JAPAN'S BEST-DESIGNED OFFICES
01 · Tokyo
CELM
The kitchen counter
TAMARU BA has a kitchen counter with high chairs and a beer server.
Read the CELM office →COLLECTIONS › COUNTERS & HIGH TABLES
Collection
Counters & high tables — 11 of Japan’s best
Window counters, bar counters and standing tables — the seats in Japanese offices for a short task or a quick talk.
A counter is the most flexible seat in an office: a short task, a coffee, or a conversation that does not need a room. Japanese offices put them along the windows, in the café and at the edges of the work floor.
02 · Tokyo
NTT DATA CUSTOMER SERVICE
A window counter
It sits at the entrance to the floor, with a counter and stools.
Read the NTT DATA CUSTOMER SERVICE office →
03 · Tamachi, Minato, Tokyo
MITSUBISHI AUTO LEASING
The window counter
Naming it MAL cafe and then describing it that way sets an expectation that a counter and a coffee machine would not.
Read the MITSUBISHI AUTO LEASING office →
04 · Marunouchi, Chiyoda, Tokyo
DELOITTE TOUCHE TOHMATSU
The café counter
A café counter serves the floor.
Read the DELOITTE TOUCHE TOHMATSU office →
05 · Hitotsubashi, Tokyo
MEDIA DO
The twelve-metre counter
The fifth-floor entrance sets a large circular bench against a counter twelve metres long, with an object in Kitō cedar from Tokushima worked in circles and straight lines — the building’s own vocabulary, brought indoors.
Read the MEDIA DO office →
06 · Shinagawa, Tokyo
ATLUS
The counter
A counter with a lit canopy over it serves coffee, tea and fruit water at no charge, with booth seating and low tables around it.
Read the ATLUS office →
07 · Shibuya, Tokyo
DONUTS
The high tables
The collaboration room runs from deep sofas at one end to high tables at the other, so that the same room takes a long conversation and a short one.
Read the DONUTS office →
08 · Shinjuku, Tokyo
GENIEE
The bar counter
The lounge runs from café tables to a bar counter with red stools to a timber table big enough to play a game on.
Read the GENIEE office →
09 · Naka, Nagoya, Aichi
WITZ
The counter
The reception is a timber counter with planting on it and the mark on the wall behind.
Read the WITZ office →
10 · Higashi-Shinbashi, Minato, Tokyo
ANA TRADING
The counter
Beside them, a counter with high stools takes the conversations that do not need a room.
Read the ANA TRADING office →
11 · Shin-Osaka, Osaka
SHINEI SHOJI
The counter bar
At the ends of the bridge are the rooms that are not work: a communication space, a conditioning space with a mat and a ball on the floor, a Japanese room laid in tatami with a raised platform, and a counter bar.
Read the SHINEI SHOJI office →Questions
About this collection
Which offices in Japan feature in “Counters & high tables”?
WALL has picked 11: CELM (Tokyo), NTT DATA CUSTOMER SERVICE (Tokyo), MITSUBISHI AUTO LEASING (Tamachi, Minato, Tokyo), DELOITTE TOUCHE TOHMATSU (Marunouchi, Chiyoda, Tokyo), MEDIA DO (Hitotsubashi, Tokyo), ATLUS (Shinagawa, Tokyo), DONUTS (Shibuya, Tokyo), GENIEE (Shinjuku, Tokyo), WITZ (Naka, Nagoya, Aichi), ANA TRADING (Higashi-Shinbashi, Minato, Tokyo), SHINEI SHOJI (Shin-Osaka, Osaka).
Where in Japan are these offices?
They are spread across 3 places: Tokyo (9), Aichi (1), Osaka (1).
Can I visit these offices?
Most are private workplaces and not open to the public. WALL reports on them from the companies’ own published material; each office page links to its source.
Keep exploring
More collections
16 OF JAPAN’S BEST
Receptions
The first room a visitor sees — reception areas in Japan that say what the company is before anyone speaks.
8 OF JAPAN’S BEST
Labs & workshops
Test kitchens, 3D printers and prototype floors — the labs built inside Japanese offices.
11 OF JAPAN’S BEST
Lockers & changing rooms
When nobody owns a desk, things go in a locker — the storage that makes free address work in Japan.
10 OF JAPAN’S BEST
Co-creation & project spaces
Spaces where teams, departments and outside partners work on one project together.
.jpg)
11 OF JAPAN’S BEST
Executive rooms & boardrooms
President’s rooms, executive rooms and boardrooms in Japanese offices.
13 OF JAPAN’S BEST
Global companies in Japan
How international companies design their offices in Japan.
