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.