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Coffee shops provide coffee—obviously—but they’re often much more. Many are also third spaces, community hubs separate from home or work. Some host exhibitions and collaborate with local artists. Others run fundraisers, become donation and organizing hubs, or offer youth apprenticeship programs. In Japan, some are also becoming havens for new parents struggling to soothe their babies.
As Maki Shinozaki reports for Kyodo News, “crying cafes” are a new trend where cafes cater to new parents, particularly at night. They provide spaces for babies to crawl and to sleep, as well as designated breastfeeding and diaper-changing spaces. Importantly, they also provide support and reassurance for overwhelmed parents.
According to Shinozaki, the concept of crying cafes was first conceived by a manga artist and new mother known as Kenemoto. After first sharing the idea on social media in 2017, Kanemoto published a manga series online in 2023 featuring a “Yonakigoya,” or “Night Crying House,” which appears only at night as a haven for overwhelmed mothers. The idea resonated, and places offering such refuge began popping up.
Madoka Nozawa is the owner of a cafe in Memuro in northern Japan, and struggled with sleepless nights and feelings of isolation when her daughter was young. Since October 2025, she has opened the cafe to parents and babies from 9 p.m. on Sundays to 6 a.m. on Mondays. “I want this to be a place of refuge where people can feel like they’re not alone in their struggles,” she told Kyodo News.
In Tokushima Prefecture, a childcare support group runs similar initiatives twice a month. At these, the staff look after the babies, giving mothers a chance to rest. However, such efforts are mostly volunteer-run and rely on donations to help them stay open late or overnight. To continue, crying cafes will require government support.
“The public and private sectors need to work together to create places like nighttime crying cafes where people can seek help whenever they are in need of it,” said Kaori Ichikawa, a professor at Tokyo University of Information Sciences.
Read more on the crying cafes from the Kyodo Times here.
Photo by Van Tien Le on Unsplash
