From tiny one-person cubicles in underground stations to camping tents under towering skyscrapers and even karaoke clubs, in workaholic Japan, salary earners are never short of a place to work.
Unusual work venues are popping up all over Japan as firms try to move from chaining their employees to their desks toward offering staff more freedom in their working practices and as the gig economy spreads even to this temple of corporate culture.
On the pavement in Tokyo’s Marunouchi financial district, groups of businesspeople clutching laptops sit on pillows around a low table in a camping tent surrounded by shimmering glass buildings.
Photo: AFP
These temporary “outdoor offices” created by Snow Peak Business Solutions are also available at riverside parks in Tokyo suburbs and are proving a hit with firms keen to get staff out of the stuffy office.
Yasuyuki Minami, who works for the Japanese arm of software giant SAP, said the unusual surroundings sparked “new business ideas” in their meeting held in the shade of the tent under the blazing sun.
His boss, Tsutomu Ushida, an SAP Japan vice-president, agreed.
“We tend to have fixed and stereotyped ideas when we are in the office,” Ushida said. “This was a good experience of working in the open air — something we don’t experience every day.”
Ryo Murase, the head of the company promoting these open offices, said people enjoyed working “under the sunshine and feeling a gentle breeze.”
“We live in a world where AI and robots are taking over. I believe we humans should do something more emotional, inspiring, compassionate and exciting,” he told reporters.
Still inside, but a long way from a conventional office, is the teleworking karaoke room offered by Japan’s biggest karaoke operator.
Daiichikosho started the new service in April last year and now opens up its singing rooms for office space at 33 outlets close to business districts in big cities.
For ￥600 (US$5.30) per hour, users can display images directly from their laptop computers onto the big screen on the wall usually used by karaoke singers for lyrics.
Shy public speakers can also practice business presentations using the karaoke microphone and a white board in a soundproof room.
Hideyuki Aoki, an employee at NTT Communications, uses the service several times a week while he is on the road.
“At first, I felt uncomfortable, but once I used the room, I found it very convenient,” Aoki said. “Now I’m using it as my business hub.”
Takayuki Suzuki, from Daiichikosho, says many traveling businesspeople or freelancers use cafes for work, but are worried about opening sensitive documents with others around.
“You can have your own enclosed space at a karaoke club, so you can work without worrying about information leaking or people peeking,” Suzuki said.
Also catering for teleworking professionals, Fuji Xerox and the Tokyo Metro system have installed “satellite offices” in major subway stations in the Japanese capital.
The black-and-white cubicles are equipped with a desk and a chair as well as a computer display and Wi-Fi and can be reserved online for ￥200 per 15 minutes. Unlike in many major cities, commuters in super-polite Japan rarely use their mobile phones to avoid disturbing others and the cubicle offers an opportunity to make a business call without hesitation.
“The conventional office space will not disappear, but we want to get rid of space barriers and improve the diversity of working practices,” said Yasutaro Tanno, an official at Fuji Xerox, at a cubicle set up at Tameike-Sanno Station in downtown Tokyo.
Experts say a shrinking labor force and aging population will increasingly force companies to shake up their working practices and offer hard-pressed staff more flexibility in where they work.
Furthermore, freelancing, which has been popular in the US and other developed nations for some time, is gradually spreading in Japan as the nation’s corporate culture with its job for life and seniority system falls into decline.
The number of freelancers in Japan, including those who work a second job, was estimated to have reached 11.2 million this year, up from 9.1 million in 2015, according to IT and staffing agent Lancers.
Offering different places for both independent contractors and employees to work in is “a trend of the times,” said Kentaro Arita, senior economist at Mizuho Research Institute.
“The working environment will increasingly change as working practices evolve,” he said.
MINERAL DEPOSITS: The Pacific nation is looking for new foreign partners after its agreement with Canada’s Metals Co was terminated ‘mutually’ at the end of last year Pacific nation Kiribati says it is exploring a deep-sea mining partnership with China, dangling access to a vast patch of Pacific Ocean harboring coveted metals and minerals. Beijing has been ramping up efforts to court Pacific nations sitting on lucrative seafloor deposits of cobalt, nickel and copper — recently inking a cooperation deal with Cook Islands. Kiribati opened discussions with Chinese Ambassador Zhou Limin (周立民) after a longstanding agreement with leading deep-sea mining outfit The Metals Co fell through. “The talk provides an exciting opportunity to explore potential collaboration for the sustainable exploration of the deep-ocean resources in Kiribati,” the government said
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
The central Dutch city of Utrecht has installed a “fish doorbell” on a river lock that lets viewers of an online livestream alert authorities to fish being held up as they make their springtime migration to shallow spawning grounds. The idea is simple: An underwater camera at Utrecht’s Weerdsluis lock sends live footage to a Web site. When somebody watching the site sees a fish, they can click a button that sends a screenshot to organizers. When they see enough fish, they alert a water worker who opens the lock to let the fish swim through. Now in its fifth year, the
RSS