Muji Hotel and Flagship Store Ginza, Tokyo

Japanese retailer Muji has opened its first hotel in Japan. Located in Ginza in the heart of Tokyo’s trendiest shopping district, the 79-room Muji hotel provides rooms targeting the mid-range market to fulfil and unmet need for affordable hotels and the brand has promised that the cost of its rooms will stay the same year round.

Spread over eleven floors, four floors are dedicated to the hotel while the other seven are occupied by the brand’s flagship – the largest Muji store in the world. The 4,000m² store sells an encyclopedic range of Muji products from clothing and furniture to bicycles and also features a diner, restaurant and a gallery, with a lounge and a bar.

Muji Ginza has been designed as a place to bring people together and experience the philosophy of the Muji brand. It serves as a test lab for developing new products and services, such as selling vegetables produced by local farmers. It is hoped that it will to help the brand expand its business capabilities and product range beyond the range of consumer goods, for which it is globally known.

Every inch of Muji Ginza embodies the brand’s minimalist ‘Simple, Pleasant Life’ aesthetic.

While the store is owned and managed by Muji, the hotel is operated, and was also designed by UDS, who pay licensing fees to use the Muji brand and buy all their supplies from Muji’s parent Ryohin Keikaku. Rooms vary in size from 15-52m². Each of the rooms is packed with Muji products and custom developed baths and sinks – which have proved so popular in their two Chinese hotels that Muji is now considering manufacturing them for retail.

Many of the items and devices used in the hotel rooms can also be purchased at the Muji store and if there are any additional Muji products guests can’t find in their suite, hotel staff can deliver it straight to their guest’s door.

Just outside the hotel entrance on the sixth floor, is the Atelier Muji Ginza, a multi-purpose design and culture facility. It consists of two galleries featuring craftwork and design exhibitions, and a tranquil little hideaway with a library stocked with art and design books and a lounge for special events and workshops, with a public salon space that serves coffee and drinks until 2am.

Muji Ginza seamlessly blends retail, hospitality and culture, and the retailer has gone one step further to make Muji a one stop lifestyle shop – as they are also offering customers a wide variety of ‘problem solving’ services from storage consultation and furniture resizing to fashion styling and bicycle hire, they have advisers who can visit a customer’s home and help fix shelves, clean blinds and even replace light bulbs!