Sharing Economy Report Summary

 ■Sharing Economy Report Summary

The Cabinet Secretariat “Sharing Economy Evaluation Meeting” that I participated in put together a secondary report.

The mid-term report from 2 years ago was held up by the pillars of:

1) Securing safety and reliability through voluntary rules

2) Efforts to clear up gray zones

3) Establishing and sharing leading best practices through municipalities

Below are the results of these efforts.

1) Service popularization: Recognition increased by 11.8% in a year to 42.4%

2) Market size expansion: 50.3 billion yen in fiscal year 2016 and projected as 107.1 billion yen in fiscal year 2021

The plan for promotion is to carry out the following 3 elements together.

1) Make the contribution of platformers toward business more efficient

2) Prepare ways for providers and users to determine safety and reliability

3) Support social implementation and international development

With that said, the following comprise the “Action Plan to Accelerate Sharing Economy Promotion.”

1) Revise model guidelines and update certification standards

2) Evaluate consumer guidelines (how to use the sharing economy), compliance with international standards for reviews, and methods of visualizing trust

3) Create 100 regional use cases

Items to be assessed in detail moving forward are the following.

1) Smartization of dispute resolution functions

2) Creation of the “Certified Shared Worker System (tentative name)”

Based on the above, the sharing economy model guidelines from the mid-term report have been updated.

There was a tense exchange between committee members and the government during the meeting  regarding whether or not ride sharing should be listed.

There are still some walls that we have not broken down regarding regulation, but the situation is improving.