Japan’s Sun Rises Again After Decades of Stagnation
Tokyo’s Azabudai Hills development area last August, months before the Japanese capital’s latest, large-scale real estate project opened for business. Tokyo’s attractiveness as an international destination has risen alongside its economy in recent years.
Photographer: Toru Hanai/BloombergJames Kuffner, a former Google executive recruited eight years ago to help run a Toyota innovation hub in Japan, brought a radical idea with him for his new colleagues: wear what you like at work.
He quickly ran into problems. The human resources department informed him that Japanese staff were afraid their neighbors would assume they’d been fired if they left home every morning dressed in casual clothes rather than the ubiquitous business suit.