2026 06:33 ET (10:33 GMT)

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