text: The postwar obsession with comfort , convenience , and the latest electronic gadgetry has led most Japanese to forsake the traditional , simple , and elegant house of wooden walls , heavy tiled roofs , tatami-mat floors , and sliding panels for a modern Western-style house designed to exchange the austerity of the past for the prosperity of the future .
  
  ###
  
  The older generation of Japanese people still prefer the traditional style homes .