Japanese Lifestyle Brand Muji to Launch Hotels in China and Japan
Photos from Business Insider
If you’ve ever felt at home among the soft glow of aromatherapy diffusers, milky gel pens, and clear acrylic containers at Muji, you’re in luck. The Japan-based lifestyle brand will be expanding their product line to real life with the impending launch of Muji hotels in Shenzen, China and Tokyo’s Ginza district. This extension is a natural transition for the company, which has in the past released a limited-edition car with Nissan, designed Tokyo’s Narita International Airport, and prototyped tiny prefab houses.
The plan for Ginza includes a 10-story building with six floors dedicated to what will soon be the world’s largest Muji flagship store. One section of floor six and floors 7-10 will compose the Muji Hotel, where rooms will be dressed in the signature minimalist Muji furniture and amenities.
Though Marie Kondo advises against buying new storage containers in The Life-Changing Magic of Tidying Up, Muji’s no-frills products do follow Kondo’s basic philosophy that anything one owns should “spark joy.” The utility and sense of almost meditative peace Muji products innately possess is what created this $2.2 billion company. Since the beginning, the ethos of Muji, formally known as Mujirushi Ryohin, has been “no brand, good quality.”
The unbranded approach to design works in Muji’s favor. The nondescript items do not exist to make a statement, but rather to coexist in harmony with any given aesthetic, freeing the you to choose your own statement.
