Pushing Beyond the Limits of a Leasing Company―into an Unchartered Future
Establishment of an Incubation Center to Accelerate New Business Development

—To begin, could you share the background behind the establishment of MHCIC and the rationale for setting it up as a separate legal entity?

Akatsuka:
While the Company offers a wide range of financial services, including leasing, we have a strong sense of urgency that our current business model alone has limits to growth and that the future cannot be built on extending the status quo. We believe we are now at a stage where we must proactively create new businesses beyond our existing boundaries.
As a finance-oriented company, we have accumulated extensive expertise in risk management to avoid significant losses. While this is effective in supporting the stable growth of our existing businesses, it can also become a barrier in highly uncertain new business domains, where flexible hypothesis testing and decision-making are essential. For this reason, we established MHCIC as a separate legal entity, providing an environment independent from the parent company where teams can focus fully on business validation without fear of failure.

Takahashi:
MHCIC has two primary roles. The first is to provide a platform for business validation as one of the options available to our sales organizations when considering new business opportunities.
The second is to operate ZERO-GRA, a program designed to accelerate new business development and build frameworks for driving transformation. ZERO-GRA is an initiative that generates a continuous stream of innovative and progressive businesses beyond the realms of existing businesses, powered by employees’ ideas and passion. One of its programs, the Founder Program, allows proposers to become the heads of new companies and even invest in them, aiming to achieve both new business development and personal fulfillment. Since the program’s launch in 2023, five projects have passed the final screening, and one of them has already established a new company and begun operation. We want to position MHCIC not as a mere coordination hub, but as a lab—a place for creating internal ventures. Within the Lab Operations Unit, to which I belong, we are responsible for planning and running ZERO-GRA, working closely alongside proposers and driving business validation efforts to bring new ideas to life.
In fact, I was also a proposer in the first round of the ZERO-GRA Founder Program. At that time, there were many unknowns, and progress did not always go as expected amid repeated trial and error, which made me keenly aware of the difficulties of business commercialization. The insight I gained as a proposer—such as the kind of support I wished I had and the value of having someone to work alongside—has been incorporated into the current operating framework.

Overview of ZERO-GRA

Final screening session held in January 2026

—We understand that there were various opinions within the Company regarding the establishment of MHCIC.

Akatsuka:
While our existing businesses have remained stable, there were cautious views within the Company questioning the necessity of incurring additional costs to establish a separate legal entity at that time. Amid these discussions, we placed particular importance on clearly articulating the purpose and significance of the new organization. Rather than simply stating that we wanted to try something new, we ensured that there was a shared understanding with management of why an organization like MHCIC is essential for our group. Specifically, we explained that there are certain constraints within the scope of operations the Company can undertake, and that, within the existing framework, it was challenging to create new businesses that go beyond the realms of existing businesses. Accordingly, we highlighted the necessity of having an environment—established as a separate legal entity—dedicated to exploring and validating new businesses.
MHCIC is the execution platform born from these discussions, designed to consistently generate new businesses that drive non-linear growth. By providing an environment where employees can take on challenges and focus on business validation, we are not only committed to developing new ideas but also to carrying them through to successful commercialization.

Teraoka:
As someone directly involved in developing a new business, I have received strong support from members including Mr. Akatsuka and Mr. Takahashi, particularly in coordinating internal and external stakeholders. Through our daily activities, I truly feel that they are making great efforts to maintain an environment where proposers can focus on developing new businesses.

Akatsuka:
To create an environment where all employees can naturally take on challenges, we emphasize a culture of respecting proposers and ensuring that both successes and failures lead to the next step. Our goal is to build the Company into one that employees can proudly say is one that embraces challenge.

—As a company whose core business is finance, such as leasing and financing, risk management and highly flexible new business initiatives may seem contradictory. How do you balance the two?

Akatsuka:
That is indeed a critical point. For example, in the ZERO-GRA selection process, we always share the desired mindset with the Company’s executives and external experts who participate in the screening before evaluations begin. Companies like ours, which operate in leasing and financing, excel at identifying and managing risks in detail. However, if this is applied too rigorously in the early stages of developing new businesses, it can eliminate all potential before they have a chance to grow. That is why we ask reviewers to shift their perspective from fault-finding to value discovery. Even if an idea starts small, it may contain something that has the potential to shine. We want to establish a common understanding that the first step is to identify and nurture these hidden gems.

Takahashi:
We also place a strong emphasis on providing follow-up support to proposers whose ideas do not pass the final screening. We offer detailed, face-to-face feedback, clearly explaining what was lacking and how they can refine their ideas to try again in the future. In fact, Mr. Teraoka is a symbolic example of this re-challenge process.

Teraoka:
That’s right. In the third round of the ZERO-GRA Founder Program, my business proposal, Engage House, passed the final screening, and I am currently working toward its commercialization. However, I was not successful in my first attempt in the second round. There were various reasons for this, but the feedback I received from the program team at that time was extremely specific and highly supportive, saying that they truly believed in my potential. That encouragement motivated me to take on the challenge again with a positive mindset.

—What specific support does MHCIC provide when launching new businesses?

Akatsuka:
Let me begin with the ZERO-GRA Founder Program. Proposers whose projects pass the final screening are transferred to MHCIC, where they can focus fully on full-scale business validation. With the necessary budget secured in advance, they work on thoroughly assessing whether their ideas can be developed into viable businesses.
Before the business integration in 2021, our predecessor companies had similar initiatives to encourage new business development. However, at that time, the validation process after allocating time and budget was largely left to the proposers. As a result, there were cases where projects lost direction or lacked clear evaluation criteria, preventing them from reaching commercialization. Based on these lessons learned, MHCIC introduced business development guidelines.
These guidelines serve as a compass for navigating the vast process of business validation. By clearly defining what should be validated at each stage and to what extent—such as initial hypothesis testing, market definition, service development, and customer validation—they help minimize unnecessary confusion and delays. That said, the guidelines are not a fixed framework. We view them as “living” guidelines that continue to evolve, refined together with proposers based on insight gained through actual validation processes.

Takahashi:
In addition to providing direction, we sometimes take on the role of an accelerator. When proposers face difficulties, we do more than simply give advice; we may accompany them to meet customers and actively help move the validation process forward.
In the context of new business development, the terms “support” and “assistance” are often used. However, we deliberately use the term “collaborative driver.” This fiscal year in particular, we will focus on building relationships where proposers feel that there are people at MHCIC who stand alongside them, think through difficulties together, and move forward through trial and error.

—As a concrete example of MHCIC’s initiatives, could you tell us about the ongoing Engage House project?

Teraoka:
In simple terms, Engage House is a new service offering company-leased housing that employees can eventually purchase. Typically, company-leased housing requires residents to relocate once the lease period expires. However, for those who do not wish to change their living environment, such as families with young children, this service provides the option to purchase the residence and continue living there.
This idea was inspired by my own experience of facing changes in my living situation while using company housing for families. By offering the option to purchase and remain in the same home, I believe it can make it easier for working individuals to secure a stable and comfortable environment for their families.
Taking into account evolving social and economic trends, such as the diversification of lifestyles driven by the rise of dual-income households as well as inflation and rising housing prices, we believe that if companies can offer new housing options to employees, it can help improve engagement, meaning a sense of connection and trust between employees and their employers. This is why we named the service “Engage House.”
While there are various challenges to overcome in bringing this concept to fruition, we believe it is achievable by leveraging the Company’s expertise in assets and its strong creditworthiness.

Akatsuka:
Mr. Teraoka’s presentation was highly compelling, driven by a deep sense of care for his family. I believe that when an individual’s strong personal motivation aligns with the Company’s resources, it can generate powerful momentum to bring about meaningful change in society.

Teraoka:
The mission of this business is to make it easier for all working individuals to secure a place for their families to live. This reflects my desire for a future in which, by the time today’s children enter the workforce, they will not be constrained by housing concerns and will instead be able to choose their careers freely. I am truly grateful for the support provided by the members of MHCIC and for the resources the Company has made available to us, which are essential in turning this vision into reality.

Takahashi:
Another project currently underway, SustaiNavigator, originated from the real challenges faced by frontline staff in our Real Estate Business Department. Such highly effective services can be developed because their ideas are grounded in firsthand experience—private experience, like Engage House, and on-the-ground experience, like SustaiNavigator. Some initiatives begin with personal motivation, while others arise from on-the-ground challenges. One of MHCIC’s key strengths is its ability to nurture both types of initiatives.

—Finally, could you share MHCIC’s medium- to long-term vision?

Akatsuka:
Our goal is for the businesses created through MHCIC to become core pillars of the group’s earnings. However, it is not easy to immediately generate significant profits from something built from scratch. That is why it is important to continuously pursue challenges.
We aim to build an ecosystem within the group where internal ventures are created one after another, and where people, resources, and capital are allocated effectively to support them. Looking ahead, we also envision developing the incubation model itself into a business that can be provided to other companies facing similar challenges.

Takahashi:
By continuing to take on new challenges, we hope to create a positive atmosphere across the Company—one that inspires employees to feel that they, too, can create something new. We would like employees with a strong desire to address societal and everyday challenges to fully leverage the capabilities of MHCIC and create tangible ways of addressing the challenges they find.

Teraoka:
New business development certainly comes with pressure. However, the process of turning one’s ideas into reality is an invaluable experience unlike any other. ZERO-GRA offers a uniquely supportive environment: it enables employees to take on challenges using the Company’s resources, provides strong backing for those challenges, and above all offers the opportunity to make a meaningful impact on society. It is an opportunity too valuable not to take full advantage of.

Akatsuka:
With the framework now taking shape, we want to further amplify it with the passion and ambition of our employees. MHCIC was established to enable the Company to evolve beyond its existing boundaries. To achieve this, we aim to strengthen our role as a hub for collaboration and consultation within the organization, while fully supporting employees who take on new challenges based on our corporate culture. Together, we want to explore new frontiers that no one has seen before.