Japanese furniture maker Itoki Corp and wood supplier Koyoju Gohan partnered to develop this "Nap Box," a container for humans to sleep upright at the office. It certainly is more space efficient than the nap pods hat are occasionally spotted at VC-flush startups.
"In Japan, there are a lot of people who will lock themselves up in the bathroom for a while, which I don't think is healthy," Itoki communications director Saeko Kawashima said. "It's better to sleep in a comfortable location."
Agreed! From Bloomberg:
Overlong office hours are famously an issue among employees in Japan and the country even has a term for people sleeping during the day to make it through a full shift or a long commute: inemuri[…]
The nap box user will sleep in the pod like a flamingo, standing upright. The initial design has been made to ensure that the head, knees and rear are all comfortably supported so that the person will not fall over.
