Developers are looking to undertake management of money-losing luxury resort lodges that companies own and operate for their employees.
There were around 3,700 such facilities in Japan in the mid-1990s following massive construction during the bubble economy period, but the number had declined to some 2,000 by 2003, said the National Federation of Health Insurance Societies.
The bubble economy's burst and subsequent economic slump forced many companies to shut down their resort facilities, although some retained them while losing money due to low occupancy rates.