Rental-storage first appeared roughly 40-years ago in the United States, where it is generally known as "self-storage." Over that 40-year period, US capacity has averaged 10% annual growth to reach roughly US$23 billion (JPY1.8 trillion) today. In the US, one in ten households uses rental storage resulting in 10% penetration. Over the past 20 years, rental-storage also appeared, and has exhibited similar growth rates in Canada, Australia, the UK, Europe, Hong Kong and Singapore.
The Japanese market for rental-storage emerged in the 1990's when warehousing companies began renting industrial space to consumers, owners of obsolete office buildings began renting makeshift closets to consumers, and owners of vacant land rented outdoor shipping containers to consumers. The safety, cleanliness and accessibility of these products varied, but was generally low.
In 2002, Quraz opened…and since then we have opened a total of 64 shops in ten of Japan’s largest cities, with a total capacity of 38,000 storage units and growing. We’ve averaged over 30% compound annual revenue growth since 2006.
Our two primary competitors, Arealink (dba Hello Storage) and Reisebox, serve the market with alternative business models. Arealink typically leases single or multiple floors in underutilized office buildings, installs 50-100 storage units with access control, and sublets space to end users. The majority of rental storage facilities in Japan are operated under lease, similar to Arealinks business model. Alternatively Reisebox typically contracts with land owners to construct a pre-fabricated, two floor storage facility equipped with access controls, turns the facility over to the land owner, and manages the facility for the land owner.
We estimate that Arealink and Reisebox maintain 16% and 12% of the indoor rental storage market, respectively, as measured by revenue. The top five indoor rental storage competitors including Kase Soko and Terrada Soko, represent approximately 60% of the market.
Today, Quraz is the indoor rental-storage market leader, with approximately 25% share of the JPY30 billion market. For 8 years in a row, 2010-2017, as a result of years of commitment to our mission, the market and to our customers, Quraz was ranked #1 overall in the rental-storage customer satisfaction ranking by Oricon.
Industry Information
Please follow the links below for more information on the self-storage industry in Japan.
Self-storage business - Unique and up-to-date use of land
Interviewer: Fumio Fukuoka, Counselor of FRK (Association of Real Estate Agents of Japan)
As a new attempt for the June issue, we have highlighted a field of the real estate industry which is still not well-known, and have looked into the realities of the field. Have you ever used “self-storage”? Many of you may have heard of it, but may have never used it before or may not know much about it. We have covered the self-storage business, a new and effective use of lands.........
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The Japanese Self-Storage Industry: An Overview, Including a Comparison to the U.S. Market
By Stephen Spohn
In comparison to other self-storage markets in the world, Japan’s is significant as measured by revenue but relatively young and undeveloped as measured by saturation. For the last decade, storage supply has been growing, and it continues to grow by roughly 10 percent per year......
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The Challenges Facing Japan's Self-Storage Operators and the Solutions They Create to Meet Them
By Tatsuya Saji
Operators of self-storage businesses in Japan face many of the same challenges U.S. operators once experienced. One of the biggest obstacles is public awareness of the service. The Japanese don’t yet recognize self-storage as a convenient lifestyle option.
We call self-storage facilities “trunk rooms,”......
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Surviving and Thriving: Japan’s self-storage industry is poised for growth as the nation recovers.
By Mark Wright
“The Japanese know you cannot live without facing earthquakes,” observes Saji. “We are right on top of the fault. Japanese know how to deal with it and somewhat expect it will happen. But a tsunami happens only once every 40 to 70 years, so this was quite a shock.”......
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Continuously Growing Self-Storage Market Quraz Expands its Clout Centering on Metropolitan Areas
PM Editorial Desk: Coverage and Features
“Self-storage,” which includes “trunk-room” or “rental-storage space,” is a generic term used to describe a space mainly intended for general consumers to store or house their personal belongings. Today in Japan, the self-storage industry is gradually gaining recognition among consumers and, ......
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