IN THE heart of Tokyo’s bustling financial district, discreetly hidden down a narrow alley, is an establishment where office workers can for the first time indulge in a shameful vice: less than £5 will buy them an afternoon nap.

Japan’s notoriously regimented office culture has for decades made a taboo of sleep: it is now even worse because of the fear of layoffs.

Workers put in long hours and then try to impress by being seen to stay longer than everyone else. For many employed in the capital, the journey home can mean two hours standing all the way. The quest for a crafty snooze has never been played for higher stakes.

Tapping this market is Napia, the self-proclaimed “Good Sleep Salon”, which was set up only recently but is now full to bursting every lunchtime. Its offering is simple: seven dormitories — three for women and four for men — and a handful of private VIP rooms for the very shy. The cost is 800 yen (£4) for the first 40 minutes, and 400 yen for every additional 20 minutes. Earplugs are free, and customers can have pure oxygen pumped in for an extra 500 yen for added refreshment. Tadaaki Kizu, Napia’s president, using charts and statistics provided by the Japanese Sleep Institute, explains to customers that 20 minutes of midday slumber provide the optimum boost to mental and physical energy: his staff are trained to wake customers gently just as the nap has taken its full effect.

“People have come to realise the huge benefits of a nap in the middle of the day, everyone from securities brokers to restaurant workers just finished the lunch rush, but the Japanese are still afraid of what people will think,” Mr Kizu, a registered chiropractor, says.

“People try to hide their sleeping, and end up napping in places that can give them back trouble — Napia means they can sleep healthily.”

Before Napia, the need for a discreet snooze during the day drove many Japanese to desperate solutions.

Some pretended to be trying on clothes and napped in shop dressing rooms. Another favourite was to give long “test runs” to the electric massage chairs in furniture shops.

One bank teller, who has used Napia three times, said: “I never understand why people are so dishonest. Everyone in Japan wants more sleep, but nobody dares to be caught sleeping.

“I get one hour for lunch, but if I eat a bit quicker than I used to, I can then have 30 minutes of sleep here: it’s better than napping in the office toilets.”

Although Napia’s customers do not let their colleagues know that is where they are going, word has spread fast. Other entrepreneurs are latching on to the idea in the belief that corporate Japan may eventually recognise that refreshed workers perform better.

In the Nakano district of Tokyo, studios which are used normally to teach ballroom dancing in the evenings are letting out floor space and sponge mats for only 50p for 30 minutes.

Japan’s many struggling “love hotels”, which usually charge about £30 for a 90-minute stay, have also realised that, with a strategic drop in price, they can now hire their rooms as deluxe daytime napping centres.

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