The Sharing Economy Investigative Committee and compiled its
interim report.
Seven characteristic points of the sharing economy have been
organized below.
1) Move from B2C to C2C
2) Move from professional services to amateur services
3) Share businesses are not the main entity for providing services
(the person providing the service has the liability)
4) Move from vertical to horizontal (quality control is not done
by industrial law)
5) Temporary marketization mechanism for existing resources (the
marketization of inactive resources)
6) Trust between the provider and user (both parties scrutinize
other’s credibility)
7) Mechanism allowing for evaluation after the service is provided
(provider and user review each other as a trust mechanism)
The White Paper on Information and has estimated the worldwide
share economy market scale to be 15 billion USD in 2013, and 335 billion USD in
2025. For the domestic market, the scale is estimated to be 23.3 billion JPY in
2014 and 46.2 billion JPY in 2018.
However, it is evident that compared to other countries, Japan’s
degree of familiarity, intention to use, and rate-of-use for the share economy
are low.
Furthermore, a common demerit/reason given why the Japanese do not
want to participate in the sharing economy is because of anxiety regarding the
response to accidents and trouble.
The committee’s mission is to take this into consideration as we
promote the development of the sharing economy. As a policy for the realization
of results such as the provision of new experiences and contribution to
economic growth, efficient utilization of resources, improvement of the
cooperation mechanism, and the creation innovation, the committee is
considering the following three courses of action.
1) Voluntary rules to maintain safety and reliability
We will encourage the implementation of voluntary rules by the
business associations.
2) An initiative to eliminate the grey zone
We plan for the elimination of grey zones due to the unclear
application of laws and ordinances (industrial law).
3) The construction and sharing of advanced best practices by
municipalities
We will spread the merits of the sharing economy throughout
society.
The important point is that these will not
be regulations handed down by the government, but voluntary rules set by the
private sector. The stance of the government is to ready the environment and
provide support. For a public-private partnership on “joint regulation,” this
is a relatively mild approach.
At the committee, there was a proposal to
reinforce this by implementing a “certification” mechanism for each share business
to verify their application of the voluntary rules. The manner in which the
business model and application system for the certifications will be
constructed is something that we will give due consideration in the future.
Regarding the promotion of the sharing
economy, the committee has requested for an in-depth debate on measures such as
the practical application of National Strategic Special Zones. It is our hope
that this interim report will help prioritize this policy for the government.
