Only 1 percent of the Japanese population use sharing economy services, says this founder

Anytimes CEO Chika Tsunoda.

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This article is part of Tech in Asia’s partnership with Disrupting Japan where we publish the revised transcripts from the show’s podcast interviews with Japanese entrepreneurs. This is heavily revised from the original transcripts. For the full interview, go here.

Online marketplaces seem like the ideal business model, and on paper, they are. The reality, however, is that running an online marketplace business is hard.

I recently sat down with Chika Tsunoda, the CEO of Tokyo-based skill-sharing platform Anytimes and the director of the Sharing Economy Association of Japan. She explained to me how she’s been building a P2P services marketplace and what the sharing economy looks like in the country.

nWhat is Anytimes?n

Anytimes is a skill-sharing platform that connects people who need help and those who want to work in the neighborhood. These services include everyday household chores, pet care, furniture assembly, language lessons, and so on.

The most popular customers are housewives, university students, and senior citizens. And the most popular categories are house cleaning, cooking, and assembling furniture. But we also have other categories: pet care, English lessons, Chinese lessons, and guitar lessons.

The average price for one hour is around US$18 (¥2,000), and the platform takes a 15 percent commission.

nYou worked for some big, stable companies before. Why start a startup?n

When I was little, I wanted to work in developing countries. I wanted to work in the United Nations, Unesco, and United Nations Development Business (UNDB). But after I graduated from university, I wanted to have experience first and learn business and finance. But then, I realized that there are many social problems in Japan, and I thought I should be serving these problems first. That’s why I decided to found Anytimes.

My parents didn’t like me running a company because my father was also an entrepreneur and my mom was a programmer. Both of them were worried about me, but they know that once I decide on something, I don’t accept other opinions.

nHow did you start the business?n

In the first year, I did things by myself and crowdsourced services. After one year, I started to hire people. My first employee was my sister-in-law, and then I hired my friends, and my friends’ friends. This was very difficult because I didn’t have experience or direction. So, everything was my first experience. After two years, I stopped outsourcing and started to hire programmers and designers.

nWhat is the attitude toward the sharing economy in Japan?n

Japan has many stereotypes. For example, big companies are great; stay in one company for your whole life.

But Japan has already changed its mind about freelancing and the labor market—only a little and only in Tokyo. Because freelancers, especially programmers, designers, and writers, can work from anywhere, there is so much opportunity in the countryside where the cost of living is low.

But I don’t think there is wide adoption of freelancing in the countryside. This is because of the mind. City people, especially those in the center of Tokyo, are more international and flexible. The minds of the people in the countryside are very old and dependent on people.

The people who have experience using sharing economy services are at 1 percent in Japan. Only 1 percent. But in the US it’s 25 percent or 30 percent.

I think the sharing economy system is really fit for Japanese people, but they don’t like the internet very much, and they don’t like new services and new platforms. That’s why it’s difficult to penetrate this system soon.

I think we need more time—maybe five to 10 years.

nIf you could change one thing about Japan, what would it be?n

Education.

Currently, the Japanese education system is very strict and has no flexibility. I think flexibility is really important for innovation. People should have options on how to live and how to work. This is important for them to be able to choose their work and lifestyles.

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The bigger question around Anytimes and around the sharing economy in Japan in general is a matter of customer acquisition. As Tsunoda pointed out, less than 1 percent of Japanese have ever used a sharing economy product or service, and many Japanese are still unfamiliar with the basic concept.

And yet, Japanese cities seem like the perfect place for sharing economies to thrive. There is a high population density, so people are close. Houses are small, so being able to borrow rather than to buy things is a huge advantage. And although this is really hard to quantify, there is a high level of trust in the Japanese society. The respect for other people and their property is almost unequaled around the world, and yet the sharing economy has not really taken root here.

But I think it will. It might just take time, a triggering event, or a killer app. But sooner or later, we’re going to see the sharing economy flourish in Japan.

Read more from this series here.