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Initiatives

Inbound Mobility Platform Vision

“Leading people to a Japan they have yet to see” — Removing the barriers to mobility for inbound travelers

We provide a mobility and tourism platform designed for international visitors to Japan to use without stress. After completing a pilot with our directly operated rental cars (Phase a), we will expand to a booking platform joined by operators nationwide (Phase b), and then to a business that returns travelers’ mobility data to local communities (Phase c), in stages.

The platform “Ride Trip Japan” is scheduled to launch in November 2026.

Partnership & Business Inquiries

Challenge

The friction of renting a car

Visitors to Japan cannot use car sharing.

Most operators are optimized for domestic customers due to requirements such as a Japanese driver’s license and address in Japan, and therefore do not tend to proactively serve inbound travelers.

Firsthand experience on an overseas business trip

An experience of giving up on renting a car after facing language barriers and complicated contract procedures. Without transportation, we lost the opportunity to visit regional areas we would have liked to see if we could have reached them.

Challenges faced by visitors to Japan

Language barriers and complicated procedures create high psychological and practical hurdles for inbound travelers. Procedures optimized for domestic customers are complex and difficult for visitors to Japan to use.

Overview

From pilot, to platform, to data utilization

What we gain in one phase becomes the foundation for the next.

Inbound Rental Car Business (Direct Operation & Pilot)

Status

Completed

What this phase delivers

Know-how in contactless, multilingual operations; booking results from visitors to Japan; validation of the mobility data acquisition foundation

Inbound Mobility Platform Business

Status

Scheduled to launch in November 2026

What this phase delivers

Listed operators and vehicle supply nationwide; accumulation of booking and mobility data

Inbound Mobility Data Utilization Business

Status

Vision

What this phase delivers

Returning value to local communities (discovering tourism resources and designing secondary transportation); further expansion of supply

Phase a — Completed

Proving contactless operations with a minimum fleet and team

For visitors to Japan, we directly operated and tested a rental car service where arrangements are completed before departure and they can leave without reception after arrival.

What we did

  • Complete arrangements before departure: book and pay on a multilingual website, and receive required documents in advance
  • Zero reception after arrival: depart directly from the parking area without a shuttle bus or service counter
  • Multilingual support: respond via WhatsApp and LINE from before booking through return
  • Operations conducted with six company-owned vehicles and a small team
  • Selected for the Regional Transport Resource Utilization Promotion Project of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism

Results

  • In fiscal 2025, we accepted 320 bookings, with users from 24 countries and regions. The top origins were Singapore, Hong Kong, and Taiwan
  • The busy season is October through March. It overlaps with the off-season for domestic rental cars, confirming that inbound demand helps level vehicle utilization
  • The most-booked vehicle types were minivans (NOAH and VELLFIRE) and PRIUS
  • Confirmed that contactless, multilingual operations work for both travelers and operators

※Fiscal 2025 = booking dates from April 1, 2025 to March 31, 2026 (as of July 7, 2026)

Data obtained

  • Booking data (nationality, age group, number of companions, vehicle type, number of days used, pickup and return locations)
  • Vehicle GPS driving data. Integrated with booking attributes to visualize travel routes, time spent, and places visited; the foundation has been validated
  • Visualizing challenges: points where users drop out of procedures, frequently asked questions, and vehicle demand

The contactless operations and multilingual support established here will be opened to operators nationwide as standard platform features in Phase b

Phase b — Launching Nov 2026

Book in your native language, operate in Japanese

Travelers book in their native language, while operators continue to respond using only their existing Japanese operations. The platform absorbs multilingual support and contactless procedures.

Ride Trip Japan (Ridetrip.jp) — Scheduled to launch in November 2026

What it includes

  • An inbound-focused rental car and car sharing booking platform
  • Zero language barriers (AI bot and multilingual SMS)
  • Planned expansion to tourism-related businesses such as guides and transfer services

Traveler flow

Arrangements completed before departure

Book in your native language and receive required documents in advance

Arrive in Japan and depart right away

Minimize procedures after arrival

Use local guides and tourism services

Connect not only mobility but also experiences at the destination through the platform

For operators

  • Operators can continue using their existing Japanese-only operations; multilingual support is absorbed by AI bots and contactless processes
  • Capture inbound demand whose high and low seasons differ from the domestic market, raising utilization and leveling revenue
  • Referral of repeat users already acquired in Phase a
  • Advertising operated in parallel by operators and the platform
Candidate launch areas
  • Okinawa, Fukuoka, and Hokkaido (New Chitose) are candidate areas, with expansion planned in stages
Test operation partners
  • San-in Inbound Tourism Organization (providing feedback through Phase b test operation)

As the number of listed operators and vehicles grows, booking and mobility data will accumulate. This volume is the source of value for Phase c

Phase c — Vision

Return data from self-driven trips by visitors to Japan to local communities

We will build a data foundation that records, at the vehicle level, who drove a rental car through regional areas, how many people traveled together, which vehicle they used, and where they stayed and for how long.

Data contents

  • Integrate booking data (nationality, age group, number of companions, vehicle type, and number of days used) with vehicle GPS driving data
  • Time spent and location at each stop, as well as the entire route including prefectural and municipal roads
  • Provided in a form that does not identify individuals (statistics and anonymized processing)

How the data can be used

  • Discovering tourism resources and supporting product development through analyses of driving data by visitors’ country of origin
  • Supporting inbound referrals to areas with limited secondary transportation and regional revitalization
  • Creating circulation products based on routes that extend beyond the airport

This depends on expanding vehicle supply and establishing the data acquisition foundation in Phase b. Data volume is the source of business value

Seeking data pilot partners (local governments, DMO, and transportation operators)

Roadmap

Milestones and what comes next

To date

Phase a: Pilot through direct operation

Validated contactless operations with a minimum fleet and team (completed)

Scheduled to launch in November 2026

Phase b: Platform launch

Ride Trip Japan. Begin recruiting listed operators and collecting data toward Phase c

Milestone

500 registered vehicles and ¥100 million annual GMV

Full-scale regional expansion

Beyond

5,000 registered vehicles and ¥2 billion annual GMV

Just under 1% of the inbound rental car market

Market

Growing inbound demand, with supply not yet reaching it

Inbound visitors to Japan in 2025

Record high

Inbound travel spending in 2025

Travel spending per person: ¥229,000

Estimated inbound rental car market size

Inbound visitors × 12% rental car usage rate × ¥50,000 average spend

Domestic rental car market: approximately ¥900 billion and 630,000 vehicles

Seven major operators

Approximately 80% of the domestic market (¥718.1 billion), with 260,000 vehicles (40%)

Approximately 11,000 small and mid-size operators

Approximately 20% of the domestic market (¥181.9 billion), with 370,000 vehicles (60%)

Small and mid-size operators, which hold 60% of the vehicles, have not been able to capture inbound demand due to limited awareness and budget. This is where a platform can deliver demand.

Estimate based on JNTO statistics on visitors to Japan, Japan Tourism Agency materials, and our own results

Purpose

What this business aims to achieve

Safe and comfortable travel experiences for inbound tourism

Contribution to regional economies and small and mid-size operators, with mutual growth

Building a sustainable platform

We will build sustainable tourism infrastructure based on "Sanpo-yoshi" (good for all three parties).

We are seeking listed operators, business partners, and data pilot partners

We welcome inquiries from rental car and car sharing operators, tourism businesses, local governments and DMO, transportation operators, and financial institutions.

Partnership & Business Inquiries

Ride Trip Japan is scheduled to launch in November 2026. We will announce it in our news when it launches.