Travellers' Checks | Japan’s sleeping pods: once frequented by salarymen, capsule hotels now eye solo travellers

Designed by Japanese architect Kisho Kurokawa and located just south of Tokyo’s Ginza district, the futuristic Nakagin Capsule Tower was built in 1972. The striking main structure was a central concrete-and-steel tower surrounded by 140 removable accommodation pods. Seven years later, Kurokawa designed the first capsule hotel, the Capsule Inn Osaka – a more success­ful approach to his modular, Metabolist style. It’s said the hotel’s opening coincided with a steep increase in taxi fares, making it a practical and economical alternative for late-working salarymen from the suburbs.

After decades of catering mostly to businessmen, Japanese capsule hotels have recently been welcoming more foreign guests, both male and female. The country’s latest capsule hotel is going even further, aiming specifically for the overseas millennial crowd – in both name and design. The Millennials Kyoto intends to upgrade the capsule experience by “integrating technology and social spaces to bring a utilitarian concept into the realm of semi-luxury”.

As well as a co-working space and common kitchen area, the hotel offers more than 150 app-controlled hi-tech sleeping pods, fitted with silent alarms that gradually raise the angle of the bed and slowly brighten the lights at a set time.