The overworked corporate warrior need not despair, though, for there is a growing range of quick and inexpensive services to bring the tired body and mind back to health. Growing ranks of businesspeople in Tokyo, for instance, are dropping in for 15-minute massages and midday naps to perk up before returning to work.

Off with the Tie
Every worker at the front lines of corporate warfare has no doubt experienced a desperate yearning to slow down and regain peace of mind before setting off for the next slate of appointments. Their wishes are becoming easier to fulfill due to a mushrooming "relaxation" industry in the nation's biggest cities.

In summer 1997, a venerable inn in the heart of Tokyo's business district seized on this perceived need by offering fatigued business workers the use of its guest rooms on an hourly basis. For 1,500 yen (10.70 U.S. dollars at 140 yen to the dollar) per hour, guests can change into a robe and catch up on their sleep. The inn provides rental alarm clocks, and guests can take a shower and get refreshed before checking out. Many of them work for publishing firms and other businesses with irregular hours. Some come by early in the morning after an all-nighter and leave fully recovered for an evening meeting.

A department store in central Tokyo has set aside 50 square meters of floor space for its Men's Lounge, where mostly male workers can doze off during their lunch breaks in leather-upholstered armchairs and automated massage chairs. Women are welcome to use the lounge as well, but on weekdays between around 11:30 a.m. and 1:30 p.m. it becomes packed with businessmen eager to remove their neckties and slumber away with ear plugs they bring along with them.

24-Hour Massage
Men are not the only ones who get stressed out, of course, and shops offering a bit of relaxation--particularly through massage--have become highly popular among women, too.

One such store in Tokyo provides live violin music for customers receiving shiatsu and Western massage. The charge for a 15-minute rub-down is 1,500 yen--a bargain, say the many working women who frequent the shop, considering the soothing and uplifting nature of the experience. The company running the shop also produces musical recordings and opened the shop as a means of putting the calming properties of music to fuller use.

Foot massage has also come into vogue among city workers. The sole is often called a "second heart," and it is believed that weakened bodily functions can be revived by applying pressure to certain areas of it. While the Taiwanese method is the most common, a less vigorous English-style foot massage, focused more on relaxation than treatment, is also popular. The latter type has been a hit among males, too; one parlor near a cluster of foreign embassies boasts a 40% male clientele.

More shops have begun offering massages around the clock. The staff of one 24-hour parlor works in three different shifts. Customers range from women on their way home after putting in overtime to men who drop in before going to work. The store has become an indispensable oasis for workers in a city that never sleeps.