For Mio Suhara, peace and productivity come with free refills of coffee, soda and soft-serve ice cream.

Two or three times a week, the 54-year-old blogger retreats to her local Kaikatsu Club — an internet cafe chain that commands roughly half the Japanese market — where a private booth doubles as her workspace and her sanctuary.

“This is basically my second home,” she says with a laugh. In fact, she’s currently speaking via video chat from a booth at her local Kaikatsu Club.

Suhara lives in Ageo, a suburban city in Tokyo’s neighboring Saitama Prefecture, with her aging mother and younger brother.

A sign promoting an internet cafe in Tokyo’s Akihabara district offers an hour rate for ¥980. | JOHAN BROOKS

“I’m currently taking a break from work, so I’ve been coming here a lot,” she continues. “I mostly write blog posts here because I can’t really focus at home. I usually come in around noon and leave in the evening using the six-hour plan.”

Once the domain of gamers, drifters and salarymen, Japan’s netto kafe (internet cafes) are reinventing themselves for a new generation chasing comfort, solitude and Wi-Fi — even as the market for such spaces continues to shrink.

Gone are the days of smoky, male-dominated dens. Modern net cafes tout well-lit interiors, cleaner environments and private cubicles, marketing themselves as places for recreation, rest and remote work. For a loyal core of users like Suhara, these spaces endure as a casual refuge from today’s fast-paced society.

“One of my hobbies is traveling around on my moped,” says Suhara, who blogs about her trips and other topics. “When I toured Chiba Prefecture recently, I actually planned my route around Kaikatsu Club outlets so I could stay overnight in their private rooms. They’re cheaper than a hotel.”

Booths and bytes

Before they became work spaces or overnight refuges, these cafes began as a uniquely Japanese response to a love of comics and coffee.

In the 1970s, Aichi Pr