Abstract
With the increased quality of life, the meaning of houses is shifting from a functional space for the simple purpose of residing to a symbolic space representing life as personality. Starting with the advancement of IKEA into Korea last year, global brands are about to enter into Korea. As Korean brands are not certain about how to set their direction in the situation where global brands have rushed into the market, it was thought that a key to solve the problem could be found from the cases of the lifestyle stores of Japan, which is moving one step ahead of Korea. Considering the circumstances, the author limited the subjects of this study to the lifestyle stores that have already established their brand identity and have prominent expressional characteristics of interior design in Japan. Research and analysis were conducted through site inspection and books. As a study method, literature and previous research were reviewed to find the program characteristics of interactivity and participation, the spatial characteristics of accessibility and the expressional characteristics of symbolism, scene continuity and function complexity, as the basis for an analysis. The results of the analysis showed that Japanese lifestyle stores are appealing to consumers as the spaces with their own differentiated space composition and various programs, by establishing their unique concepts and explicit brand identity. It is expected that such expressional characteristics of interior design will be of help in defining the direction of interior design of Korean lifestyle stores in the future.
