The smooth, metallic surface reflects the sunlight coming through the window. Without touching it you can see that this is an object made with great care — even though it came from a factory. I'm inside a shop run by Lexus in Tokyo, but what I'm looking at isn't part of a luxury car, it's a small metal key tray designed by Masuko Unayama and made by a 12th-generation metalware craftsman. Unayama's key tray was commissioned for Intersect By Lexus, a new Aoyama-district shop/cafe/space. The tray is included in a lineup of commissioned artisanal goods titled Crafted for Lexus, which is being sold at the first in a series of lifestyle spaces that the luxury car brand is planning to build in cities around the world. With an interior designed by Masamichi Katayama from Wonderwall, the aim of the Aoyama space, according to the company website, is to have visitors "experience Lexus without getting behind the steering wheel of one of our cars" — a comment reiterated over email by Lexus International PR staffer Mio Nakayama.
It's part of an attempt by Lexus, a division of Toyota, to align itself with a different kind of lifestyle and a new market in Japan — much like the Mercedes-Benz Connection space in Roppongi, which features a cafe, a restaurant with a Michelin-starred chef, a "gallery" of cars, and a shop selling exclusive goods and merchandise. It's slick, but whether Mercedes-Benz is getting what it hoped out of its venture seems doubtful when the ground-floor cafe is full of mobile workers and freelancers who likely can't afford a luxury car.
Intersect By Lexus nevertheless aims to likewise attract a new group of customers through their exhibition space, restaurant and store. Nakayama explains that the shop is a space where Japanese artisans, who have been commissioned by Lexus to create "unique pieces," can showcase their work. It's hoped that the products will get visitors to "connect emotionally" with the brand, by associating it with authenticity, innovation and centuries-old tradition.