Tokyo has more than its share of quirky company mini-museums, but this facility devoted to "Package Culture" still stands out. Run by Japanese packaging company Toyo Seikan Group, the museum focuses on the history of the canning and packaging industry in this country. Along the way you can see some nice examples of historical Japanese graphic arts and industrial design.

The main body of the museum is organized as a decade-by-decade visual timeline, showing off technological advances and design trends through the course of the past century and a half. The story starts with fairly primitive metal cans constructed by hand, but then leaps quickly into the modern age in 1917, when Toyo Seikan's founder first imported mass-production canning equipment from America.

Historical milestones such as the invention of the pull tab and the introduction of retort pouches of curry are covered by two-minute animated videos narrated in English, Japanese and Thai. (Toyo Seikan has a big corporate presence in Thailand.) There are also special exhibit areas, often with interactive elements, dedicated to topics like spray bottles, canning seams, and lightweight packaging.

Note that the videos are pretty much the only English-language materials here. However, the museum's website has an extensive "online museum" in English. You can browse the site before you visit, but it's especially useful as a mobile guide when you're at the museum.