Photo/Illutration A common area at the WeWork office space in Shibuya Scramble Square on Dec. 2, 2020 (Naoko Murai)

A Japanese subsidiary of embattled U.S.-based WeWork opened an office space site in a building high above Shibuya Station, its largest location in Japan, on Dec. 2.

The subsidiary, which provides office-sharing services, also opened new locations in Shinjuku and Harumi the same day, bringing the total number of its sites in Japan to 26.

The new office space in Shibuya occupies the 37th to 41st floors of Shibuya Scramble Square, a skyscraper that opened in November, which connects directly to Shibuya Station.

The Shibuya location has office-sharing space with about 3,500 seats and work stations, common areas, phone booths and conference rooms among other amenities.

Companies including Asahi Breweries Ltd., Dai Nippon Printing Co. and Sumitomo Life Insurance Co. have moved into the space.

One tenant in the Shibuya facility is bellFace Inc. The company, which sells online conference systems to firms for their sales personnel, moved its offices from WeWork’s location in Kyobashi to the new one in Shibuya to accommodate the growing number of its employees.

Kazuha Komasa, a bellFace public relations official, said that the company continues using WeWork’s office space because the facilities appeal to job seekers.

In fact, the number of applicants to the company’s positions quadrupled in half a year after moving its offices from a multi-tenant building in Shibuya to WeWork office space in Kyobashi in November last year.

Although WeWork’s operations in Japan have continued growing, its headquarters in the United States is facing financial difficulties. Since questions were raised about the company’s corporate governance and other issues, following a revelation of alleged conflict-of-interest transactions by a company co-founder, WeWork canceled its initial public offering, which was planned for September.

SoftBank Group Corp., a major shareholder in WeWork, announced additional financial support to the company to bail it out of financial difficulties. However, in its half-year earnings report for the fiscal period ending in September, SoftBank Group reported its first operating loss in 15 years.

SoftBank Group is asking megabanks in Japan for additional loans to fund its financial assistance to WeWork.