Any cafe which wants to make free WiFi available can trivially make free WiFi available. I believe that most which choose to not do this are making the considered product/marketing decision that they do not want long stays from laptop users. They want to turn those tables quickly because $4 to $6 coffees only make Tokyo commercial rents if you sell a lot of them.

> They want to turn those tables quickly because $4 to $6 coffees only make Tokyo commercial rents if you sell a lot of them.

Then how does Starbucks make money then ? Most of the clients in Starbucks in Japan come for a drink with their computer or iPad and stay an hour or even more without consuming anything else - and they have their own internet access via tethering anyway. Yet Starbucks makes huge profits.

100 million yen per year per store of sales, or roughly 500 tickets per day, is how Starbucks stays afloat.

A variety of reasons, but I suspect a big one is vested interests from paid wifi services. For years it's been the norm to see a cafe full of people all using their own wifi dongles.