Japan’s best-designed offices — one company, one walkthrough
QUESTIONS › WHY DO JAPANESE OFFICES HAVE SHOWROOMS AND MUSEUMS?

Question · Working in Japan

Why do Japanese offices have showrooms and museums?

Because Japanese companies like to show what they make, and where they came from. A showroom, a gallery or a company museum inside the office does both — for visitors and for staff.

The showroom
The showroom

01 · Products and history

Nikon puts a museum beside the showroom

At Nikon’s head office a showroom lets staff walk a visitor through the products, and the Nikon Museum sits right beside it.

The showroom
The showroom

02 · Open to the street

GMO’s digital museum

At the base of its Shibuya building, the GMO group runs a digital museum, lit gold and open to the street.

The GMO Digital Museum
The GMO Digital Museum

03 · History from the ground

The Nanto Gallery

Nanto Bank’s gallery in Nara shows objects recovered from the ground while the building was going up — in an ancient capital, construction is also archaeology.

The Nanto Gallery
The Nanto Gallery

04 · The office as catalogue

MUJI and Accenture

MUJI fills its own office with its products, which turns the floor into a place to check the catalogue at a glance. Accenture goes the other way, with more than twenty stall-style booths that change with the projects in progress.

Product displays in the office
Product displays in the office
Exhibits along the street
Exhibits along the street

Offices in this answer

Walk through them

More questions

People also ask

OFFICEMILL — explore offices across Japan
Planning an office in Japan?The design and build firms behind the offices on WALL are listed on our Partners page.
SEE PARTNERS