Bocchi Tent provides psychological benefits for Japan’s thousands of new telecommuters.

Spending patterns have gone haywire since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The travel, restaurant, and live entertainment industries have all been hit incredibly hard, while supermarkets, game publishers, and video streaming providers are getting extra business as people have the vast majority of their food and fun at home.

You can add Higashi Osaka-based Bauhutte to the list of companies that seems to be doing OK. The company offers PC desks, chairs, and other furniture/peripherals, but what’s really selling these days is its Bocchi (“All-Alone”) Tent.

With a 1.3-meter (4.3-foot) square base and a height of 1.5 meters, the cloth compartment is meant to be used in the great indoors, as a sub-section you create within a room in your house. It’s not a brand-new addition to the lineup, but Bauhutte has been seeing a huge surge in demand for the Bocchi Tent, and is now selling three to four times as many as they did at the start of the year.

With Bauhutte specializing in gaming PC equipment, the original target market was hard-core gamers who wanted some extra privacy during intense play sessions. However, many people have had to suddenly switch to telecommuting since the start of the coronavirus outbreak, and in addition to not being particularly spacious, Japanese homes usually don’t have all that many rooms. A floor plan with a den, library, or office is a rare luxury, so for a lot of people working from home means spending their eight-hours-or-more shift in the living room.

▼ The Bocchi Tent has cloth window flaps and a roof that can be zipped open to let in light and promote air circulation.

Of course, if you’ve got a spouse, kids, or cohabiting parent, they might want to use the living room for, you know, living: watching TV, talking on the phone, etc. But everyone else transitioning into leisure time can be distracting if you’re still supposed to be in work mode, and the opposite can apply too. After all, in Japan it’s traditionally considered bad manners to clock out of work before your coworkers. Family members might feel bad relaxing and having fun right in front of Mom or Dad if they can’t call it a day yet, so the Bocchi Tent provides a bit of a psychological buffer so that no one has to feel self-conscious.

▼ Bauhutte says the Bocchi Tent is also popular among parents who want a place for their studying-at—home kids to hit the books without the distractions they might have in their bedrooms, although this sort of makes it feel less like a “tent” and more like a cell.

Another plus is that the Boccchi Tent is easy to set up, with a fold-out design that requires no extra support poles or anchoring, and there’s no floor fabric either. That makes it a quick and simple task to assemble around your work/study area at the start of the day, and also to fold up and put away at the end, so the cube doesn’t have to be a constant fixture of your interior even when it’s not in use.

Even with the increased demand, though, the Bocchi Tent is still available here on Amazon for 10,130 yen (US$95), and if it’s not quite what you’re looking for, don’t forget that Bauhutte also offers a PC bed, for those who not only don’t have to go to the office to work, but don’t even want to get out from their covers.

Source: J-Town Net via Livedoor News via Otakomu
Images: Bauhutte
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