Key facts
- Aging business owners in Japan are selling their companies to younger entrepreneurs.
- Platforms like Relay and BATONZ connect retiring owners with prospective successors.
- Kengo Ohama acquired a café for 50,000 yen in monthly rent and zero yen for the business itself.
- Akitaka Mitsui, 67, turned to BATONZ to find a successor for his guesthouse after suffering a stroke.
Japan's low birth rate and aging population are leading many small business owners to seek successors outside their families. Platforms like Relay and BATONZ are facilitating these business successions. Kengo Ohama, 31, took over Country Road, a café in Mihara, Japan, in April 2024. The previous owners, an older couple, transferred the business, including its brand and equipment, for zero yen, with Ohama paying 50,000 yen in monthly rent. He was given flexibility to redesign the interior. Akitaka Mitsui, 67, a former tour guide and owner of Mori to Mizu Backpackers in Nagano, turned to BATONZ to find a successor after suffering a stroke. Mitsui did not want his children to inherit the business. Kota Fujisawa, 29, a Nagano native working in consulting, along with two friends, took over the guesthouse in May 2024, renaming it Local Knot Backpackers, as part of an effort to revitalize his home region.