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Japanese office workers can now take naps at work in new state-of-the-art office furniture where employees are encouraged to catch up on their sleep – practically standing up.
Tokyo-based office furniture supplier Itoki has created the Kamin Box, or "Nap Box" and the creation was developed in cooperation with Hokkaido woodworking company Koyoju Plywood Corporation.
While the nap box aesthetically looks like a fashionable storage locker, it couldn't be further from that as it's designed to be a comfortable place for sleepy office workers to get in a nap – but not all agree.
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Some people have questioned the use of the Nap Box, branding it something a "power-harassing boss would tell you to go stand in".
While some offices may have a quiet room for workers to take a few minutes for themselves, offices with designated sleeping furniture are too far and few between, aside from Google, who installed sleep pods in its offices with a built-in sound system for employees to drift off to relaxing sounds for a quick nap.
Inside the Nap Box, there is a small ledge to support your bum, plus another ledge that looks to be either chin or forehead-height which depends on how tall you are, on the inside of the door.
According to Asahi Shimbun, one of the largest newspapers in Japan, the progressing awareness of how important rest and sleep is for healthy living pushed the creation of the Kamin Box.
Japan has had a notoriously poor record for the nation's employees overworking with Japanese authorities finding out that nearly 9,000 companies breached overtime laws last year (2020).
Employees at these workplaces were working more than 80 hours of overtime a month with death from overworking so common for Japanese workers, they had a phrase for it, called "Karoshi", which means "death by overwork".
Some people, however, remain disillusioned that the Kamin Box is the answer to Japan's consistent overworking issues with one critic saying "Call it a nap all you want, but if you’re standing up the whole time, I don’t think you’re going to feel rested mentally".
One online commentator said "If someone needs this, just let them go home already" while another said "It looks like something a power-harassing boss would tell you to go stand in".
The fact workers must sleep standing in the nap box and not laid down was an issue for one person who says "I don't think you're going to feel rested mentally".
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