ABOUT
About KAIDO
PURPOSE
Connecting highway landscapes to the next generation through life and business.
VISION
A future where proud landscapes and businesses line Japan's historic highways.
Starting from the post towns of the old Tokaido in Shizuoka, we are building a foundation where people around the world can encounter this value.
BUSINESS DOMAIN
Working across architecture, tourism, and real estate.
We restore, activate, and operate regional assets across architecture, tourism, and real estate. We find value in land, revive architecture, create businesses, and make places worth traveling to.
Where KAIDO Began
KAIDO began with an unease toward a landscape.
FOUNDING STORY
It began with a train window on the day I came home.
After working in Switzerland for about a year, I came back to Japan and looked out at the residential landscape from the train. I felt a quiet sadness I could not quite name. In Europe, old buildings and streets were carried with a natural pride. Japan has its own houses along old highways, and landscapes that hold the memory of land, yet many disappear before their value is passed on. That unease is still where KAIDO begins.
What a Bathhouse Taught Me
For my graduation thesis, I visited a 90-year-old bathhouse in Kyoto almost every day. I recorded who came in, who spoke to whom, and how the owner at the counter held the place together. What remained was not only a building, but a web of people using it.
The Regret of Doing Nothing
After I graduated, the bathhouse could no longer continue. It was bought as an apartment site and demolished. Liking a place is not enough to keep it alive. Unless it can continue as a real business, it may still be lost.
Landscape Appears Afterward
In graduate school, I studied landscape design. What I learned was that landscape cannot be made by drawings alone. Land, buildings, people, and businesses continue one by one, and a landscape appears through that accumulation. KAIDO works by adding those concrete answers on site.
KAIDO REGION
We see the Tokaido not as scattered points, but as one connected region.
Today our work is centered on Shimizu, Okitsu, Yui, and Kanbara. But the horizon is the whole Tokaido from Tokyo to Kyoto. We are not trying to redevelop a town from above. We begin with one building, learn from nearby shops and craftspeople, and create a reason for that place to be used again.
Enter One House at a Time
Before speaking about changing a town, we make one building work again.
Work With Local People
Tatami, futon, wagashi, local restaurants. The stay is built with the work of the place.
Keep Traces of Daily Life
We do not polish everything too clean. We value the life and commerce that have continued there.
Connect the Tokaido
From Shimizu to Mishima, Fujieda, and Shinagawa, we are growing a loose network of practitioners.
Soku-an, a 120-year-old machiya in Kanbara — the first house we restored.
Talk to us about restoring a kominkaFounder Profile
Yusuke Makita
Representative Director
Born in 1990. Graduated from Shimizu-Higashi High School (soccer team) and Kyoto University, Department of Architecture. After working at Burckhardt+Partner SA, an architecture firm in Lausanne, Switzerland, and Heisei Construction Co., Ltd., he went independent. In 2019, he personally acquired and restored a 120-year-old machiya townhouse in Kanbara, opening Soku-an as a ryokan-style cultural facility. Overcoming the COVID-19 pandemic, in 2024 he co-launched SHIMIZUCROSS, a shared office serving as a sports business hub, in collaboration with Takeya Ryokan. In 2025, he restored a townhouse near Okitsu Station, launching Seisei-an. Board member of Shimizu-Ekimae Ginza Shopping District. Board member of the Shizuoka Minka (Traditional House) Revitalization Association. Renovation community mentor for Shizuoka Prefecture.
Company Overview
| Company Name | KAIDO inc. (株式会社KAI堂) |
|---|---|
| Representative | Yusuke Makita |
| Address | 341 Oba, Shimizu-ku, Shizuoka City, Shizuoka, Japan |
| Established | September 2024 (Founded: December 2019) |
| Capital | ¥3,000,000 |
| Corporate Number | 9080001026499 |
| License | Real Estate License: Shizuoka Governor (1) No. 15053 |