TOKYO –
Japan is going through a rising transportation dilemma. While a document variety of international guests in 2025 has fueled congestion and visitors jams in main cities and vacationer locations, many rural communities are grappling with the other drawback: shrinking populations and ageing residents are making it more and more troublesome to take care of public transportation providers.
Against this backdrop, mobility startup Luup has emerged as one in all Japan’s fastest-growing transportation firms, providing shared electrical scooters and bicycles as a possible answer to each city and regional transportation challenges.
The firm, based in 2020, has quickly expanded its footprint throughout Japan. Despite getting into the market later than some rivals, Luup now boasts the biggest community of rental and return stations, generally known as “ports,” within the trade. In March 2025, the corporate’s person base surpassed six million individuals, with roughly 70 p.c of riders of their 20s and 30s.
For many customers, the service gives a handy different to trains, buses and taxis. A visit from Omotesando to Shibuya, for instance, can take lower than 10 minutes and value round 270 yen. Riders pay a base charge of fifty yen plus 20 yen per minute, choosing up automobiles at one port and returning them to a different.
Some commuters say Luup fills a spot left by conventional public transportation. Others recognize the flexibleness, significantly when bus schedules are inconvenient. With automobiles able to touring at speeds of as much as 20 kilometers per hour, many customers depend on the service virtually every day besides throughout wet climate.
At the middle of the corporate’s development is CEO Daiki Okai, a 32-year-old graduate of the University of Tokyo. Okai based Luup with 5 buddies from a college dance membership, three of whom stay a part of the administration staff in the present day.
The firm now operates roughly 50,000 automobiles, all of which endure common inspections and upkeep at devoted services. Safety has grow to be a high precedence as Luup seeks to ascertain itself as a everlasting a part of Japan’s transportation infrastructure.
The fast unfold of electrical scooters, nonetheless, has not been with out controversy.
Accidents involving riders have drawn rising public scrutiny. In one incident, a rider touring the mistaken manner on a one-way road collided with a pedestrian, inflicting critical accidents. Social media customers often criticize the service, describing scooters as harmful and calling for stricter laws.
Taxi drivers and motorists have additionally expressed issues, arguing that scooter riders could be unpredictable in visitors. Pedestrians typically complain about scooters passing too intently on sidewalks and shared areas.
Okai acknowledges that security has grow to be the corporate’s best problem.
“If I have any regrets, it’s that we could have focused even earlier on safety measures,” he stated. “There is no growth without safety.”
In response, Luup has intensified efforts to enhance rider training, car design and operational oversight.
The firm has constantly refined its automobiles primarily based on person suggestions gathered by its smartphone app. Over the previous six years, Luup has launched 12 main redesigns for its bicycles and 16 for its electrical scooters. Unlike conventional car producers, which function on longer product cycles, Luup can quickly improve tools as a result of it controls each the automobiles and the sharing community.
The firm’s mission extends past city transportation. Okai says his imaginative and prescient is to create infrastructure that successfully turns whole neighborhoods into transportation hubs.
That ambition was impressed partially by his grandmother’s expertise. Care staff visiting her house typically struggled to seek out dependable transportation, highlighting the difficulties confronted by Japan’s ageing inhabitants.
The firm’s development accelerated in the course of the COVID-19 pandemic as individuals sought options to crowded public transportation. A significant increase got here in 2023 when revisions to Japan’s Road Traffic Act allowed individuals aged 16 and older to journey qualifying electrical scooters with no driver’s license.
Today, Luup operates roughly 17,000 ports throughout 18 prefectures, together with Hokkaido and Okinawa. The firm has expanded extra quickly than rivals akin to bike-sharing providers and SoftBank-backed Hello Cycling.
One key to that growth has been Luup’s aggressive technique for securing port areas. Even a single parking house subsequent to a comfort retailer can grow to be a helpful pickup and drop-off level. Company workers race to establish accessible areas and signal agreements with property house owners earlier than rivals can achieve this.
The strategy has enabled Luup to construct a dense community of ports all through city neighborhoods, condo complexes and industrial districts, making a comfort benefit that rivals have struggled to match.
Looking forward, the corporate is making ready its subsequent part of development with the introduction of Unimo, a three-wheeled seated electrical car unveiled in 2025. Designed to be accessible to everybody from younger adults to senior residents, the car may assist handle mobility points in areas the place public transportation is restricted and aged residents rely closely on automobiles.
Japan has additionally seen an increase in deadly visitors accidents involving drivers aged 75 and older, typically linked to cognitive decline and pedal misapplication. Luup hopes automobiles akin to Unimo can present a safer different whereas preserving mobility for older residents.
Whether Luup finally turns into an important transportation answer or stays a controversial presence on metropolis streets could rely on its skill to persuade the general public that security can maintain tempo with development. For Okai and his firm, the problem now’s now not growth alone, however incomes the belief wanted to grow to be a part of Japan’s transportation future.
Source: テレ東BIZ