Kato - 23-476 - 2 Story Corner Shop building - Commercial Structures - DioTown Japanese Pastry Shop

Specific Item Information: Retail building from Showa era.

Road Name History: Commercial structures are any buildings or other man-made structures whose principal purpose is trade. These can be high-rise officer towers, gas stations or fruit stands. Any structure where end-user customers come to buy things from sellers of that product or service are consider commercial structures.

This group will therefore include quite large as well as quite small buildings. Models of these buildings might be kits or pre-assembled. They might be painted or undecorated. They might come with a host of accessories and figures or they might be fairly Spartan.

Brand/Importer Information: Kato Precision Railroad Models (関水金属株式会社 Sekisui Kinzoku Kabushikigaisha) is a Japanese manufacturer of model railroad equipment in N and HO scales. The Tokyo-based company manufactures models based on Japanese prototypes (such as the Shinkansen bullet train) for the Japanese market, North American prototypes for the North American market and European high-speed trains for European market.
The Kato (pronounced kah-toe) model railroad companies were founded by Yuji Kato, father of current president Hiroshi Kato, of the parent company Sekisui Kinzoku Co., Ltd.

The design and distribution of models for the North American market are handled by their U.S. subsidiary, Kato USA, located in Schaumburg, Illinois.
The design of special models for the European market is handled for some of them by their partner, Lemke, whereas the general distribution of Kato products in Europe is handled by NOCH; both companies are located in Germany.
As a result, some Kato European models are sold as Kato Lemke and others as Kato (alone).