Create Wind.
 Regenerate the Soil.
Cultivate Local Life
 Worth Traveling for.

Staple at
a glance

This is 
who we are.
A soft developer

Founded in 2018, Staple is a soft developer that grows long-term relationships with regions.

Using the walkable 'neighborhood' as our unit, we connect investment, planning & development, design, operations, and community-building into one — and keep building small-scale developments, one after another.

• 8

  Current Locations
• 20+525

  Japan + International
• 29

  Average age
• 100

  Staff
• 29

  Places

  SOIL Nihonbashi Hotel / Pizza Tane / Parklet Nihonbashi / Parklet Meiji Park / timsum / slo / Soil work Nihonbashi 1st / Soil work Nihonbashi 2nd / K5 / CAFE DANCE / AKAI BAR / erb / SOIL Setoda / MINATOYA / Hi, Fu, Mi / Kankitsu Stand Orange / Soil work Setoda / SOIL Nagatoyumoto / TARU / / Portside Inn Hakodate / PSI Table / Homm / A&A / C&C / mae / Soil work Akiya Village / Soil work KYOTO Com-ion / Soil work Ichinomiya / Soil work Izu

5 Capabilities

Bringing five areas of expertise together

Root Deeply

rooting matters more 
than spreading.
depth matters more than numbers.
we don't copy places.

We don't aim to roll out the same format across as many regions as possible.
We deliberately limit where we work — learning a land's history and culture, building relationships with its people, and taking the time to put down roots.

20 Japan +
5 International

toward 25 regions, 
chosen with intent.
an intentional footprint

Rather than chasing numbers, we choose a size that lets us keep the depth of our relationships. Staple's long-term footprint: 20 regions in Japan, 5 international. This isn't a waypoint toward 50, then 100. In each region, a Nessen — a local entrepreneur — takes root, builds a long relationship with the people there, and stays involved well beyond the hotel, into everyday life. It's the scale we can hold onto without losing that depth.

From
Destination to
Everyday Life

from a hotel, 
into a 20-minute life.
a gokinjo / neighborhood

Since our founding, Staple's unit for thinking about a region has been the walkable 'neighborhood.' In most cases, we enter through a hotel or restaurant — creating a reason for people to travel there from anywhere in the world — and from there, gradually extend into the 'soft infrastructure' a region needs for its everyday life and future: housing, work, education, welfare, mobility, energy.

Local
Leadership

Netsugen = Local leadership.

Development isn't the finish line. In every region, there's someone we call a Netsugen (i.e. heat source) — who runs the Local Company while continuing to grow its relationship with the region. A Netsugen isn't a hotel GM, and isn't just a development lead. They hold responsibility for the Local Company's management, build relationships with the people there, and grow — together with them — whatever that place needs next.

Inter-local
Network

25 local companies.
Each with its own local entrepreneur 
and range of specialists.
Each rooted in its own place, 
all connected as one.
One inter-local network.

Each Local Company is autonomous — but not isolated. What Setoda learns travels to Hakodate. What Hakodate learns travels abroad. What we learn abroad travels to another region in Japan. As chefs, sommeliers, designers, hoteliers, and developers move across regions, knowledge moves with them. Staple isn't a headquarters managing each Local Company from above — we accumulate what each region learns, and circulate it, along with people, data, and expertise, between regions. One region's experience should make another region stronger: that's the inter-local network we want to be.

Design as
Translation

Design is translating 
the land.
staple studio

www.staple-studio.jp →

Giving shape to each region's own answer.
staple studio is Staple's design team, working across the boundaries of architecture, interior, product, and graphic design. We read a place's landscape, architecture, materials, industries, everyday life, memory, and climate — translating the value already there into how it's used today. We want to design what feels like that land's own future, by listening first to what it has to say.

From Guest to
Participant

from guest to participant.
sense of belonging

We've long called the people between tourist and local resident 'New Local.' From here, we're growing the fuller range of relationships that can exist between a person and a place — visiting, returning, working, living, owning, investing. We want a place that was once just a destination to become somewhere you can come back to and say, 'I'm home.'

A Rich Soil
for Talent

there are four ways to create value.
someone stands at each position.
build a career acrossplaces and practices.

Not a single staircase, but a career that crosses regions and practices. At Staple, people who run a local company, people who master one craft deeply, and people who cross regions and disciplines all work the same soil. A career here isn't just a title — it's shaped by where you take root, which expertise you deepen, and what you connect.


Explore careers →
Meet our people →