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Start-Up Rents Out Tokyo's Tight Spaces.TOKYO—Japan is famous for its ability to make the most of limited space. The cocoon-like capsule hotels were first developed here and many single city dwellers live in tiny studio apartments known as rabbit hutches. Now, a new online real-estate marketplace is taking that trait to new levels. Nokisaki.com seeks pockets of "dead space" around cities and converts them into short-term rental property. In Tokyo, where every sliver of land is at a premium, a few feet of unused private property near the front entrance of an apartment building can be used to sell muffins. A patch of storefront space transforms into an ad hoc vegetable stand for a farmer or a consulting space for a fortune-teller.

Those spaces can be reserved at Nokisaki for short periods of time—starting from three hours—and for as little as $15 total. The spots are granted on a first-come, first-served basis and the rental times and prices are set by landlords.

It's unclear whether Nokisaki can work in other countries, but it seems well suited to Japan, where land is scarce and it is difficult to secure permission to sell goods on public space in crowded cities like Tokyo.