The number of businesses making use of off-hours space rental — offering meal services by renting a restaurant during its off hours — are recently growing in the city of Hiroshima and other locations.

Such leases are beneficial for both sides as renting a space, rather than taking on a property, can reduce the cost of initial capital investment in starting a business and minimize losses if the business should fail, while those letting out the space can earn extra income.

In some cases, people who started their business in a rental space then went on to open their own place.