JAPAN'S BEST-DESIGNED RESEARCH LABSQ&A
Can I visit a company research lab in Japan?
Most research labs are working sites closed to the public, but a few have spaces open to visitors: Shiseido Beauty Park in Yokohama (free admission), Yamaha's Innovation Road in Hamamatsu, Kewpie's Mayo Terrace in Tokyo, Shimizu's NOVARE Archives in Tokyo, and facility tours at Morinaga's Tsurumi site — the last four by booking.
Shiseido Global Innovation Center →
Shiseido Beauty Park: free, with a café
On the ground and 2nd floors of the Shiseido Global Innovation Center in Yokohama, Shiseido Beauty Park is open to the public with free admission. It has a skin diagnosis lab, a café called Shiseido Kitchen Lab and an art space.
It is next to Exit 1 and 2 of Shin-Takashima Station on the Minatomirai Line, and closed on Mondays.
Innovation Road: Yamaha's museum
Innovation Road is a corporate museum inside Yamaha's head office site in Hamamatsu, where you can see, hear and touch Yamaha's products. Entry is free.
Visits are by booking only, in three two-hour slots a day, up to 90 days ahead.
Mayo Terrace: a mayonnaise museum
Mayo Terrace, inside Sengawa Kewport, is Kewpie's free visitor facility about the history of mayonnaise and how it is made.
Book online or by phone. It is closed on Saturdays, Sundays and holidays, and is a 7-minute walk from Sengawa Station on the Keio Line.
NOVARE Archives: a construction history museum
NOVARE Archives, Shimizu Corporation's history museum at NOVARE in Shiomi, shows 220 years of Japanese construction with models and large films. Entry is free, and there is an audio guide in Japanese and English.
It opens on Thursdays (except the third Thursday and company holidays), by online booking.
Facility tours at Morinaga's Tsurumi site
Morinaga runs facility tours at its Tsurumi site in Yokohama, where the R&D Center also stands.
Tours are by booking; bookings for each month open on the 1st of the month before.
What about the labs themselves?
The research floors, laboratories and offices on this site are working spaces. Unless a page says otherwise, you can see them only in the official photos, and from the street outside.
Please do not try to enter a research site without an invitation.
Other questions
QWhich research labs have spaces for co-creation with outside partners?
QWhat are the anechoic chambers found in research labs?
QAre there research labs with beautiful timber interiors?
QWhy do research labs have atriums?
QAre there research labs that bring in plants and greenery?
QWhat is a “ZEB” research lab?
