To understand why capsule hotels exploded, let's first understand a culture unique to Japan: the culture of overtime. Everyone must have learned more or less about Japan's overtime culture from other places. A series of unwritten rules such as leaving work immediately after work will appear that you have no workload, managers working overtime until midnight, and arriving at the company earlier than the leader and going home later are deeply rooted in the hearts of Japanese migrant workers.
Although some tram lines arrive at as late as 1 a.m. at the latest, many employees who live far away often work overtime and cannot catch the tram home. Taxi prices in Japan are surprisingly expensive, so the emergence of capsule hotels is simply a gospel for overtime workers.
"Capsule Hotel" is called "カプセルホテル" in Japanese, which is a transliteration of "Capsule Hotel". It was designed by the famous architect Kisho Kurokawa in 1979 (coinciding with Japan's post-war bubble economy). It integrates a series of facilities such as TV, air conditioning, lockers, lamps, etc., which can basically meet the accommodation needs of a person, and the price will be much cheaper than ordinary hotels.
But the original capsule hotel still had many problems: space suppression, poor privacy of the curtain, outdated equipment that could not keep up with development, and so on. But a series of improvements in recent years have made capsule hotels more in line with the needs of the public, and the popularity is also a natural thing. In recent years, capsule hotels in Japan have combined late-night work, rest, dining, and bathing. This gives migrant workers a place to relax and rest in addition to home.
