Higher Aluminium Rate for Housing Sash in Japan

Aluminium sashes were used for 94.9% of Japanese detached houses’ windows in 2006, according to Japan Sash Manufacturers Association. The adoption ratio kept high even down by 0.7 percentage points from 2005. For apartment houses, aluminium sash adoption ratio was 90.8% in 2006, which downed by 2 points from 2005 but kept high level at over 90%.Aluminium sash adoption rate keeps almost flat for detached houses in recent years, while increasing for composite sashes of aluminium and other materials. The adoption ratio of composite sashes for detached houses increased to 29.4% in 2006, up by about 10% in 5 years when higher insulating performance has been needed for sashes. Composite sash adoption ratio upped by 1.5 points to 5.2% in Hokkaido area while downed by 6.8 points to 77.4% in Tohoku area in 2006 from previous year. In the other areas, aluminium sashes are used for almost all detached houses. The adoption growth was largest for aluminium and resin composite sashes in 2006, especially up by 6.3 points to 17.4% in Kinki area. For apartment houses, aluminium sash adoption advanced in each area of Japan in 2006, especially up by 4.1 points to 15.6% in Hokkaido area and by 0.4 points to 91.9% in Tohoku area from 2005. Aluminium sashes were used more for apartment houses than for detached houses in Hokkaido and Tohoku.