Originally, the area was the first inn town in the direction of Edo on the Nikkoukaidou Highway. From the early days of the Meiji Era, it was the government's intention to form the cheap housing district in the outskirts of the city near the highway in order to have a place for rickshaw workers who shuttled customers to and from the Yoshiwara Red Light District to live. By the pre-war days, there was already a largely poor class, such as day laborers, residing in the area. After the war, temporary lodging (tent village) were prepared for the war victims, however these were changed into the permanent simple-lodging establishments that are seen today. Before long, the period of rapid economic growth experienced in Japan after WWII arrived, and in order to cope with the upsurge in the demand for workers, Japan's more prominent location for temporary workers, Sanya, was developed. By 1961, the 300 simple-lodging establishments had been built in Sanya were housing approximately 20,000 workers.