stylistic:style_transfer
Japan

In Japan, the notion of having a bedroom is much less important than it is in the west, especially as it pertains to having a private space for personal use. Indeed, having a unified house corresponds to having a unified family, a concept so important that areas are seldom personalized, even those pertaining to relationships. Everything is subject to the concept of primitive cohesion. This makes for flexibility in terms of the way various spaces are utilized: Each evening, the Japanese unroll their futon directly on their tatami mats, typically close to one another. They then put them away come morning in the oshiire. The unity of the household is also reinforced by the use of sliding partitions (shoji) lined with rice paper and insulating in every way.

Materially, the Japanese tatami room, as opposed to its western counterpart (deemed The Western Room), has no door, bed, or even wall, making it barely detectable in space.

This room is typically situated towards the back of the home, close to the place dedicated to the family ancestors and opposite of the southern façade, the gardens, and the general exterior.

The second half of the twentieth century saw a considerable change in the bedroom style. Almost non-existent before World War Two, The Western Room continued to gain traction in new constructions to the point where there is a clear relationship between age of a building and presence of western-style bedrooms. Cultural habits, however, have not shifted as rapidly.

In the most densely populated cities, there exists a type of hotel essentially consisting of stacks of individual rooms so cramped they hardly allow one to do more than lie down and sleep. These are called capsule hotels, and have spread to areas such as Singapore and Taiwan.