Sou Fujimoto Architects has stopped using interns in its Tokyo office, amid an ongoing row about unpaid internships in architecture studios.
The studio said the decision was taken for management reasons and was "not related" to the recent controversy.
"In the Tokyo office we do not have interns," said Ako Nikaido, press spokesperson for Sou Fujimoto Architects.
"We made this decision after comprehensively considering the quality and efficiency of our office management," Nikaido told Dezeen. "It was just one of the decisions in the process of improving the internal office operation, and it's not related to the recent intern debate."
Unpaid internships in the spotlight
The move comes amid ongoing international discussion about the use of unpaid interns in architecture. The topic hit the headlines last month when Junya Ishigami and Associates, the Japanese studio designing the 2019 pavilion for the Serpentine Gallery came under fire for not paying its interns.

The gallery subsequently ordered Ishigami to make sure every employee that worked on the project was paid.
Elemental, the Chilean architecture studio founded by Pritzker Prize-winner Alejandro Aravena, cancelled its unpaid internship programme after becoming embroiled in the controversy.
Fujimoto previously praised unpaid internships
Fujimoto, who designed the Serpentine pavilion in 2013, had previously been open about his use of unpaid interns.
Speaking to Dezeen at the opening ...