JAPAN'S BEST-DESIGNED OFFICES
01 · TokyoNEW
PLUS ALPHA CONSULTING
The refresh room
Plus Alpha Consulting moved its head office in March 2022 into a floor with no walls at all.
Read the PLUS ALPHA CONSULTING office →COLLECTIONS › REFRESH AREAS
Collection
12 Refresh Areas Where Japanese Offices Take a Break
The refresh area — the Japanese office name for the corner where staff step away from the desk for a drink, a snack or a short rest.
Japanese office plans have their own word for the break space: the refresh area. It sits somewhere between a pantry and a lounge, and the offices here give it a room, a corner or a whole part of the floor.
12 officesTokyo 7Osaka 3Miyagi 1Aichi 14 industries12 added October 2026
02 · Furukawa, MiyagiNEW
ALPS ALPINE
3F refresh space
At its Sendai Development Center in Furukawa, in Miyagi, Alps Alpine tore down three existing buildings and put up a new R&D building.
Read the ALPS ALPINE office →
03 · Sakai, OsakaNEW
STELLA CHEMIFA
The 5th-floor refresh area
Stella Chemifa was founded in Sakai in 1916 and turned 100 in 2016.
Read the STELLA CHEMIFA office →
04 · Ueno, TokyoNEW
Shimadzu Diagnostics
The refresh lounge
A ninety-year-old maker of culture media and diagnostic reagents moved in 2017 to a floor overlooking Ueno Park, and shows the whole of it — including the president’s room.
Read the Shimadzu Diagnostics office →
05 · Akasaka, TokyoNEW
Management Solutions
The refresh room
A project-management firm whose consultants mostly work at the client’s office has built its own around the rooms people come back for — ten meeting rooms, each finished differently, and a refresh room deliberately lit the opposite way.
Read the Management Solutions office →
06 · Suminoe, OsakaNEW
Sokokara (Hanamaru)
The refresh room
A used-car buyer that runs an online auction and forty-odd vehicle depots took the car itself as the starting point for its head office, and put it on the fortieth floor of the Sakishima tower, with the bay on three sides.
Read the Sokokara (Hanamaru) office →
07 · Nishi-Shinjuku, TokyoNEW
ASIRO
The refresh space
Seven meeting rooms on the fourth floor carry sentences instead of numbers — Burn brightly, Learn honestly, Was there no self-interest — and the company’s own recruiting line reads: wanted, people who want to fail.
Read the ASIRO office →
08 · Naka, Nagoya, AichiNEW
WITZ
The refresh space
An embedded-software company on the twelfth floor of the Meiji Yasuda Nagoya building, connected straight down to the underground arcade, with a refresh space it treats as the main room.
Read the WITZ office →
09 · Izumisano, OsakaNEW
FUJI OIL
The refresh room
The company that turns soya and palm into the fats inside chocolate and bread opened a communication centre at its Hannan site in January 2023, and put a cashless unmanned shop in it.
Read the FUJI OIL office →
10 · Kōjimachi, TokyoNEW
SOLUTION & TECHNOLOGY
The refresh area
This Tokyo software company built its new office around the word well-being, and made one decision that carries it: the partitions are glass, so a visitor sitting in the waiting area can see straight through to the people working.
Read the SOLUTION & TECHNOLOGY office →
11 · Shibuya, TokyoNEW
YE DIGITAL
The refresh space
YE Digital took a floor of Shibuya Solasta in June 2024 and gave the fit-out a single image: asayake, the glow of daybreak.
Read the YE DIGITAL office →
12 · Hibiya, TokyoNEW
BUSINESS BRAIN SHOWA-OTA
The refresh area
When this accounting consultancy moved to Hibiya Fort Tower in December 2021 it cut its floor area by forty per cent.
Read the BUSINESS BRAIN SHOWA-OTA office →Questions
About this collection
Which offices in Japan feature in “Refresh areas”?
WALL has picked 12: PLUS ALPHA CONSULTING (Tokyo), ALPS ALPINE (Furukawa, Miyagi), STELLA CHEMIFA (Sakai, Osaka), Shimadzu Diagnostics (Ueno, Tokyo), Management Solutions (Akasaka, Tokyo), Sokokara (Hanamaru) (Suminoe, Osaka), ASIRO (Nishi-Shinjuku, Tokyo), WITZ (Naka, Nagoya, Aichi), FUJI OIL (Izumisano, Osaka), SOLUTION & TECHNOLOGY (Kōjimachi, Tokyo), YE DIGITAL (Shibuya, Tokyo), BUSINESS BRAIN SHOWA-OTA (Hibiya, 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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