Not sure if this has been written about here - my apologies for the duplication if it has - but I’ve long wondered what those little sealed cubicles in Japanese railway stations were for. Tried one out for the first time this year and found them incredibly useful, especially when I’m in no mood to linger in a cafe surrounded by other people (note: I have social anxiety) and just want a bit of restful solo time to write on my iPad or do something of that kind.

https://ittekuru.com/2023/11/28/offi...shared-booths/

Yes, I have noticed small isolated cubicles popping up around train stations. I have not used those cubicles, yet, and I have no idea what the demand for those cubicles is. My understanding is one of the targets is marketing/sales business people, who often work outside of the office visiting clients/customers. These cubicles provide workspace when they are outside of the office. Also, they saw a possible increase in demand for isolated settings like this post-pandemic where people will seek social distance.

JR Tokai introduced a workspace on Tokaido Shinkansen (Tokyo - Shin-Osaka) called Business Booth (website in Japanese only). Passengers on reserved seats in car no. 7 (S Work Car) can reserve this room in 10 min. interval (200 yen per 10 min).

I've been using a Japanese website called spacemarket.jp for short-term booking of workspaces. They have everything from hot desks to cubicles to meeting rooms to entire apartments, and their rates tend to be very reasonable (e.g. 500 yen/hour for a booth or 1,200 yen/hour for a conference room in central Tokyo).

The station booths are pretty expensive for what they are.

That’s an excellent use of the ex-smoking lounges! I wonder if their “S Wi-Fi for Biz” will be provide more stable connection then the typical onboard WiFi…?

Probably. I think Green Car WiFi is the same.

Oh, I quite agree that they're not the best value for money as an actual shared workspace. That said, as a casual visitor, I find that they're a convenient walk-up option inside railway stations whenever I feel like having a bit of quiet time to write on my iPad or relax.

Indeed, the first time I ever used one of these was when I had hours to kill ahead of a sleeper train ride from Takamatsu to Tōkyō. Didn't want to stay in a café or restaurant (too public and full of strangers for comfort as I suffer from social anxiety), and the station benches were hardly the best place to idle around in (no table to prop my iPad on, no air conditioning outside of the waiting rooms, etc.). Saw one of these and thought to myself, "fine let's have a go at it", paid for one-time use and found the experience very pleasant indeed.