I wonder how dependent all this is on culture and expectations.

I've spent my entire career in Japan, and have never not worked in an open office. To my knowledge, non-open offices basically don't exist in Japan.

So is every Japanese company just leaving productivity lying on the floor by insisting on open offices? I wonder if there have been studies on switching to closed floor plans in Japan.

(Of course traditionally the cultural emphasis has been on consensus, not productivity, so there hasn't been a lot of impetus to experiment. Things are changing, however.)