Rapidly Growing Japanese Workation Market... Partnering with Korea to Capture Demand

[Interview] Kenji Sunada, Founder of Japan's Largest Workation Platform HafH
Market Expected to Grow Fivefold by 2025; Japan's Digital Transformation Progress Slow

Kenji Sunada, CEO, explaining the service of HafH, Japan's largest workation (work + vacation) platform. Photo by KabuK Style

[Asia Economy Reporter Kim Heeyoon] Japan's largest workation (a compound of Work + Vacation) platform ‘HafH’ has gained attention as a new service, recording explosive subscription rates alongside the spread of remote work after COVID-19. Kenji Sunada, CEO of KabuK Style, the company that founded HafH (photo), recently visited Korea to promote collaboration with domestic tourism startups. In an interview with Asia Economy, he stated, "We aim to introduce data transmission and service integration programs through collaboration with Korean tourism venture companies, which are rapidly advancing digital transformation (DX)."

Japan's workation market is growing rapidly. According to the ‘Japan Domestic Workation Market Survey Report’ released by Yano Research Institute in March last year, the Japanese workation market is expected to grow from 69.9 billion yen in 2020 to 362.2 billion yen in 2025, a fivefold increase. Especially with the surge in demand for remote work triggered by the spread of COVID-19, the Japanese government and local governments are promoting workation activation, which is expected to further expand the market.

CEO Sunada said, "The government and local governments, focusing on the market potential of workation, are actively promoting projects, but corporate-level workation is still not very active, so we are directly planning and proposing related services. From the end of this year, when workation is expected to become full-fledged, a system to handle the increasing demand will be necessary. However, digital transformation in the Japanese travel industry is progressing very slowly, so we decided to collaborate with Korean tourism venture companies through the Korea Tourism Organization," he said.

Kenji Sunada, CEO of Kabukustyle.

In Japan, where FAX, long disappeared in Korea, remains a major communication tool, this has become a factor hindering the expansion of digital services. Last year, when Taro Kono, then Minister for Administrative Reform, pushed for the abolition of fax machines within government ministries, some ministries opposed the switch to email, citing concerns about information leaks due to cyberattacks as a representative case.

CEO Sunada pointed out, "While foreign-affiliated hotels have rapidly undergone digital transformation, many Japanese and regional hotels still use fax machines, making it difficult to receive data in real time, and we are investing enormous amounts of money and time to integrate with other services."

He particularly focused on cloud-based services of Korean venture companies. His goal is to introduce the fast PMS (Property Management System) of domestic tourism companies to Japan.

He explained, "PMS, a core service of tourism tech, allows online management of everything from room reservations to check-in/check-out, room management, and customer reservation information at a glance, reducing additional labor burdens and helping companies focus on customer service and marketing. We plan to enhance customer satisfaction by introducing cloud-based PMS programs from technology-driven Korean tourism venture companies."

CEO Sunada, who sees the strengths of Korean tourism venture companies in technology and innovation, pointed out, "Korea leads in cloud-based PMS services and has seen large-scale investments in ventures like Onda, which has driven technological development, whereas Japan has yet to attract comparable investment in PMS companies."

He also noted, "I paid attention to the technological and innovative aspects such as Bandit's kiosk system, which enables unmanned accommodation operations." He added, "Compared to Japan's OTA (Online Travel Agency)-platform-centered travel industry, we aim to promote collaboration based on the evolved systems of Korean tourism venture companies."

HafH is not only collaborating with domestic companies but also pushing for entry into the Korean market, where there is high demand for Japanese tourism. CEO Sunada explained, "HafH has already proven its capabilities by successfully collaborating with airlines such as JAL, ANA, Peach, and top hotel chains like Hyatt, Marriott, Prince Hotels, and Hoshino Resorts, as well as mobility businesses in Japan."

He said, "Through collaboration with Korean airlines and travel agencies, we plan to launch various cooperative programs as soon as the movement between the two countries, which has been restricted due to COVID-19, becomes freer, possibly as early as the beginning of next year."

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.