Japan's salarymen find inspiration in unusual workspaces

TOKYO - From tiny one-person cubicles in underground stations to camping tents under towering skyscrapers and even karaoke clubs: in workaholic Japan, salarymen are never short of a place to work.

Unusual work venues are popping up all over Japan as firms try to move from chaining their employees to their desks toward offering staff more freedom in their working practices and as the gig economy spreads even to this temple of corporate culture.

On the pavement in Tokyo's Marunouchi financial district, groups of businesspeople clutching laptops sit on pillows around a low table... in a camping tent surrounded by shimmering glass buildings.