Given are two maps elucidating average Japanese offices and American ones and providing comparisons between them.
As an overview, it is evident that in a Japanese office, table arrangement and window placement, comparing with those of an American office, vary significantly.
As it can be clearly perceived, a typical Japanese office offers solely one wide window, providing adequate lighting throughout the whole place, with sun beams reaching to all the tables; whilst in a American plan design, although there are two windows covering both sides of the building, the interior lay-out is placed in such order that other additional section, namely section managers, department managers, printer room, storage and conference rooms, create a shading in front of the windows, blocking out the light from reaching the employees.
In regard with table arrangement, in a Japanese workplace, tables are put together, encouraging a reach environment for interpersonal connections, while receiving sufficient sunlight. However, Americans prefer to position the work forces’ desks in individual and separated order, in between other office areas, where workers will probably catch rather insufficient natural lighting.