As companies close offices in central Tokyo or encourage employees to work from home to stay safe from the coronavirus pandemic, young people are relocating to the suburbs where rents are cheaper, space less at a premium and nature nearer the doorstep.

With Japanese work practices changing, fewer young people are inclined to live in high-rent shoebox-sized apartments near central Tokyo's business districts and are now prioritizing lifestyle when choosing where to reside.

Yutaka Kanai, chief product officer of xenodata lab, a Tokyo startup specializing in AI-based data analysis, recently left central Tokyo to move just south to Fujisawa, Kanagawa Prefecture, a city with stunning coastlines in which he has longed to live.