Tcab Launches 24/7 On-demand Rental Car Service in Fukuoka and Okinawa — Supporting 8 Languages and Passports from 110 Countries
English Version
TANAAKK Inc. (Head Office: Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Masayoshi Aoki; hereinafter “TANAAKK”) and TANAAKK EVGRID Inc. (Head Office: Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; President & CEO: Kensuke Suzuki; hereinafter “TANAAKK EVGRID”), a mobility operations company, have launched Tcab—an eight-language service for visitors to Japan that combines the convenience of car sharing and car rental—in the Fukuoka and Okinawa areas. Reservations can be made via the web/app Tcab Explorer. On launch day, bookings were received from the United Kingdom, Taiwan, and Hong Kong, confirming strong demand.
Tcab App
- Reservations (Explorer Web): https://explorer.tcab.com/
- iOS App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/tcab/id6763505175
- Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.co.explorer.tcab.tanaakk.android
- Service website: https://www.tcab.com/
Market Trends
According to inbound visitor statistics published by the Japan National Tourism Organization (JNTO), foreign visitors to Japan surpassed the pre-COVID 2019 figure of 31.88 million for the first time in 2024, reaching a record high of approximately 36.87 million. In 2025, the number grew further to approximately 42.68 million, up 15.75% year on year. Meanwhile, over the six years from 2019 to 2025, demand increased by 33.87%, while infrastructure supply—including accommodations, transportation, and dining—has lagged behind.
Business Background
For inbound travelers exploring regional Japan, demand is rising for access to destinations that are difficult to reach using public transport alone, such as flights, Shinkansen, taxis, and buses. Traditional rental car counter pickup has faced hurdles including multilingual support, compliance with each country’s personal data protection laws, cybersecurity, business hours, full-tank return requirements, and staffing shortages.
Tcab digitally supports passport verification for 110 countries and completes station selection, payment, and identity verification entirely online. The base rate includes fuel for normal driving, so a full-tank return is not required. Pick-up location, return location, and return time can be changed at any time, and vehicles can be picked up and returned 24 hours a day. By providing urban infrastructure that lets travelers set out whenever inspiration strikes, Tcab is building a platform that enables deeper, more comfortable exploration of Japan. (Patent pending)
Service Overview
| Item | Details |
|---|---|
| Service name | Tcab |
| Supported languages | Japanese, English, Korean, Traditional Chinese, French, Italian, German, Spanish |
| Reservations | Tcab Explorer (Web / iOS / Android) |
| Areas | Fukuoka and Okinawa (branches, rental stations / Tᵣspot) |
| Vehicles | Approximately 80 hybrid vehicles suited to travel needs, including Alphard, Vellfire, Noah, Prius, Corolla Fielder, Corolla Touring, Freed, Aqua, and more |
| Features | 24-hour pick-up and return; fuel for normal driving included (no full-tank return required) |
| Driving qualifications | ① Japanese standard driver’s license ② International Driving Permit in the format of the 1949 Geneva Convention ③ Foreign licenses from designated countries such as Taiwan, plus a Japanese translation (see official guide for details) |
Concept of Tcab™ Explorer
Tcab™ Explorer is designed to remove noise from the travel experience so that the special time of a journey is never interrupted.
- Search inventory anytime
- Book anytime, 24 hours a day, and drive immediately
- Return anytime, 24 hours a day, at the time you choose
- No trash left behind by the previous user at pick-up
- Have a vehicle delivered near your accommodation (on-demand dispatch)
- Language-independent experience (automatic translation)
Hybrid cars serve not only as a means of transport but also as computational resources for planetary exploration. Through the app, users explore the places they visit, and those experiences accumulate into a catalog of Earth—covering local flora and fauna, landscapes, architecture, food, and more.
Rental Stations (Tspot) List
Tspot locations fall into the following types:
- Tᵣspot (company-owned parking): Immediate pick-up with no waiting time
- Tᵢspot (partner parking): Vehicle delivered by 30 minutes before the reserved time
- My Tᵢspot (custom location): Face-to-face handover at hotels and similar locations
Fukuoka — 4 locations
Tᵣspot Sumiyoshi 5-4-20 Station
https://www.tcab.com/jp/ja/tspot/fukuoka/fukuoka/sumiyoshi-5-4-20
Tᵢspot Kukomae 2-2-30 Station (near Fukuoka Airport)
https://www.tcab.com/jp/ja/tspot/fukuoka/fukuoka/kukomae-2-2-30
Tᵢspot Ekihigashi 3-2-4 Station (near Hakata Station)
https://www.tcab.com/jp/ja/tspot/fukuoka/hakata/ekihigashi-3-2-4
Tᵢspot Ekimae 3-8-8 Station (near Hakata Station)
https://www.tcab.com/jp/ja/tspot/fukuoka/hakata/ekimae-3-8-8
Okinawa — 5 locations
Tᵣspot Tsuboya 1-26-25 Station
https://www.tcab.com/jp/ja/tspot/okinawa/naha/tsuboya-1-26-25
Tᵣspot Makishi 3-7-6 Station
https://www.tcab.com/jp/ja/tspot/okinawa/naha/makishi-3-7-6
Tᵢspot Uehara 1-27-27 Station
https://www.tcab.com/jp/ja/tspot/okinawa/naha/uehara-1-27-27
Tᵢspot Matsuyama 1-3-3 Station
https://www.tcab.com/jp/ja/tspot/okinawa/naha/matsuyama-1-3-3
Tᵢspot Matsuo 2-5-13 Station
https://www.tcab.com/jp/ja/tspot/okinawa/naha/matsuo-2-5-13
The Challenge of Global Coverage
What may appear to be basic requirements—a rental car service that can digitally determine driving eligibility from passports across roughly 200 countries worldwide, and digitally guarantee via eKYC the authenticity of driving licenses from 110 countries and regions that are Geneva Convention members permitting domestic driving—is still uncommon in Japan. Publishing on the App Store and Google Play in multiple countries requires compliance with each country’s personal data protection and tax laws, and opening a website to the world also means accepting risks such as DDoS attacks and unauthorized access. Even among major domestic platforms, few applications are designed on the assumption of access from anywhere in the world.
Computational Problems Tcab Is Tackling
Tcab’s operational optimization involves a structure in which multiple NP-hard combinatorial problems must be satisfied simultaneously.
- Vehicle Routing Problem (VRP): Optimizing dispatch routes and vehicle placement
- Workforce Scheduling Problem: Optimizing labor and shifts for dispatch staff
- Capital allocation (Knapsack Problem): Deciding which parking locations and vehicles to secure within limited capital
These are formulated together as a Mixed-Integer Linear Programming (MILP) problem. After satisfying constraints, Tcab achieves scale with ROIC and operating leverage.
Solving these problems individually does not yield global optimality. Parking capacity sets the upper limit on fleet size; fleet size determines required staffing; staff shifts define available handover windows; and that entire system determines utilization and revenue—a mutually dependent structure. When the objective function is set to the spread between Return on Invested Capital (ROIC) and WACC, invested capital moves simultaneously in the denominator, making this not simple cost minimization but constrained multi-objective optimization.
Because most rental car companies nationwide operate under franchise models without vertical integration, these decision variables are dispersed across different companies and systems and cannot be solved as one. The inter-company transactions that occur behind the scenes during one-way rentals at conventional rental car companies arise for the same reason.
The TANAAKK Group vertically integrates reservations, payments, identity verification, inventory exclusivity control, and on-demand dispatch with parking, vehicles, and personnel—and computes and controls them as a single decision problem. Tcab treats vehicles as computational resources of the city and is designing dual-use capabilities for both normal operations and emergencies.
Operating Companies
TANAAKK Inc.
TANAAKK, a digitally vertically integrated company providing a GAAS software platform, supplies intellectual property, software, algorithms, and databases for Tcab. It handles trademarks and patents, payments, eKYC, reservation systems, inventory exclusivity control systems, and on-demand dispatch systems. TANAAKK holds ISO 9001 and ISO 27001 certifications and provides vulnerability assessment services based on information security service standards.
TANAAKK EVGRID Inc.
TANAAKK EVGRID holds a secondhand dealer license and a paid passenger vehicle rental business license. It manages parking, vehicle ownership, and dispatch staff shifts, operating Fukuoka and Okinawa branches.
Through division of roles within the group, the companies jointly provide IT infrastructure (reservations, payments, identity verification, inventory, dispatch) and on-the-ground vehicle, parking, and personnel operations.
Expected Use Cases
- Day trips based around Naha and Hakata
- Regional sightseeing from stations near airports and train stations
- Minivans for families and groups (Alphard, Vellfire, Noah, Freed, etc.)
- Flexible schedule travel by individual travelers and repeat visitors
Vision: A Future Where You Can Depart Right Now
- From “planned travel” to “discoveries in the moment”
- From “a fixed home base” to “living anywhere”
- From “living where you work” to “working in the environment where you want to live”
When a future where people can move whenever they want becomes reality, people act more intuitively and more easily discover latent desires they had never noticed. Those discoveries chain together one after another, and points of previously unseen desire connect toward the future like threads pulled from a spider’s web. That network of chain reactions accelerates the evolution of new lifestyles and values. Technology built for the future holds the potential not only to transform the mobility industry but to change how people live.
Company Overview
TANAAKK Inc.
Address: Marunouchi Building 33F, 2-4-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Business: Provision of GAAS digitally vertically integrated software
Corporate website: https://www.tanaakk.com/
TANAAKK EVGRID Inc.
Address: Marunouchi Building 33F, 2-4-1 Marunouchi, Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo
Business: Mobility service operations
Corporate website: https://rent.tanaakk.com/
Media Inquiries
TANAAKK Inc. / TANAAKK EVGRID Inc.
Public Relations: Mukai
E-mail: info@tanaakk.com
Tel: +81-3-6257-5600