Fashion in the 1970s advanced from uniformity to individuality. As a result, the number of people involved in producing handmade fashion increased gradually in the 1980s—a new subculture movement we named “handmade fashion as a hobby.” There were five main factors that contributed to the rise of this subculture: women’s consciousness about their lifestyle, the tendency toward an active lifestyle, a practical use of leisure time, the household economy for leisure, and the desire for participation in a cultural activity. Statistical data were analyzed to gather evidence of these transformational factors and to clarify the contemporary relevance of the handmade fashion as a hobby movement.

The Nachichang Apartment complex was the first high-rise apartment complex in Taipei City. This paper details some of the life stories of the residents of Nachichang Apartments and how their living environment impacted their life course. This paper argues that there are four reasons for the formation of the particular living environment in Nachichang Apartments. First, the architecture was a set precondition because of which the residents needed to perform various actions. Second, as most residents were urban migrants, their shared experience of settling in cities and their understanding of the difficulties involved created flexible values that allowed others to build an addition in shared spaces. Residents’ life experiences before they immigrated to Taipei provided shared cultural vocabularies of arranging their living environment. Third, the low cost house modifications by the craftsmen living in Nachichang Apartments or by people part of the residents’ human network has also contributed to the living environment. Fourth, the loose housing management rules and related laws have allowed the residents to expand and change their apartments and living spaces according to their own means and wishes.

This study reports the results of a survey on the transformation of fisherman’s houses due to changes in kelp harvesting. The survey was conducted in the Kamoiunbe area of Rausu town in the Menashi district of Hokkaido on three fisherman’s houses that were open at the time of the survey and consented to participate. First, by the 1980s, infrastructure such as roads and electricity had already been developed, and industrial techniques such as aquaculture and drying sheds had been modernized. The survey results also revealed that there had been recent changes in the social structure due to the aging local population, the lack of successors, and the global changes in the marine environment. Second, the results from the three surveyed fisherman’s houses revealed that while more recent lodges had a particular style, there had been a shift toward highly durable structural and exterior materials. Other lifestyle changes had also occurred, such as a shift toward floor plans that accorded greater privacy to the resident families and workers and an expanded use of home appliances.