The Japanese versions are exactly like that they are two feet longer than the avg sleeping person with a locking door from the inside plus individual heating and A.C. Controls quite comfortable for a mid day power nap or a simple overnight stay while partying late in a near by city via train. There is enough room for your bags at your feet so everything you included is locked inside safe snug and sound.
$700 per month works out to $23 per day that’s MUCH cheaper than any hotel or even hostel in SF. In Japan they have public bathhouses so a couple days in a pod while treking is no bigs. Nationwide gym memberships are cheap and every one of them has showers to be had.
When I was a second time grad student I used my teaching stipend to get a gym membership and just slept in my office in the futton I bought against the wall, closed locked office inside of digital key card research facility no one cared as we worked on research till 2 or 3 am anyways a lot of nights. The research labs had a kitchen for use by staff. Had a microwave, convection oven too. Pocketed the $2200 per month stipend. GF was also a researcher so she crashed with me on the regular same department same major. $4400 a month between the two of us and no rent or bills was plenty of walking cash we ate out a lot just bring left overs to the fridges and label it.
The fact that Japan was able to blow a property and debt bubble so great it was able to force students, travelers and low income folks into expensive “bed pods” is not something to be envied or admired.
Besides, Japan has (had?) a very strong and unified culture, with strict standards of hygiene, service and public behavior. Its a credit to their social harmony they could make such a thing work
If you want to see another, downgraded version of this, look up “Hong Kong Cage Homes,” or “Hong Kong Cage Men”
Now to take it to a further dystopian level, consider how this concept play out in woke, free-for-all, polyglot San Francisco?
If Japan believes they need locking doors in their country what do you think about us? Unfortunately our leaders are peddling diversity is our strength.