In a three-story building in Chiba that looks like a posh apartment complex, various people come and go — seniors and young people, moms enjoying a lunch with friends, and children coming in to shop for snacks. It's become an important place in their daily lives.

In May 2019, this assisted living facility opened in a residential area in Funabashi, Chiba Prefecture, offering single and double rooms for as many as 63 tenants, mainly those over 60 who are unable physically or mentally to live on their own.

But unlike other similar facilities, Ginmokusei Funabashi Natsumi has shops on the ground floor, including a restaurant, that nonresidents can patronize.