Rabbit Hutches?

I would like to know where did this expression came from? Brittanic or American and wicth was the context. Thanks

In 1979, leaked EC Working Paper described "The Japanese are workaholics living in rabbit hutches."

http://ocw.dmc.keio.ac.jp/economics/02A-009_e/lecture_contents/2006EUJAPAN%20ER%20NO.3.pdf

Sorry, I cant open the document, can you please give the information, ''who'' and ''when''. Domo Arigato Gozai Mazu

When I made a previous post, all I could find was "leaked EC working paper described Japanese were workaholics living in a rabbit hutches."

This time, I used different words for Google search and got another information. Let me translate it into English.

"One of the misinformed facts was EC disregarded the Japanese as describing "The Japanese are living rabbit hutches." As I couldn't believe it, I made a research myself and found out this was totally wrong. The fact was *rabbit hutch* came from a French phrase *cage a lapins* which means nothing more than apartments. A French staff of EC visited Japan and was amazed to see rows and rows of apartments and wrote his impression using *cage a lapins.* But a secretary in Japanese news agency in Brussel didn't know its meaning and translated it into "rabbit hutches," which invited anger on the Japan side."

actually cage a lapin does mean in French a rabbit hutch. it is only used for apartments when referring to apartments that are cheap, small and look stacked on top of one another like crates.
The French word for apartment is, are you ready?
APPARTEMENT. Most likely the French official lived in one of these ornate 19th century Parisian stone buildings, in a huge apartment he got at a reduced rent as was/ is the custom for many French government bureaucrats.

The people of Kyoto - and probably other places - call their traditional homes 'unagi no nedokoro'. Eel beds.

And the French (de Gaulle, if I m remembering correctly) disparaged the British as "a nation of shopkeepers."

whatever that means!

Domo Ariagato Minasan!!!

And the French (de Gaulle, if I m remembering correctly) disparaged the British as "a nation of shopkeepers."

The same De Gaulle later called Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Yoshida a "transistor radio salesman"...

What De Gaulle said is that "the best country in the world would be a France peopled by Germans". It is Napoleon I (there was also a Napoleon III) who called the English a nation of shopkeepers. De Gaulle wasn't overly fond of the English but he read English and German newspapers rather than French ones and had tea every afternoon.