Daiwa Living Co., Ltd.

Daiwa Living had a strong aspiration to go beyond the conventional framework of residential leasing management and operations, aiming to achieve regional revitalization through “co-creation and co-existence” with society and people's lives. However, continuing along the existing operations lacked the transformative elements needed for change, and from the standpoint of securing revenue for the entire group, there was a pressing need to take on new business challenges.
Although business ideas were being generated, the company faced difficulties in concretizing and building the necessary execution structures. In addition, when it came to co-creation for regional revitalization, Daiwa Living faced structural challenges in seamlessly connecting its branches and sales offices with the head office in building strong relationships with local governments.
Daiwa Living was looking for the specific know-how and approaches that it would need to execute on measures to contribute to regional revitalization in partnership with regional authorities, while differentiating themselves from competitors and taking advantage of their 650,000 properties (as of March 2024) across Japan and their asset numbers, which rank amongst the top group companies in the country.
To this end, Daiwa Living launched a Regional Revitalization Project in October 2022, seeking ABeam Consulting’s support in concretizing ideas and providing hands-on assistance for launching new business initiatives.

Based on "lifestyle" services, Daiwa Living has begun to concretize two initiatives as part of regional revitalization efforts aimed at realizing its ideal vision of creating a cycle that solves social issues to support "communities": 'promoting population exchange' and 'building a platform for renewable energy supply.

【Activating regional population exchange】
Since it was challenging to simultaneously promote Daiwa Living’s current businesses and launch new initiatives, the effort to revitalize regional population exchange has been led by ABeam Consulting. They began by organizing issues at the city/township/village level and goals on the municipal level, then explored initiatives that leverage Daiwa Living’s assets to contribute to regional revitalization. Through a series of discussions with municipalities and partner companies, a business model was developed to attract foreign workers with specified skills to Japan and have them live in vacant housing. This initiative not only helped activate local industries but also contributed to regional revitalization.

【Constructing renewable energy distribution platform】
Taking advantage of ABeam Consulting’s engineering know-how in the electrical field and its business insight in the GX domain, and with the aim of supplying regional residents with stable and reliable electricity, we worked with Daiwa Living to explore technical solutions enable the supply of electricity generated by solar panels— —whose fixed-price purchase period under the FIT (Feed-in Tariff) scheme has ended (“post-FIT”)—installed on Daiwa Living-managed properties, directly to residents. As a result, PoC project was launched in Saga Prefecture in fiscal year 2024. Additionally, by incorporating the latest technologies from startups, they are considering new options for project implementation, such as faster installation times and the ability to install panels on rooftops that were previously unsuitable due to weight restrictions.

To address the issue of scattered regional revitalization ideas within Daiwa Living that lacked a clear path to realization, ABeam Consulting worked closely with the company to co-create a future vision for regional revitalization. Using a backcasting approach, we designed a roadmap connecting a series of initiatives that would lead to Daiwa Living's envisioned future state. Not only proposing new business concepts but also we supported  integrate them into local government policies, established power supply methods for individual rental units, and evaluated the implementation potential of advanced overseas technologies. By combining population growth strategies through attracting foreign residents to vacant properties with regional value enhancement through renewable energy supply initiatives, we fostered a model for solving future societal challenges through industry-government-academia collaboration.
Daiwa Living recognized our contributions as 'practical implementation by a group of experts going beyond traditional consulting services.' ABeam Consulting released a press information about this initiative in Saga Prefecture. In addition, the company has developed a one-stop, multifaceted solution that leveraged diverse talent and our extensive human networks — from identifying and implementing overseas startup technologies,  to engaging directly with local governments to discuss countermeasures against population decline, attracting workers to target regions, and managing business operations.