Japanese capsule hotels were originally invented in the late seventies to provide cheap, emergency overnight accommodation for drunk, overworked businessmen who missed the last train home.

A closer look

Japanese capsule hotels were originally invented in the late seventies to provide cheap, emergency overnight accommodation for drunk, overworked businessmen who missed the last train home. Instead of paying for a normal room or sleeping on a park bench, weary salarymen could rent a literal fiberglass tube barely larger than a coffin, stacked on top of a dozen strangers in a claustrophobic hallway. Western tourists now flock to these establishments thinking they are partaking in a quirky, futuristic cultural experience, entirely missing the depressing reality that these pods were born from a toxic culture of extreme corporate overwork. You are essentially paying for the privilege of experiencing a sensory deprivation chamber while listening to a middle-aged man snore violently through a thin plastic wall just inches from your face