Muji Hotel Opens in Tokyo’s Ginza District---Plans for offices reversed to create unique guest rooms--Muji stores are popular for their clothing, accessories, furniture, and other houseware items
made with simple designs and natural materials. The Muji brand is well-known overseas as well,and today Muji operates 975 stores in Japan and abroad (as of February 2019). On April 4 of thisyear Ryohin Keikaku Co., Ltd., which manages the Muji brand, opened a global flagship store,Muji Ginza, a hotel, Muji Hotel Ginza, and other facilities in Tokyo’s posh Ginza district.
The Muji Hotel is a hotel brand handled by Ryohin Keikaku and launched in China in 2018. Muji Hotel
Ginza is the third worldwide, following hotels in Shenzen and Beijing, but the first in Japan. Based on
the concept of “anti-gorgeous, anti-cheap,” it aims to provide accommodation enabling guests to sleep
well at reasonable prices and, even though they are traveling, relax in a homelike atmosphere. Thefollowing is an introduction to this new type of hotel that invites guests to experience the Muji ethos.

The exterior of Yomiuri Namiki-dori Building, which has opened in Tokyo’s Ginza area and houses the Muji
Ginza store and Muji Hotel Ginza. (Photo: Nikkei Architecture)

The Muji brand was launched in 1980 as a private brand of Seiyu, a large supermarket chain. It
started with 40 items---9 houseware goods and 31 food products--- but then went on to develop a wide
portfolio of cheap and quality products, based on the concept of “Lower priced for a reason” andfollowing the key words of waste-free, simple, and natural. Today Ryohin Keikaku, which went
independent from Seiyu in 1989, supplies more than 7,000 products, including furniture and clothing.
Some Muji items are used at the Muji Hotel Ginza for guest-room furnishings and amenities, soguests can enjoy the Muji world view while staying there. And the wonderful thing is that if there are any
items that you especially like, you can just pop down to the Muji Ginza store and buy them.

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Detail Essential in Simple Setting
The name of the building is the Yomiuri Namiki-dori Building. The store occupies the area from thebasement floor up to part of the sixth floor, and the hotel occupies the sixth to tenth floors. The floorarea of the store is 3,981 m2, making it the largest single Muji store in the world.

A cross-section diagram of the Yomiuri Namiki-dori Building (Courtesy of Takenaka Corporation)

At first the Tokyo Head Office of Yomiuri Shimbun, the owner of the site, planned to construct abuilding with offices on the upper floors. But when it was decided that Ryohin Keikaku would move in,the plans were changed to incorporate a store on the lower floors and a hotel on the upper floors.
Ishimoto Architectural & Engineering Firm, Inc. handled the basic design of the whole building;
Takenaka Corporation took charge of the final design and construction; UDS Ltd. handled the interior
design and management of the hotel; and Super Potato Co., Ltd. was responsible for the store interior.
Regarding the interior design of the hotel, Ms.
Naoko Yano, general manager of household
designing in Ryohin Keikaku’s Household
Division, commented that “Precisely because of
the simplicity, detail was important.” What camein useful here, therefore, was UDS’s know-how inhotel design.
Ms. Naoko Yano, general manager of household
designing in Ryohin Keikaku’s Household Division(left), and Mr. Shoichi Saito, executive officer andmanager of Muji Ginza (right) (Photo: Nikkei
Architecture)

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International Hospitality and Conference Service Association (IHCSA)At the same time, UDS Chairman Fumio
Kajiwara remarked that “We wanted to use thelong and narrow room layout to create a new
spatial atmosphere.”

Chairman Fumio Kajiwara of UDS, which handled
the planning, interior design, and management ofthe hotel (Photo: Yuko Ujiie)

As well as placing the bathrooms in spaces that alternately jut out into neighboring guest rooms,
UDS made effective use of space by designing the fittings so that, for example, when the bathroom
door is moved, it doubles as a storage door. Most guest rooms have a width of only about 2.1 meters,
but because the original plan was for office floors, the ceiling is high at about 2.8 meters. The height ofthe ceiling helps to create a pleasant space.
The hotel has a total of
79 guest rooms of ninetypes. This photoshows the interior of a
Type C room, in which
the bed occupies theraised space and thewashbowl is in thepassageway. This room
has an area of 24–25 m2and costs ¥29,900 pernight/room. Up to twoguests can stay in thisroom. (Photo: NikkeiArchitecture)

There are four Type G
rooms, in which theceiling height is utilized
to fit in a bunk bed. Thisroom has an area of 25
m2 and also costs¥29,900 per night/room.
Up to three guests canstay in this room.
Rather than being afixture, the bed istreated like a piece offurniture. (Photo: Nikkei
Architecture)

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There is one Type I room, the largest, on the tenthfloor. It has an area of 52 m2 and costs ¥55,900 pernight/room. (Photo: Yuko Ujiie)

At the back of the Type I room there is aJapanese-style room with tatami, where guests canrelax and enjoy reading a book. (Photo: Yuko Ujiie)

UDS COMPATH Division General Manager Keiichi Ito, who was in charge of the hotel’s interior
design, said of their focus in the design, “In simple rooms, details stand out. So for the materials thatguests would touch, in addition to the wood, iron, and earth that Muji insists on, we proposed cloth,
which brings out a warmth.”

Instead of sheets for the home sold in the store, sheets were newly made especially for the hotel. “Theyare 100% cotton,” explained Ms. Yano, “so they are very comfortable indeed.” (Photo: Yuko Ujiie)

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The
washbowl
in theshowerroom hasMuji
products,includingtoothbrushes and ahair dryer.
If guests
take aliking tosomething,
they canjust pop
down to thestore andbuy it.
(Photo: YukoUjiie)

Emphasis was also placed on public space. The wall behind the reception counter on the sixth floor of thehotel uses stones laid on streetcar tracks in Tokyo more than 100 years ago. Said UDS Chairman Fumio
Kajiwara, “The stones fulfill an iconic role in linking the old and new aspects of Ginza.” (Photo: Nikkei
Architecture)

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International Hospitality and Conference Service Association (IHCSA)Next to the reception there is the Japaneserestaurant Wa, the walls of which reuse scrap boatmaterial. (Photo: Yuko Ujiie)

The bar counter on the sixth floor uses 400-year-oldcamphor wood. (Photo: Yuko Ujiie)

Eager to Launch a Hotel Business from the 1980s
Regarding the history of Muji’s hotel business, Ryohin Keikaku President Satoru Matsuzaki notedthat “Right from 1980, when Muji was founded, many members of our advisory board were eager toenter the hotel business.” So why open a hotel in Ginza now, about four decades later? Well, explained
President Matsuzaki, “The idea of Muji is to make things that people really need for their basic daily life
in a really necessary form. Back in 1980, staying in a hotel was not seen as an extension of daily life.
But now travel has become an extension of daily life, a part of life, so we started the project.”
Ryohin Keikaku also puts a lot of emphasis on the supply of food. “We developed frozen foodproducts in 2018 as well,” said President Matsuzaki. “Food is the basis of our lives, so we want toexpand our food business worldwide.” Specifically, the Muji Diner restaurant was opened in thebasement floor of the building to serve set breakfasts and plats du jour. And on the first (ground) floor
there is a grocery section, a section selling box lunches and salads, a bakery, and so on.

The Muji Diner restaurant in the basement is openfrom 07:30 to 22:00. (Photo: Yuko Ujiie)

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Located just inside the entrance, the bakery is openfrom 07:30. There is eat-in space, and coffee isserved as well. (Photo: Yuko Ujiie)International Hospitality and Conference Service Association (IHCSA)The grocery corner on the first floor stocks organic and low-pesticide vegetables and fruit procured
mainly from farmers in the Kanto region around Tokyo. (Photo: Yuko Ujiie)

To increase people’s motivation to come, the Muji Ginza store, hotel, and restaurant are planning tohold 300 events annually with a target of attracting 2.3 million visitors a year.

(Text: Yuko Ujiie, Writer, Nikkei Architecture)

Nikkei Architecture
Launched in 1976, Nikkei Architecture is a general architectural magazine that carries wide-ranging
information from social and economic trends surrounding the architectural world to practicalmanagement, including specialized areas like design, structure, and construction. The magazine has
about 30,000 readers involved in architecture, including qualified first-class architects, architecturecompanies, and government officials. As well as the magazine, the Nikkei xTech website provides
timely information on the latest trends too.

http://tech.nikkeibp.co.jp/top/building/?i_cid=nbpnxt_pghd_building_top (Japanese site only)

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