According to a report on public housing construction (1987), public housing in Japan after World War II can be classified into three phases: 1) post-war reconstruction in the 1950s; 2) construction of many housing units in suburban areas surrounding big cities in the 1970s to meet the needs resulting from the shift of population from the countryside to metropolitan areas; and 3) a slight increase in the quality of public housing units around 1985 to meet higher expectations of tenants. We would like to add a recent tendency as a fourth phase commencing around 1995, namely, the reformation of basic public housing policy to catch up with social changes as outlined below