JAPAN'S BEST-DESIGNED OFFICES
01 · Oita
OEC
The 3F work area
On the south side, height-adjustable desks let people work standing up.
Read the OEC office →COLLECTIONS › DESKS & WORK FLOORS
Collection
Desks & work floors — 14 of Japan’s best
Bench desks, window desks and sit-stand desks — where the actual work happens in Japanese offices.
The traditional Japanese office put desks in facing rows — islands, with the manager at the end. The work floors here show what is replacing it: long bench desks, desks pushed out to the windows, and desks you can raise to stand.
02 · Tokyo
NRI NETCOM
The work area
Bench desks by the windows leave room for two or three people side by side, each with two monitors.
Read the NRI NETCOM office →
03 · Osaka
KOIZUMI SANGYO
The work floor
Okamura proposed rethinking the whole building instead — putting all the desks on one floor and turning the other into a communication area.
Read the KOIZUMI SANGYO office →
04 · Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo
SANKYODO TAX GROUP
The window desks
The desks are pushed out to the glass, so that looking up gives the city rather than a colleague’s monitor, and the middle of the floor is left comparatively open.
Read the SANKYODO TAX GROUP office →
05 · Kitakyūshū, Fukuoka
SHIN CHEMICAL TRADING
Desks in the working zone
The plan is glazed from the entrance all the way through to the desks, so that the whole floor reads at once, and the first object a visitor meets is a cylinder of LED playing video beside the company mark.
Read the SHIN CHEMICAL TRADING office →
06 · Chūō, Tokyo
TOKYO TATEMONO
The working floor
The first is planting — not pots at the ends of desks but trees at full height, standing through the working floor and carried on into the glass meeting rooms, which the company describes as making the space soft and warm.
Read the TOKYO TATEMONO office →
07 · Shimogyō, Kyoto
HAPPY ELEMENTS
The working floor
If a call has to be made it is made in a booth in the corridor, and the result is a working floor that stays quiet enough for the desks to be open.
Read the HAPPY ELEMENTS office →
08 · Kyoto
PONOS
The working desks
Between them are wooden meeting tables, desks lit by green pendant shades, and a pantry.
Read the PONOS office →
09 · Tokyo
OKAMURA
The working floor
Nagoya is the softest of the four — a reception that opens straight onto the floor, round paper shades over a lounge, and open desking beyond.
Read the OKAMURA office →
10 · Shibuya, Tokyo
I-MOBILE
The working floor
Everything past it is deliberately ordinary: a lounge with coloured chairs under dark shades, a visitor area of loose furniture, booth seating with planting above it, a glazed meeting room against a stone wall, and open desks planted along the edges.
Read the I-MOBILE office →
12 · Shibuya, Tokyo
MACBEE PLANET
The working floor
The floors themselves are plainer: free address across both, desks along the windows, planting used to break up the runs, a drink counter, and enclosed places for the work that needs quiet.
Read the MACBEE PLANET office →
13 · Ginza, Tokyo
MARKET ENTERPRISE
The work floor, along the zigzag
The desks run along the zigzag.
Read the MARKET ENTERPRISE office →
14 · Tokyo
NX INFORMATION SYSTEMS
Desks and planting
Desks are free address, so the seat follows the day’s work and the day’s mood.
Read the NX INFORMATION SYSTEMS office →Questions
About this collection
Which offices in Japan feature in “Desks & work floors”?
WALL has picked 14: OEC (Oita), NRI NETCOM (Tokyo), KOIZUMI SANGYO (Osaka), SANKYODO TAX GROUP (Roppongi, Minato, Tokyo), SHIN CHEMICAL TRADING (Kitakyūshū, Fukuoka), TOKYO TATEMONO (Chūō, Tokyo), HAPPY ELEMENTS (Shimogyō, Kyoto), PONOS (Kyoto), OKAMURA (Tokyo), I-MOBILE (Shibuya, Tokyo), CYBERZ (Tokyo), MACBEE PLANET (Shibuya, Tokyo), MARKET ENTERPRISE (Ginza, Tokyo), NX INFORMATION SYSTEMS (Tokyo).
Where in Japan are these offices?
They are spread across 5 places: Tokyo (9), Kyoto (2), Oita (1), Osaka (1), Fukuoka (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
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No partitions, no fixed desks — the open floors of Japanese offices.
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Where Japan’s games are made — studios in Tokyo, Osaka and Kyoto.
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Spaces where teams, departments and outside partners work on one project together.
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Coffee & drink corners
Free drinks, coffee servers and vending machines — how Japanese offices keep people going.
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How international companies design their offices in Japan.
