According to a report this week by TreeHugger, Ashburn, Va., USA, as we live in smaller and smaller spaces, it gets harder and harder to get a little privacy, especially if you want to go watch a video. In Japan, where apartments are really small and privacy hard to find, the problem is even worse. But now there is an answer: The Solo Theater, from Tokyo design Lucy Alter Design (no relation to the author).

 

Learn more by viewing a video showing how the concept works. 

It is a special paperboard box with a lid that can accommodate a smart phone or a tablet. You lie down on your back and look up at your screen, in "an environment of darkness and solitude." Creative Director Satoshi Aoyagi explained the problem in the Japan Times, Tokyo, Japan: 

Japanese homes have less space compared with those in other countries. People want to have their own space. Many are married, and rather than have a spouse being conscious of you all the time while they are watching TV, being able to enjoy a movie in one’s own space is something that the investors think fits the Japanese way of life.

 

People have lots of things nowadays, and the writer at TreeHugger believes that through products such as these, more and more people would like to make more quality time for themselves. One way they can do that is by watching movies in an environment that enriches the experience. This is a good match for that.

The company currently has more than 300 orders for the box after starting up, which retails for ¥3,600, about $30. Other publications note that it is now part of a larger cultural trend in Japan:

Cultural forces are powerful too, notes Masahiro Abe, a sociologist at Konan University. Japanese must don a public mask for their hierarchy-bound, open-plan offices, and a second face for their families. Turning to small, private boxes at home is their way of searching for a "third space", he said.