On March 1, 2022, Net Protections, Inc. (Headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Shin Shibata, “Net Protections”) has launched “NP Atobarai air,” BNPL payment service for BtoC market, for TOKYO GAS Co., Ltd. (Headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; CEO: Takashi Uchida,”Tokyo Gas”) to its Vacant House Management Service “JIKKA NO OMAMORI.”
Background to the Adoption of NP Atobarai air
The Vacant House Management Service “JIKKA NO OMAMORI” offered by TOKYO GAS (https://home.tokyo-gas.co.jp/service/vacant_house/index.html) is a service aimed at resolving the vacant house issue, one of the social issues in Japan today. According to the Housing and Land Survey 2018 published by the Statistics Bureau, Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the number of vacant houses has reached more than 8.4 million across Japan, of which Tokyo and three prefectures combined account for approximately 25%. In fact, the vacant house issue has rapidly become a major social problem in urban areas of Japan. The owners of vacant houses and local governments are urged to take action since the houses left vacant often cause negative impacts on local communities, such as deterioration in public health, landscape, and public security. In response, the demand for managing vacant houses is expected to grow in the years ahead.
The main users of the Vacant House Management Service,“JIKKA NO OMAMORI,” are those in their 40s to 50s who are busy with their jobs and whose parents have moved to nursing care or similar facilities and thus have vacated their houses. Actually, many of these vacant houses are owned in the name of parents but managed by their sons and daughters, and it is expected that the service fee is often paid by their sons and daughters. As such, it is assumed that the payment methods such as account transfer, which are linked closely to actual owners of these houses, could put a higher burden on payment procedures on their children. In addition, when compared to younger generations, some of this generation are accustomed to cash payment and thus prefer to make payments offline using bills at such as convenience stores, and post offices. Therefore, the addition of convenient payment methods, other than payment by credit cards, has been considered to enhance user experience.
“NP Atobarai air” is a BtoC BNPL service. “NP Atobarai air” allows the subscribed companies to provide their users with BNPL using bills. Users are able to pay by bringing the bills to convenience stores, banks or post offices after the purchase of products.
Also, once the companies register the information about the recipients of bills, namely the users of their services, such as their names and addresses, “NP Atobarai air” undertakes end-to-end billing operations, from issuance to collection of bills to payment confirmation and also guarantees to compensate for potential losses from delinquent payment, improving the efficiency of billing operations and eliminating risks associated with delinquency.
As a result, Tokyo gas has decided to introduce “NP Atobarai air” in view of the benefits of the service, such as the ability to better respond to user needs, enhanced convenience, and improved efficiency in billing operations, and with a view to further market and business growth in the future.
Comment by Mr. Shin Mochizuki, Life Service Business Promotion Dept., Tokyo gas
Since the vacant house management service “JIKKA NO OMAMORI” is a service for families, we have long considered implementing a more flexible payment method, such as “NP Atobarai air,” than conventional methods linked closely to individuals like account transfer. “NP Atobarai air” facilitates the delivery of services such as vacant house management services where the owners of vacant houses (parents) and the payers for the service fee (children) are different, because all we need for billing is to register their names, addresses, and telephone numbers.
Further, “NP Atobarai air” allows the children of the owners of vacant houses to pay their bills at nearby locations such as convenience stores and post offices after they have received bills at home, thereby meeting the needs of the users who hope to pay the fees for vacant house management services at convenience stores at the same time when paying their parents’ utilities fees to save their time and energy and improve user convenience.
Tokyo gas has introduced “NP Atobarai air” for its “Tokyo gas’s House Cleaning Service” since 2021, and has recognized a certain user need for BNPL. The users of the house cleaning service range widely in age. In fact, assuming that some of these users have no e-mail addresses or credit cards, we have introduced BNPL as an alternative to cash payment in a bid to provide all users with a secure and convenient service experience. The result is about 30% of all users have chosen BNPL. Driven by this track record and our desire to provide a more convenient user experience by introducing “NP Atobarai air”, we have decided to introduce the service especially for the type of users who are not accustomed to registering information online for credit card payment and prefer to use offline payment methods such as cash payment.
About Vacant House Management Service “Care for Your Parents’ Home”
Vacant House Management Service "Care for Your Parents' Home" is a service Tokyo gas has provided in order to resolve the vacant house issue which has come under the spotlight as a social issue. The service brings a sense of security to users by maintaining vacant houses once a month on behalf of their owners/their children and reporting on the status of the houses periodically.
Name of the Service: JIKKA NO OMAMORI
Service Fee: 9,900 yen ~ (tax included, per visit) under the Basic Plan
URL/Details of the Service: https://home.tokyo-gas.co.jp/service/vacant_house/index.html
About NP Atobarai air
"NP Atobarai air" is B2C Buy Now Pay Later service for a wide variety of operational needs for day-to-day services. It can be used in various fields such as home appliance repair, maintenance, home/office cleaning, and rental services. With its simplified process, NP Atobarai air allows merchants to handle complicated procedures such as invoice issuing, collecting, payment confirmation, and customers` unpaid risk prevention. Also, it offers customers various payment options such as wire-transfer, convenience store payment, Post Office payment, and LINE Pay.
Service launched: July 2015
Service fee※: transaction fee starts from 2.9%~, monthly fee (tax excluded): JPY 0 ~ JPY 48,000, invoice fee (tax excluded): JPY 190
Main functions: credit screening, billing, collection, payment confirmation, payment reminder, risk management
For further information regarding NP Atobarai air:
https://www.netprotections.com/air (Japanese only)
※ Service fee is subject to change depending on businesses and service details.
※ A receipt of JPY 50,000 or more at convenience stores incurs an additional fee of JPY 200 as a revenue stamp cost.
※ A receipt of JPY 50,000 or more at Japan Post Bank or post office incurs an additional fee of JPY 210 by Japan Post Bank (tax included).
※ Cancellation after billing incurs JPY 190 (tax excluded) as the cost of invoice and postage.
※ Service could be restricted depending on the result of credit screening.
※ Service fee is tax-exempt.
Overview of Net Protections, Inc.
Net Protections, Inc. is a pioneer company in Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) services in Japan and leading the market with the largest market share (※A). In 2002, Net Protections launched its first service, NP Atobarai, a BNPL that guarantees risk-free transactions for businesses and provides a deferred payment for customers in Japan for the first time. In FY2020, NP Atobarai’s annual transaction volume has hit the growth rate of 116% compared to the previous fiscal year. NP Atobarai is used by numerous enterprises with over 15.8 million unique users in Japan (※B) and has processed more than 280 million transactions to date. In 2011, Net Protections released NP Kakebarai, a BNPL service for BtoB. NP Kakebarai has grown 127% yearly and played a role as the dominant BtoB payment service in Japan. In 2017, Net Protections launched atone, BtoC BNPL service with membership benefits that offers better shopping experience. In 2018, Net Protections released AFTEE, BtoC BNPL service in Taiwan. Net Protections has accumulated transaction data and knowledge since its first service launched, which has enabled to build the sophisticated credit screening system and solid operation skills. Net Protections always pursues to create the society where everyone can do business safely and easily. As a teal organization, Net Protections always makes an effort to provide a positive influence on society and supports members' self-actualization. Working Group program allows members to devote 20% of their working hours to do what they are interested in besides their main work. Also, welfare benefits, Cocotte is for all members. In recent years, Net Protections has continued to make changes to enhance its dynamic work environment, including the introduction of the Natura system in 2018 which abolished manager positions.
【Company Name】
Net Protections, Inc.
【CEO】
Shin Shibata
【Website】
https://corp.netprotections.com/
【Business Outline】
BtoC E-Commerce BNPL Payment Service “NP Atobarai”（”Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL)” Service）
BtoB BNPL Payment Service “NP Kakebarai”
BtoC BNPL Payment Service “NP Atobarai air” for day-to-day services
BtoC BNPL Payment Service with membership benefits “atone”
BtoC BNPL Payment Service in Taiwan “AFTEE”
Point Reward Program: NP Point Club
【Founded】
January, 2000
【Capital】
JPY 100 million
【Headquarter】
SUMITOMO FUDOSAN KOJIMACHI FIRST BUILDING 5F, 4-2-6 Kojimachi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo 102-0083 Japan
※A）Calculated based on the estimated size of BNPL market in Japan of JPY882 billion in FY2020 and the aggregate of GMV of NP Atobarai and atone in FY2020 of JPY360 billion. The estimated size of BNPL market in Japan is provided from Yano Research Institute “Online Payment/Settlement Service Providers 2021”
※B）The number of individual unique users of NP Atobarai based on the matching of duplicative names and phone numbers during FY3/2021 (April 1, 2020 to March 31, 2021).
About Tokyo gas
【Company Name】
Tokyo Gas Co., Ltd.
【CEO】
Takashi Uchida
【Website】
https://www.tokyo-gas.co.jp/
【Business Outline】
Gas (Production, supply and sale of city gas, liquid gas business, LNG sales, etc.)
Electric power (Production, supply and sale of electricity)
Overseas business (Overseas upstream business, midstream and downstream business)
Energy-related (Engineering solution business, gas appliances, gas installation work, construction, etc.)
Real estate (Leasing and management of land and buildings, etc.)
Others (Information processing service, shipping business, etc.)
【Founded】
October, 1885
【Capital】
141.8 billion JPY
【Headquarter】
1-5-20 Kaigan, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-8527, Japan
Direct any inquiries regarding this release to:
Direct any inquiries regarding this release to:
JCB
EMAIL：jcb-pr@jcb.co.jp
Net Protections, Inc.
EMAIL：pr@netprotections.co.jp
