Japan's real estate industry has long been shaped by chronically long working hours and analog, paper-based processes, and raising productivity has been a persistent challenge for the sector. Today, however, a wave of digital transformation is finally reaching the industry, and at the same time the importance of management that genuinely invests in people is being reconsidered. Written for readers who already have experience in real estate, this article introduces the approach INA takes to raising labor productivity, viewed through the twin lenses of technology adoption and investment in what we call "human capital" (人財, jinzai).
What labor-productivity challenges does the real estate industry face?
Three structural problems — a culture of long working hours, analog business processes, and knowledge that accumulates in individual employees rather than the organization — keep Japan's real estate industry at a productivity level that is low even by international standards.
- A culture of long working hours: Because the scope of the work is broad and varied, firms often have little choice but to rely on sheer headcount, which tends to push working hours upward. Inefficient practices such as sending property listings by fax or filling out handwritten daily reports still persist in parts of the industry — a level of paper dependency that would strike many U.S. or European brokerages, which digitized listing and reporting workflows through MLS-style platforms years ago, as strikingly old-fashioned.
- Analog business processes: Paper contracts and a business culture built around face-to-face meetings mean digitization has lagged behind many other industries. Electronic signatures and remote-first transaction workflows, now routine in Western residential and commercial brokerage, only began gaining real traction in Japan in the past several years, partly due to legal requirements around in-person disclosure that have only recently been relaxed.
- Knowledge that stays with individuals rather than the organization: Sales and management approaches still rely heavily on individual experience and instinct, and work tends to become tied to specific employees rather than captured as institutional knowledge that the whole team can draw on.
Some reports put Japan's real estate productivity at just 27.1 when the United States is indexed at 100 — meaning Japanese real estate firms generate roughly a quarter of the output per worker that their American counterparts do. It is clear that greater efficiency and genuine workstyle reform are urgent priorities for the industry as a whole.
How can technology be used to improve operational efficiency?
Strategically deploying three technologies — RPA, AI, and cloud systems — can eliminate analog inefficiency and free employees to focus on higher-value work.
- Adopting RPA (Robotic Process Automation): Companies are introducing RPA to automate routine clerical tasks and data entry. One major industry player, for example, combined AI and RPA to automate the creation of property flyers, reportedly cutting roughly 20,000 work-hours per year — a scale of savings comparable to what U.S. brokerages have achieved by automating MLS listing syndication and marketing-collateral generation.
- Using AI technology: AI-driven handling of tenant inquiries and automated classification and analysis of property data are reducing the burden on staff while improving service quality at the same time.
- Adopting cloud systems: Introducing cloud-based CRM for customer and property-information management has cut working time to roughly one-third of what it used to be and substantially increased the number of properties a single agent can present to a client — a productivity gain on the same order as what U.S. brokerages report after moving from legacy desktop software to cloud-native CRM platforms.
Why does treating people as "human capital" — investment and employee development — matter so much?
At INA, we do not see people as mere labor. We regard them as the company's irreplaceable "human capital" (人財, jinzai) and are convinced that investing in employees' growth is the foundation of sustainable company growth.
What INA prioritizes above all else in management is the growth of its jinzai — not the more conventional term jinzai written with the character for "material," but one written with the character for "treasure," a deliberate distinction that signals people are an asset to be invested in rather than a resource to be consumed. To help every employee build skills steadily, we provide substantial in-house training programs and hands-on learning through on-the-job training. We are also cultivating a culture in which knowledge gained through daily work is shared across the team, building up institutional knowledge that belongs to the organization rather than any one individual — the same problem U.S. firms have historically tried to solve through structured mentorship programs and shared CRM playbooks.
This continuous investment in human capital creates a virtuous cycle: as employees grow and build their capabilities, operational efficiency and service quality rise, which in turn improves customer satisfaction and company profitability. Beyond developing pure job skills, we also put real effort into sharing our corporate philosophy throughout the organization. Behind this lies a conviction that true competitive advantage comes from people who resonate with the company's values, understand their own role, and act on their own initiative.
What does a management policy that prioritizes sustainable growth and social value over short-term profit look like?
Rather than being driven by quarterly sales figures or immediate profit, INA makes decisions from a long-term vantage point, and it is this discipline that builds a genuinely strong company. We believe profit is the result of continuing to deliver value to society, not a goal to be chased directly.
Another pillar of INA's management philosophy is the idea that sustainable growth and delivering value to society should take priority over short-term profit. Spending on new technology adoption or employee development is treated not as a short-term cost increase but as an investment in the future — a framing much closer to how patient, long-horizon institutional investors in the U.S. and Europe describe their own capital-allocation philosophy than the quarterly-earnings mindset often associated with publicly traded companies.
In our rental management business, we use the latest IT tools to compress the middle margin that would otherwise be captured between owner and service provider, and return that value to both owners and partner companies. This raises satisfaction on both the supply and demand sides of the business and, in turn, drives sustainable growth for the business as a whole.
How do you build a workplace where front-line employees find their work genuinely rewarding?
A workplace built around three pillars — opportunities for personal growth, meaningful autonomy, and fair evaluation — is what raises employee motivation and a genuine sense of purpose.
What INA aims to build is a workplace where every front-line employee can work with high motivation and a genuine sense of purpose. Employees are encouraged to take on new work and new projects proactively, within a psychologically safe environment where failure is treated as fuel for growth rather than something to fear — an ethos closer to Silicon Valley's "fail fast, learn faster" culture than to the risk-averse, seniority-driven norms still common at many traditional Japanese companies.
Granting real autonomy matters just as much. On-the-ground judgment is respected, and even junior staff are frequently entrusted with important projects and given the chance to propose and carry out their own ideas.
Fair evaluation is equally indispensable. The real estate industry has traditionally operated under a multi-layered structure of prime contractors and subcontractors, under which fair recognition and profit have often failed to reach the people actually doing the work on the ground — a dynamic with clear parallels to the subcontracting hierarchies found in U.S. and U.K. construction and facilities management, where the workers closest to the tenant are often paid least and recognized least. INA works to correct this by enforcing transparency and fairness both inside and outside the company. We have also built compensation and incentive systems tied directly to performance, so that employees can genuinely feel that "hard work is properly rewarded."
What sustainable future does the fusion of people and technology create?
With the power of technology and investment in human capital as its two wheels, INA is pursuing an approach that raises both productivity and corporate value at once, an approach that is beginning to transform how the wider real estate industry works.
INA is pursuing an approach built on two pillars working together — the power of technology, and investment in human capital — to raise productivity and corporate value simultaneously. By confronting the industry's deep-rooted problems of long working hours and knowledge trapped in individuals head-on, and combining operational innovation driven by the latest technology with a management philosophy that genuinely values and develops people, we are working to achieve sustainable growth.
This approach is not simply about improving internal efficiency — it is meant to raise a genuine challenge to how the real estate industry as a whole approaches work. Employees who find purpose in their work and bring real energy to it; a company trusted by customers and partners; a business that continues to contribute to society. To keep building toward that future, INA will keep embracing change and keep taking on new challenges.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)
How does Japan's real estate labor productivity compare internationally?
Some reports put Japan's real estate industry productivity at just 27.1 when the United States is indexed at 100. Long working hours and the persistence of analog processes are the main causes, and adopting technology while reforming business processes is considered an urgent priority.
How much efficiency gain can be expected from adopting RPA?
One major industry player combined AI and RPA to automate the creation of property flyers, achieving an estimated 20,000 hours of work-hour savings per year. By automating routine tasks such as drafting and checking contract documents or updating property listings, front-line employees are freed up to spend more time on customer service and proposal work.
What are the concrete benefits of adopting a cloud system?
After introducing cloud-based CRM for customer and property-information management, INA cut working time to roughly one-third of what it used to be and substantially increased the number of properties agents can present to clients. Anyone in the company can now access the information they need instantly, and sharing and accumulating what used to be individually held knowledge has become far smoother.
