Meet young entrepreneurs giving businesses in Japan a second life as owners step away
A café changes hands
Kengo Ohama dreamed of opening a café, and found an established one through Relay, a Japanese business-succession platform. He works six days a week in Mihara, Hiroshima, preparing pastries and coffee and serving guests.
Under the takeover terms, Ohama had to keep the café operating but could redesign its interior. He said the freedom to make changes helped make the opportunity attractive.
Finding successors for businesses
Japan’s low birth rate and aging population have left many owners without adult children to inherit their companies. Potential heirs may live elsewhere, have established careers, or not want the demands of running a local business.
Relay has listed about 900 businesses, including roughly 350 active listings, a representative told Business Insider. Owners seeking successors are often in their 60s and 70s; successors are often in their 30s and 40s.
A guesthouse gets new owners
Akitaka Mitsui opened Mori to Mizu Backpackers in Nagano in 2011 after years as an outdoor tour guide. The pandemic halted travel, and a stroke later led him to consider ending his work running the guesthouse. He said he did not want his children to feel they had to take it over.
Fujisawa, 29, and two childhood friends took over in May 2024 and renamed it Local Knot Backpackers. One friend has since left. Fujisawa said the business cost less than 10 million Japanese yen and included its website, booking systems, and staff; the building was excluded.
A new route into farming
Takayuki Otawara, a 29-year-old former civil servant in Miyazaki, wanted to farm cacao after discovering craft chocolate. With no farming experience or family-owned land and greenhouse, he found a listing on Relay from a strawberry-farming family scaling back as its members got older.
Otawara now grows cacao alongside strawberries, bananas, rice, and other crops. He works on the farm every day, starting at 6 a.m. and often finishing around 7 p.m.
Key points
- In a 2023 survey, 57.4% of small and midsize businesses expected to close when current owners stepped away.
- Relay has listed about 900 businesses, with roughly 350 currently active.
- Ohama took over a café and could redesign its interior while keeping it open.
- Fujisawa and Otawara used business succession listings to pursue work in hospitality and farming.