Spaces Where People Talk: Learning from Smoking Spaces
Tech & Experience Design
In recent years, more companies have been aiming for open innovation and encouraging interaction both inside and outside the organization. As a result, there is growing attention on how to promote communication among employees. One approach has been thoughtful office space design, such as installing break areas with cafe-style spaces or drink counters.
However, when asked, “Can you start a conversation with someone from a department you don’t know in those spaces?”, many people feel hesitant. This is especially notable in Japanese companies and among Japanese employees. For example, if you ran into the head of a department you’ve never spoken to, would you be able to talk to them? Many would likely find that difficult.
Interestingly, there used to be a place where that type of communication naturally happened: the smoking room.
It may be a bit of an exaggeration to say so, but when discussing ways to foster communication, the idea always comes up: “Is there a way to recreate what the old smoking room offered, but without cigarettes?” Having experienced it firsthand as a former smoker, I looked at why conversations used to flow so naturally in smoking rooms and broke it down into five key factors.
Why Casual Office Spaces Aren’t Enough to Get People Talking
Why is spontaneous conversation so difficult in the office? While regional and cultural differences certainly play a role, our brainstorming sessions and interviews have highlighted the psychological challenges faced by both those initiating a conversation and those being approached.
Psychological hurdles for the person initiating a conversation:
- Worried about coming across as annoying or strange (consideration, anxiety)
- Nervous or uneasy because they’ve never spoken to the person before (consideration, anxiety, fear)
- No clear opportunity to start conversation (lack of shared topic)
- Unsure of the right moment to speak up (consideration)
- Unsure how or when to end the conversation (lack of decisiveness)
- Anxious about who might be listening (awareness of others, fear)
- Unsure if it’s acceptable to speak aloud, not wanting to be seen as noisy (consideration, anxiety)
Challenges for the person being approached:
- Unsure who might be listening (anxiety)
- Feeling unable to politely decline or step away from the conversation (consideration, hesitation)
- Unsure how or when to end the conversation (consideration, lack of decisiveness)
Looking at this overall, the challenges are heavily skewed toward the person initiating the conversation. In Japan in particular, “consideration for others” can become a barrier, for better or worse. At the same time, many people say that “being approached actually feels nice,” and it seems that quite a few are quietly waiting for someone else to make the first move.
Five Key Elements That Made Smoking Spaces Work
Despite all the barriers to conversation, smoking spaces somehow managed to foster natural interactions. I believe this was thanks to five key elements that encouraged communication.
- A Limited Window of Time
Smoking a single cigarette takes about four to five minutes, a length that’s neither too long nor too short, providing just the right amount of time. Since it’s understood that everyone will leave the space once they finish, there’s no anxiety about conversations dragging on or feeling stuck.
In other words, the “limited window of time” naturally lowers the psychological barriers, making it easier for people to strike up and end a conversation comfortably.
- The Perfectly Compact Space
For those who don’t smoke, it might be hard to imagine, but smoking rooms and designated smoking areas are actually quite small. In Japan, the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare provides workplace guidelines suggesting roughly 1.2㎡ per person when standing, and 1.8㎡ per person when seated (based on Q&A materials related to subsidies for measures against passive smoking). For a space for six smokers, that’s about 7.2㎡ standing (roughly four tatami mats) or about six tatami mats when seated. Factor in ashtrays and other accessories, and the space feels even tighter.
This close physical proximity naturally fosters a sense of intimacy and makes it psychologically easier to strike up a conversation. It’s similar to how people tend to chat more easily when sitting side by side at a bar counter. The enclosed nature of the room also gives the illusion that voices won’t carry outside, allowing people to speak freely without worrying about onlookers.
- Shared Psychological State
It was common to hear someone ask, “Can I borrow a lighter?”, a scene unique to smoking areas. Over the years, with issues like passive smoking, smokers have increasingly felt a sense of social pressure. In this environment, a shared identity as smokers, combined with a subtle sense of guilt about smoking, creates a kind of camaraderie or solidarity. This makes it easier to naturally strike up a conversation.
Some people say that hierarchy didn’t really exist in smoking rooms. I’ve personally met and connected with senior colleagues in such spaces, despite their higher positions. This shared psychological state helped foster conversations that crossed titles and roles, a dynamic that typical break rooms rarely achieve.
- A Ready-Made Topic for Conversation
Simple, natural questions like, “Which brand do you smoke? How is it?” were typical in smoking rooms. Shared interests such as smoking style or accessories provided an easy entry point for conversation. For example, I once had someone approach me to comment on how I was spinning a Zippo lighter in my hand.
Other universally recognizable topics, like the weather or big news events, were also easy to bring up casually. These small chats often became the starting point for much deeper conversations.
- Movement Creates Opportunity
With hand-rolled or regular cigarettes, smokers need to reach for the ashtray several times, and sometimes even move around slightly. Each of these actions introduces subtle “movement” into the space.
Research from a Japanese university studying conversational robots suggests that the best moment to start a conversation is immediately after someone completes an action. People naturally look for these cues. In office terms, this could be when someone sits down, finishes a task on their computer, or sets down a drink. With cigarettes, these natural “breaks” in action occur frequently, making it easier for conversation to start at the right moment.
In summary, these five elements: limited time, compact space, shared psychology, ready-made topics, and natural movement help explain why conversations flowed so easily in smoking areas.
| Factor | Feature That Helps Solve Communication Challenges |
| Limited Time | No long commitments, easy to step away |
| Perfectly Compact Space | Easier to speak up, fosters a sense of intimacy |
| Shared Psychological State | A chance to take a breather, sense of camaraderie, hierarchy is less noticeable |
| Conversation Starters | Shared interests, built-in opportunities for small talk |
| People’s Movement | Natural timing for conversations, creates opportunities to initiate talk |
Creating culture rather than creating space?
In this piece, we’ve analyzed the communication experience of the old smoking areas. Today, with heated tobacco products becoming mainstream, it’s common to see people absorbed in their smartphones while smoking, often isolating themselves.
Even so, for companies aiming to promote open innovation, cross-department collaboration, and employee interaction, there remains a strong desire to recreate the “smoking-room-style communication experience.” In my work designing office experiences, I’m always thinking about how to recreate these five key elements.
However, spatial design alone isn’t enough. Ultimately, what’s required is a change in culture and mindset.
It’s easy to say, “Japanese people are shy,” and give up, but as mentioned at the beginning, many people actually feel happy when someone approaches them.
Even in hobby meetups, strangers can quickly bond over shared interests. In Osaka izakayas, for example, a conversation about the Hanshin Tigers can spark chatter between complete strangers. That kind of atmosphere might be more universal than we think (it has even been tested on TV, though whether you believe it is up to you).
I hope this column can serve as a small catalyst for casual conversation in your office’s break area. Why not try saying a few words to someone today?
References:
Iqbal, S. T., & Bailey, B. P. (2005). Investigating the effectiveness of mental workload as a predictor of opportune moments for interruption. Proceedings of the SIGCHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems, 1489–1492. https://interruptions.net/literature/Iqbal-CHI05-p1489-iqbal.pdf
Fujimoto, Y., Nagasawa, Y., Xu, J., Tasaka, K., Yanagihara, H., & Fujita, K. (2017). Estimating opportune moments for push-type audio information delivery based on body movements. Proceedings of the Human Interface Symposium 2017, 7D1-5, Osaka, September 2017.
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