Ryo Osera, 39, and Kenji Sunada, 38, are the co-founders of KabuK Style, a Nagasaki-based startup that launched its subscription travel service, HafH (Home Away from Home) in 2019. HafH lets travelers pay a monthly fee to book stays in a network of hotels, Japanese-style inns and hostels as well as booking domestic flights with Japan Airlines.

1. How did you come to start KabuK Style and HafH (Home away from Home)?

Osera: I’m originally from Nagasaki. I worked at Dentsu and focused on community-building projects like the Nagasaki Archive. In 2019, I saw the opportunities in remote working and decided to go all in by creating KabuK Style with Kenji Sunada.

Sunada: I’m from Fukuoka and worked in the equity securities industry before founding KabuK Style in 2018 and launching HafH in 2019 with Ryo Osera.

2. What are the advantages of a subscription for travel?

Sunada: The price of a subscription is fixed, while the prices on the open travel market are really volatile, especially with airfare, which is why we recently partnered with Japan Airlines (JAL).

Osera: It encourages people to travel to local places they may not have considered. Just as you might give a new show on Netflix a try.

3. What kind of people are subscribing to HafH so far?

Osera: People who make travel a part of their lifestyle and salaried workers who use it once every few months for business travel or remote work.

Sunada: Young professionals, 75% of whom are under 30 years old and 60% or more are full-time company employees.

4. How do your partners in the hotel and transportation industry benefit?

Sunada: We’re creating new demand. In Japan the travel market is dominated by middle-age and elderly travelers. Being listed on HafH gives our partners access to younger, more diverse travelers.

5. How does a subscription work for flights?

Sunada: The oligopoly of Japan’s airline industry means JAL has to maintain local routes even in low demand. JAL believes our subscription model increases demand with younger travelers by activating those less popular routes.

6. Flights don’t seem like something a person pays for in advance without having a destination and travel date in mind. Am I wrong about that?

Osera: Yes! (laughs) Think of it like this. Instead of deciding where to travel and then choosing a flight, you decide to buy a flight and then think about where to travel with your price already set. During our trial run 80% of users signed up without a destination in mind.

7. How do your subscribers choose where they will travel?

Sunada: HafH subscribers receive “HafH coins” each month that roll over if they are left unused, similar to points in a loyalty program. You pick hotels and flight destinations based on your accruing HafH coin budget and cash. This year we gamified JAL flights with a "gatcha" system to encourage travel to lesser known destinations. It’s like travel roulette.

8. I imagine there are some restrictions on which airports or routes can be used?

Sunada: You can use almost all JAL routes in Japan — last year there were only 10 airports from Haneda. But now it’s pretty much wide open.

9. Starting a travel company just before a global pandemic seems like unfortunate timing. How is it going?

Osera: We are one of the only companies in the Japanese travel industry that has grown during the pandemic.

10. What’s the reason for this success as much of the industry struggles?

Sunada: A positive effect of the pandemic is that working out of the office is no longer considered strange — even in Japan. HafH was built for those who travel for work and pleasure as a routine.

11. Are you preparing for a return of inbound tourists after the current restrictions end?

Sunada: It’s been a target from the start. But we need to make our service usable worldwide, not just in Japan. We want HafH to guide inbound travelers into local areas in Japan after they arrive in Tokyo or Osaka.

12. What does the future of inbound travel look like in Japan?

Sunada: Simple. Cheap! Given a weaker yen, it’s a country with unrivaled cuisine, regional variety and diversity, distinct seasonality, convenient accessibility and near complete safety.

13. Other than the weak yen, those things have always been true of Japan. Has anything really changed?

Osera: Travelers are moving away from the touristy style of travel, they want to experience local areas at a slower pace. We hope that foreign tourists to Japan will take more time to experience the local community as if they are living there.

Sunada: We live in an era in which local areas can be directly connected to the world via high-speed internet. Destinations that help us avoid crowded spaces and allow us to relax and work slowly are more popular now.

14. Speaking of the weak yen, doesn’t that hurt Japanese travelers and HafH’s chances of expanding outside of Japan?

Osera: Yes. The weaker yen and inflation makes overseas travel more difficult for Japanese. So, we’re working with agencies in other countries and targeting inbound demand from overseas to Japan.

Sunada: The pandemic has caused us to close a lot of our business outside of Japan for a time, but we still operate some hotels in Kuala Lumpur.

15. Are there any other start-ups out there making subscription travel work? Who are your competitors?

Sunada: We are watching Hopper. Although their service is pretty different from ours, their algorithm for demand estimation is impressive.

16. But even hotel chains are now offering subscriptions. Is there a chance of too many subscriptions in the same space?

Osera: Hotels are often our partners rather than competitors, but one chain is too small to be a real competitor to a service like ours.

17. Does HafH have designs on becoming a global company?

Osera: Culturally, I’d say we already are. Around 20% of all employees are non-Japanese. Company-wide meetings are held in both English and Japanese, and all documentation is required in English.

18. What else differentiates KabuK Style and HafH from other Japanese startups?

Osera: Our commitment to diversity. We aim for a 1-to-1 male-to-female ratio and require more than half of our board members to be “non-male.” Also, 1-in-6 of our employees are mothers raising children and we actively support men taking childcare leave. We are fully committed to understanding and improving LGBTQ+ issues in the workplace.

19. The word "diversity" gets thrown around a lot these days: Can you define what diversity means to your company culture?

Osera: We are a diverse group of people gathered under a single mission: “Creating infrastructure for a society that accepts diverse values as they are.” We believe in the power of journeys to humble all people. You see what a tiny place you occupy in the world. This is our starting point to thinking about diversity.

20: Finally, where do you love to travel?

Sunada: Geneva, for overseas. Time moves slowly there. In Japan, Nagasaki and Ishikawa. Ishikawa is easy to get to from Tokyo by shinkansen, and it possesses an old Japanese beauty as well as great food.

Osera: Where the water is clean. Places like Toyama and the foot of Mount Fuji. The beautiful view of the Tateyama mountain range. The Teshikaga area in Hokkaido near Lake Mashu and Lake Kussharo, are my recent favorites.

For more information, visit hafh.com.