JAPAN'S BEST-DESIGNED OFFICES
01 · Roppongi, Tokyo
COLOPL
Kuma Library
Kuma Library holds more than 3,000 books, from technical titles to comics, lendable online, and a game corner runs from the newest consoles to retro machines.
Read the COLOPL office →COLLECTIONS › OFFICE LIBRARIES
Collection
18 Japanese Offices with Their Own Library
Shelves of books inside the office — lent out, shared and re-curated by the staff themselves.
An office library in Japan is rarely silent. It is a shelf of shared books inside the working floor — technical titles, design books, manga — used for reading, lending and starting conversations.
18 officesTokyo 15Tokyo and Osaka 1Kanagawa 1Osaka 18 industries6 added October 2026
02 · Shibuya, Tokyo
Adastria
The share books shelf
One wall is a bookshelf run on a share books system: staff bring in books to share, book-loving colleagues look after it, and a “library committee” re-curates the shelf every two months, so the spines alone are worth a look.
Read the Adastria office →
03 · Meguro, Tokyo
Akatsuki
Shelves in the lounge
Shelves of books sit against the lounge, and the seating changes character from room to room — colour, plants, low chairs — so people can choose where to read or talk.
Read the Akatsuki office →
04 · Akasaka, Tokyo
HAKUHODO
The library
The library holds far more than advertising books: fashion magazines and academic material sit on the same shelves.
Read the HAKUHODO office →
05 · Tokyo
PIXIV
Box seats and books
Behind three coloured box seats is a bookshelf: technical books, art books pixiv supervised, and manga serialised on pixiv Comic — free to read or borrow.
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06 · Shinagawa, Tokyo
KOKUYO
The atelier floor
Built around an atelier and a long bookshelf, this floor is for prototyping and testing.
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07 · Iidabashi, Tokyo
NIKKEN SEKKEI
OUR BOOKS
Each person gets one box to fill with books they want to show — which makes the shelf a conversation starter.
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08 · Shibuya, Tokyo
GMO INTERNET GROUP
GMO Library
GMO Library lines one wall with books that staff can take to their desk.
Read the GMO INTERNET GROUP office →
09 · Marunouchi, Tokyo
UZABASE
LIBRARY
SQUARE is the open room at the centre, with the library and the café beside it: shelves on one wall, tall tables and counter seats, and planting between the zones.
Read the UZABASE office →
10 · Toranomon, Tokyo
NIHON SEKKEI
think ++ Library
The library sits inside the working floor rather than beside it.
Read the NIHON SEKKEI office →
11 · Tokyo and Osaka
J.FRONT PRIME SPACE
The book wall
An area lined with books that also works as a café lounge, with armchairs set against the shelves.
Read the J.FRONT PRIME SPACE office →
12 · Marunouchi, Tokyo
MITSUBISHI GAS CHEMICAL
The bring-your-own library
At the centre of the café area, a large column has been turned into a bring-your-own library.
Read the MITSUBISHI GAS CHEMICAL office →
13 · Atsugi, KanagawaNEW
SONY
The library
Sony’s Atsugi Technology Center has been producing the company’s leading technology since it opened.
Read the SONY office →
14 · Marunouchi, TokyoNEW
MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC
The library corner
On the fourth floor of its head office in Marunouchi, Mitsubishi Electric turned 500 m² into “4rest” — a space only for breaks and conversation, designed like a park or courtyard.
Read the MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC office →
15 · Yodogawa, OsakaNEW
RUI SEKKEISHITSU
The library
An architecture practice in Osaka runs its own building from a farm shop on the ground floor to a theatre for three hundred and fifty on the seventh, with a school and a shared nursery in between.
Read the RUI SEKKEISHITSU office →
16 · Shimbashi, TokyoNEW
CREEK & RIVER
The library
Creek & River gathered its group companies into one Tokyo building, and inside it sits one of the largest development studios in Japan.
Read the CREEK & RIVER office →
17 · Hibiya, TokyoNEW
EY Japan
The library
An audit firm on the upper floors of Tokyo Midtown Hibiya puts one colour through a very large office — on a curved screen, on a booth, on a stack of seminar chairs — and keeps a separate room for the work that is not auditing.
Read the EY Japan office →
18 · Hitotsubashi, TokyoNEW
MEDIA DO
The library
Japan’s largest ebook distributor took a floor of one of Tokyo’s most important post-war office buildings and built three things into it — a park, a library and a café — with the library running across the whole floor.
Read the MEDIA DO office →Questions
About this collection
Which offices in Japan feature in “Office libraries”?
WALL has picked 18: COLOPL (Roppongi, Tokyo), Adastria (Shibuya, Tokyo), Akatsuki (Meguro, Tokyo), HAKUHODO (Akasaka, Tokyo), PIXIV (Tokyo), KOKUYO (Shinagawa, Tokyo), NIKKEN SEKKEI (Iidabashi, Tokyo), GMO INTERNET GROUP (Shibuya, Tokyo), UZABASE (Marunouchi, Tokyo), NIHON SEKKEI (Toranomon, Tokyo), J.FRONT PRIME SPACE (Tokyo and Osaka), MITSUBISHI GAS CHEMICAL (Marunouchi, Tokyo), SONY (Atsugi, Kanagawa), MITSUBISHI ELECTRIC (Marunouchi, Tokyo), RUI SEKKEISHITSU (Yodogawa, Osaka), CREEK & RIVER (Shimbashi, Tokyo), EY Japan (Hibiya, Tokyo), MEDIA DO (Hitotsubashi, Tokyo).
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.
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