Contents

• Purpose, Mission, and Vision
• What is NINJA KOTAN?
• Introduction of company logo and brand logo
• Message from the President
• Disclosure of our costs

 

• Purpose, Mission, and Vision

Purpose

To create a society where everyone can move freely and make people happy.

Mission (Management philosophy)

Focusing on diversity and creativity

Overturn commonly accepted norms and solve problems and challenges.

Strive with integrity and be an ethical company.

Vision

Create the future of travel

Our business policy

Hire employees who like to travel
Pay high salaries
Focus on ideas
Be customer-focused
Focus on climate action and diversity

Bridging Travel Divide

 
We aim to bridge the travel divide (*) and "leave nothing but happiness in travel." To achieve this, we free travelers from the hassle of luggage, free them from creating cumbersome itineraries and provide them with experiences. As a result, it makes a significant contribution to climate change issues.

(*) Travel Divide is a term inspired by the “Digital Divide.” The travel divide refers to the phenomenon whereby the elderly, disabled people and families with young children often give up traveling, partly because of challenges like heavy baggage and a lack of travel information.

 

• What is NINJA KOTAN?

We will explain why we use the service name NINJA KOTAN, our registered trademark.

KOTAN means “Village” in the Ainu language. Therefore, NINJA KOTAN stands for “Ninja Village.”

We used the Ainu language because I am a graduate of Hokkaido University. The Ainu people are indigenous to Japan and still live mainly in Hokkaido. We see the Ainu people as a symbol of diversity and environmental protection. The Ainu language also aligns with the better society we aim for.

“Ninja” jumps lightly, so we used it as the name because the image of “light and not carrying luggage” matches “Easy travel.” It would be easy to understand that the Ninja is famous in Japan and foreign countries.

“Village” is attached to the meaning of the community. We believe that the participation and cooperation of many people are necessary to realize our “Purpose” of “Creating a society where everyone can move freely and make people happy.”

“Easy travel” is more than renting what you need at your destination. Travel destination information is also indispensable for “Easy travel.” Therefore, we will actively disseminate travel information. It would be great if all of these things developed as a community.

The above is the origin of NINJA KOTAN.

 

• Introduction of company logo and brand logo

 

1: Company logo

For the company logo, EDO KAGURA Corporation asked a designer to create a logo with the image of a "Kagura costume." Our services prevent travelers from carrying checked baggage on board their planes. Travelers can reduce CO2 emissions significantly by zero-checked baggage. We chose black-green with the image of a deep forest. Our services contribute to sustainable travel and can help limit climate change.




Kagura is a song and dance performance dedicated to the gods in the Japanese Shinto religion. Kagura has a history of more than 1,000 years. The shrines where Kagura is reserved characterized architectural style as "simplicity." Our services are also characterized by "simplicity," as we procure clothing and other necessary items locally (in Japan). So that travelers don't have to carry large luggage. We believe that there is "Nothing Beats Simplicity." With this "simple" travel style, we hope to bridge the travel divide, a social issue faced by people with mobility difficulties, such as the elderly, people with disabilities, and families with children.


2: Brand logo

The logo for the brand name "NINJA KOTAN" is a picture of an owl inspired by Ainu patterns. We incorporated the Ainu pattern into the logo design because KOTAN means "Village" in the Ainu language. The owl is also the guardian deity of the Ainu people. And the owl is considered a "bird of good luck" worldwide. Like the company logo, we choose black-green to reflect the forest image.

We already registered our service name NINJA KOTAN as a trademark.

3: Helping limit climate change and bridging the travel divide

We want to bring happiness to many people as possible by helping limit climate change and bridging the travel divide. Our company logo and the logo of our service name reflect this desire.

 

 

• Message from the President

1: My problems with travel
2: Common traveler frustrations
3: Making travel easier
4: Bridging the travel divide
5: About me

 

1: My problems with travel

I love to travel. I have visited 43 countries and traveled to all of Japan’s 47 prefectures multiple times. I have traveled almost every two or three months for the past three decades. All my trips have been independent.

Despite this, I have always had the same complaints, especially when traveling abroad. My first issue is the baggage I must carry, and my second is the hassle of looking up tourist information for each destination.

My overseas trips tend to be long—anything from one week to ten days—which makes for a lot of hassle preparing baggage before I leave, transporting baggage during my trip, and washing and cleaning when I get home. I also have concerns about the CO2 emissions from checking heavy baggage every time I fly. What is more, not much tourist information is available in Japanese about the countries I visit, and it is extremely difficult to gather information in English or in the local language.

2: Common traveler frustrations

I decided to find out if other travelers felt the same as me. I found a slightly older survey from JTB (2007) that said that travelers’ number one hassle when preparing for an overseas trip was “preparing baggage” (at 22%), and their number one hassle after getting home was “cleaning up/washing” (at 48%). In a 2022 Booking.com survey, 41% of global travelers said they wanted to try to reduce their impact on the global environment, and 33% said they wanted to take action to reduce their transport-related CO2 emissions. And in a 2019 Hotels.com survey, 32% of millennial travelers identified “planning a trip” as one of their biggest stresses.

3: Making travel easier

It turned out that many travelers shared my complaints. Why was no one doing anything about it? I think that one obstacle is that travel companies still specialize in products for group tours and fail to adapt to the needs of independent travelers. This is in spite of the fact that, in 2019, the proportion of total tourism revenue from independent travelers in Japan reached 83.6% (Japan Tourism Agency’s Travel and Tourism Consumption Trends Survey), and 76.6% of travel plans such as reservations, bookings, etc., were made by individuals, overwhelmingly by independent travelers, not tours (Japan Tourism Agency’s Survey of Foreigners’ Consumption Trends in Japan).

The challenge for Japan’s tourism industry is to meet the needs of this large number of independent travelers. I established EDO KAGURA in December 2021 to do just that. Our two main services are renting travel goods (clothing etc.) and providing travel information through itineraries and so on. To begin with, we are providing our services to foreign visitors to Japan, but in the future, we plan to extend our services to Japanese people traveling abroad.

By renting travel items, especially clothing, locally, we liberate travelers from having to carry baggage. There is no need to pack and check baggage when you fly, and no need to wash and clean after getting home. Not checking baggage also significantly reduces a trip’s CO2 emissions: the reduction in CO2 emissions from not carrying 20 kg of baggage on the average round trip between Narita, Japan, and 19 major countries is equivalent to the impact of planting 186 trees. And not checking baggage also means zero risk of losing baggage in transit.

By providing travel information in the form of itineraries, we aim to take the hard work out of travel planning. We believe this service will be particularly welcomed by travelers who value productivity. The travel database we have created already contains information on more than 20,000 Japanese tourist destinations.

 

4: Bridging the travel divide

I believe that by easing the burden that things like baggage and trip planning place on travelers, we can help achieve universal tourism (travel that is accessible to all) and universal design (design centered around accessibility). We can bridge what I have dubbed the “travel divide” (a term inspired by the “digital divide”). The travel divide refers to the phenomenon whereby the elderly, disabled people and families with young children often give up traveling, partly because of challenges like heavy baggage and a lack of travel information.

The number of travelers in Japan aged 70 and up is falling sharply: in 2019, the average number of domestic trips made by this demographic fell by 34% and international trips by 72%. Overseas family travel with infants and toddlers fell by 27%.

Our Purpose is to create a society where everyone can travel freely and happily. We want to create a society where everyone can travel, which we love.

5: About me

My first overseas trip was a 40-day solo backpacking trip to India and Nepal, inspired by books such as Kotaro Sawaki’s Midnight Express, Makoto Shiina's India, Kappa Seo's India, and Jinichi Kuramae's Go Go India and Go Go Asia. I experienced huge culture shock and thought about many things, including the meaning of life.

Taiwan is the country I have visited the most. I have been there more than 30 times. I fell in love with Taiwan’s delicious food and the warmth of the Taiwanese people. I also worked in Hong Kong for about three years.

My favorite thing to do when I travel is to eat in restaurants that are crowded with locals. Most of the restaurants I visit are not high-class ones, but casual eateries such as street stalls and cafeterias.

Note that our company has been certified as a start-up company by Shinjuku City and has an office at the Shinjuku City Takadanobaba Business Incubation Support Center. We have also completed the TOKYO Foundation Station’s Plan Consulting business plan support program.

See also "List of countries visited by the President".

  

• Disclosure of our costs

Our Purpose and Mission

 Through our businesses, clothing rental services, and concierge services, we hope to realize our purpose of existence (Purpose): "to create a society where everyone can move freely and make people happy." We also plan to manage our business in line with our three management principles (mission):
To value diversity and bring out creativity.
To overturn common sense and solve problems and issues.
To strive with integrity and conduct business ethically.

 

World's first business. We want to be an ethical and transparent company.

To the best of our knowledge, this is the first business in the world to combine a clothing rental service for travelers with a pre-travel concierge. As such, it will be difficult for many people to understand our costs, and some travelers may be concerned about the price of our services. We want to be an ethical company and recognize that transparency in management is essential. For this reason, we have decided to disclose our costs and offer our services at the same price as our costs.

Cost per person for 6 nights and 7 days

Clothing rental costs USD141
Delivery and packaging costs USD68
Cleaning costs USD36
Fixed costs (e.g., labor, office, and advertising costs) USD91
Concierge costs USD127 (Free for first 100 registrants)
Subtotal USD464
Consumption tax (10%) USD46
Foreign exchange commission, etc. USD 30
Total USD 540

Price comparison with other rental services

The average rental price for ski wear in Japan is USD33 per day, or USD1,201 if you rent 6 pieces per day for 6 days. Typical mountaineering wears rental costs USD545 for six pieces per day for six days. If you compare our price with other rental clothing services, you will understand the affordability of our worth, including the concierge fee and Furoshiki (wrapping clothes).

 

You can save 26 hours, the value of USD702

In addition, we calculate that the time creation effect of our service is 26 hours. Since the average annual income in the OECD is USD51,607, saving 26 hours saves USD702.

 

Additional savings and contributions

In addition, you can expect to save on checked baggage costs for airplanes, reduce cab fares by being lighter, and eliminate concerns about lost baggage. In addition, it will contribute to climate change (significant reduction of CO2 emissions) and accessible tourism (a society in which anyone can travel), which cannot be converted into monetary value.

To celebrate the opening of our online store, we are currently offering free concierge service to the first 100 e-mail registrants. Please take advantage of this opportunity. We hope you will judge our prices from these comprehensive perspectives.

How our Company, which offers at a price equal to the cost, makes a profit.
Our business model for clothing rental services is to purchase clothing first, rent it to customers repeatedly, and recoup the purchase cost over time. Therefore, as long as we continue to offer our clothing rental service at a price equal to its cost, we will not have a profit to purchase new clothing, and the Company will not grow.

We would be very grateful if you would take good care of the clothes you rent so that we can contribute to the fight against climate change and realize accessible tourism (a society in which anyone can travel). However, as customers wear clothes with more care and respect, and as the number of times the Company can rent the clothes increases, the Company can make a profit and purchase new clothes. We sincerely appreciate your cooperation.

The cost per night increases as the number of nights decreases because there is no significant change in delivery and packaging, cleaning, or fixed costs. If you would like to send rental clothing to more than one place of stay on a single trip, don't hesitate to contact us via email.

Shopify, our e-commerce platform, only allows us to ship one order to one location. For example, we will send you a discount coupon if the trip is 6 nights and 7 days long and is split between two different accommodation locations (two 3-night/4-day trips). We apologize for the inconvenience and for being unable to complete the reservation in one order. We appreciate your understanding.