Capitalism in the Cracks: How Japan's Microspaces Unleash Economic Experimentation

This is part of Reason's 2025 summer travel issue. Click here to read the rest of the issue.

A three-story house tucked into a mere one-meter gap between tall buildings. A flower shop shaped like a triangle, wedged between a retaining wall and the sidewalk. A standing bar humming with laughter beneath the rumble of passing trains. In most cities, these spaces would be dead zones—awkward, overlooked, written off by zoning and building codes as unusable.

But in Tokyo, they bloom with life. These microspaces are amenities. They're capitalism in the cracks, not just in form but in function.

These strange slivers often become homes for new ideas: a two-person bar, a bookstore barely wider than a fridge, a late-night shop that opens on a whim. They invite experimentation, economic as well as