100 Year Journey
Yamato Group’s 100th Anniversary Commemorative Publication

Core Values
1

We all represent the company.

2

We connect our customers’hearts with every delivery.

3

We conduct ourselves bothprofessionally and ethically.

100 Year Journey
Yamato Group’s 100th Anniversary Commemorative Publication
Date of publication: November 29, 2019
Published by: Yamato Holdings Co., Ltd.
Edited by: 100th Anniversary Project, Yamato Holdings Co., Ltd.
Production assistance:
DNP Communication Design Co., Ltd.
Kousakusha Co., Ltd.
Planning House HARA Co., Ltd.
Printing and binding:
Dai Nippon Printing Co., Ltd.
* Unauthorized reproduction or copying of text or photographs, etc. in this publication is prohibited.

Greetings

Founded as Yamato Transport Co., Ltd. in the Ginza area of Tokyo on November 29,
1919, Yamato Holdings celebrates its 100th anniversary this year. On behalf of thecompany, I would like to express my sincere gratitude to everyone who has accompanied
us on this journey, for it would not have been possible without the constant support ofevery one of our customers and employees.
Looking back at that time, when loads were carried by ox-, horse- and hand-drawn cart,
there were just 204 trucks operating in Japan. Our founder Yasuomi Ogura focused on
the future possibilities that automobiles offered. Armed with a firm belief that trucks
would play a key role in the transport business, and with his own creativity and ingenuity,
he decided to launch his trucking business. He started the company with four trucks.
Over the last 100 years, the Yamato Group has experienced three major turning points
over its long journey. The first was the launch of a regular service between Tokyo and
Yokohama in 1929, which became Japan’s first regular transport route. The second was
the launch of the TA-Q-BIN service in 1976. And the third is our Value Networking
Design initiative, announced and launched in 2013, which is still ongoing. The things
that have supported the company for the last 100 years are a willingness to take onchallenges and drive innovation, which was passed down from our founder, and the threeCore Values formulated by him—“We all represent the company,” “We connect ourcustomers’ hearts with every delivery,” and “We conduct ourselves both professionally andethically.”
Over the years, we have published a few company histories. One of them was Yasuomi
Ogura’s autobiography “Ayumi” (Journey) , which was published to mark the 40th
anniversary of the company, and then 50 Years of Yamato Transport and 70 Years of
Yamato Transport were published in later years. This time, we decided to publish two
histories to mark the company’s 100th anniversary. This publication, 100 Year Journey,
Yamato Group’s 100th Anniversary Commemorative Publication, is one of these histories.
We divided these 100 years into different eras and topics, and organized them into
different “stories” to make each episode easy to read. When compiling this history, we
received considerable help from many different people who provided precious documents
and gave us their time for interviews. I would like to take this opportunity to express myheartfelt gratitude to them.
With the changing of the times, the world around us is changing dramatically as well.
However, we hope to remain an important part of our customers’ lives for the next 100
years as well, and we will continue efforts to become the closest and most loved company
of all. We look forward to your continued support of the Yamato Group.

Yutaka Nagao
President
Yamato Holdings Co., Ltd.
November 29, 2019003

Yamato Timeline

Year

Month

Event

1919

Nov. Yamato Transport Co., Ltd. (大和運輸) founded

1923

Apr. Signed a formal contract of goods delivery with Mitsukoshi Gofukuten (current Mitsukoshi department
stores)Sep. Provided trucks to the central government agencies and local governments for reconstruction transport
following Great Kanto Earthquake

1924

Jan. Established garage and repair shop (Hamamatsu-cho, Tokyo)—

Introduced uniforms and hats and loaned to drivers from autumn—

Started moving and wedding furniture transportation services

1928

Mar. Registered “Cherry blossom and letter Y“ company emblem as trademark (used from around 1922)

1929

June Started regular Tokyo-Yokohama combined-load transport service (Japan’s first regular route transport
service)

1930

Nov. Started publishing internal newsletter Yamato News (monthly, mimeograph printed)

1931

Dec. Core Values (business precepts) established1935

Dec. Completed Kanto region regular service network

1936

Aug. Renamed regular service as “Yamato Courier“

1945Feb. Formed Hikari Transport Division to assist relocation of Nakajima Aircraft Company Musashi Plant

1946

Jan. Established Yamato Transport employees' union (current Yamato Transport Union)

1947

Sep. Started household goods packing and transport service for U.S. military personnel with opening of Echizenbori workshop

1948

Jan. Company shares registered at Tokyo Stock Exchange for first time (over-the-counter trading)

1949

May Company shares listed on Tokyo Stock ExchangeDec. Acquired rail freight transport business licenses and started operations the following year (Shiodome,
Akihabara, Iidamachi)

1950

Sep. Started customs clearance business after acquisition of Tokyo customs broker license

1951

Jan. Signed a contract with Civil Air Transport (CAT) and started air freight agency operations

1952

Feb. Started sea cargo handling in Keihin Port

1957

June Established mother cat and kitten logo and started using black cat logo after getting permission for use
from Allied Van Lines, Inc.

1958

May Started artwork packing business (Inca Empire cultural exhibit)

1961

May Started handling of mixed cargo for domestic air routes

1968

Nov. Posted first overseas representative to New York1972

July Hired female drivers (Fukuoka Branch hires five women)

1974

Oct. Started small-lot delivery service in Tokyo and surrounding delivery area

1975

Aug. Main Points of TA-Q-BIN Development (basic policy) proposed to Board of Directors
Sep. Formed working group to draft TA-Q-BIN implementation guidelines

1976

Jan. Launched TA-Q-BIN in Kanto area
Mar. Aired first TV commercial
Oct. Started establishing TA-Q-BIN agencies

1978

Mar. Tokyo-Osaka Small Moving Service (current “Household Goods TA-Q-BIN“) launched

1979

Mar. Launched Heart Box as TA-Q-BIN packaging product1981

Jan. Started international moving service

Apr. Started sea container leasing service
Aug. Completed first prototype of new TA-Q-BIN pickup and delivery vehicle (1-ton walk-through vehicle)
1982

Oct. Renamed Yamato Transport Co., Ltd. (大和運輸: all in Kanji characters) to “Yamato Transport Co., Ltd. (ヤマ
ト運輸)“

1983

Aug. Introduced P size for TA-Q-BIN (three sizes available: S, M and P)
Nov. Launched international TA-Q-BIN service for deliveries to United States, Hong Kong, Singapore (discontinued in 1988)
Dec. Launched Ski TA-Q-BIN

1984

Apr. Launched Golf TA-Q-BIN

1985

May Started TA-Q-BIN system for delivering when customers at home

1986

Aug. Started Music TA-Q-BIN (current “Kuroneko Family Concert“) program

July Launched Easy Moving Pack (current Easy Moving Timely Service)
Oct. Launched Business Time Service (current TA-Q-BIN Time Service) combining freight service by airplaneand motorcycle
Nov. Launched Collect Service (current TA-Q-BIN Collect Service)
1987

Feb. Launched UPS TA-Q-BIN in collaboration with United Parcel Service of America, Inc. (UPS)1988

July Launched Cool TA-Q-BIN

May Launched store-less book sales service: Book Service (discontinued in 2007)

004

Year

1988

Month

Event

Oct. Lauched Sanchoku-kun customer management system

1990

Nov. Launched Fax mail service Dengon Fax (current “Kuroneko Fax”)

1991

Mar. Shironeko & Kuroneko (White Cat & Black Cat) mascots created1995

Apr. Established Yamato Transport corporate philosophy, comprising Core Values, Management Philosophy,
Corporate Stance and Employee Code of Conduct

1996

Dec. Started Year-end/New Year TA-Q-BIN services, operating 365 days a year

1997

Mar. Launched Kuroneko Mail-Bin service (discontinued in 2015)
June Launched Tokusen Ichiba Toilet Paper (first original merchandise)Nov. Expanded coverage (to Ogasawara Islands Chichijima and Hahajima), completing nationwide TA-Q-BIN network
Nov. Launched Kuroneko Quick Maintenance Service

1998
2000

June Swan Bakery Ginza opened (first directly operated store)
May Started full-scale entry into third-party logistics (3PL)Sep. Published first Environmental Report (current Yamato Group Corporate Social Responsibility Report)
Oct. Launched TA-Q-BIN service in Taiwan by providing know-how to President Transnet Corp.

2002

Apr. Started personnel placement business

2003

July Established group corporate philosophy based on Yamato Transport corporate philosophy

2004

Dec. Established Federation of Yamato Transport Group Unions

2005

Nov. Yamato Transport Co., Ltd. renamed "Yamato Holdings Co., Ltd." with transition to pure holding company
structure

2006

Apr. Started direct marketing business
Apr. Launched JITBOX Charter service
May Yamato Jiritsu (Self-Support) Center Swan Kosha Niiza starts operating
Aug. Launched confidential document recycling service
Oct. Launched small-lot International TA-Q-BIN overseas transport service

2007

Oct. Launched Kuroneko Yamato Recall Support Service
Nov. Started Kuroneko Members service for individual customers

2008

Nov. Launched payment service Kuroneko Anshin Kessai Service (current Kuroneko Kakebarai)

2009

June Entered into an official partnership agreement with Japanese Olympic Committee

2010

Jan. Started TA-Q-BIN services in Singapore and Shanghai

2011

Feb. Started TA-Q-BIN service in Hong Kong

Oct. Launched S-PAT shared delivery service, developed with 10 domestic air transport carriers

Apr. Implemented disaster-hit area relief activities following Great East Japan Earthquake
Sep. Started TA-Q-BIN service in Malaysia
Dec. Opened Sanin Ryutsu Trinity Center jointly with Tottori Prefecture
2012

Jan. Started Yamato Business Members service for corporate customers
Mar. Started total distribution support service for medical systems manufacturers

2013

July Announced Value Networking Design
Aug. Established Atsugi Gateway
Sep. Established Haneda Chronogate
Oct. Launched International Cool TA-Q-BIN service for deliveries to Hong Kong (world’s first international
small-lot refrigerated transport)

2014

Oct. Launched Comfortable Lifestyle Support Service

2015

Apr. Launched TA-Q-BIN Compact, Nekopos and Kuroneko DM-Bin
June Started using regular route buses for TA-Q-BIN transport together with passengers
Aug. Entered into an official partner agreement with Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic
Games
Nov. Opened Okinawa global logistics center (Southern Gate)

2016

May Established a joint venture company Packcity Japan Co., Ltd. with Neopost Shipping S.A. (France)
July Started installations of Pick Up & Drop Off (PUDO) stations (open parcel lockers)
Sep. Established Chubu Gateway

2017

Jan. Started TA-Q-BIN service in Thailand
May Acquired PAS 1018 certification for small-lot refrigerated delivery services
Oct. Opened Kansai Gateway

2018

Jan. Launched Raku-uru Cart service
June Launched ID payment service Kuroneko Pay connected with Kuroneko Members service

2019

Jan. Established Tokyo Global Logi Gate
Mar. Jointly developed Japan’s first compact commercial EV truck specializing in parcel delivery
Nov. Celebrated Yamato Group's 100th anniversary005

100 Year Journey: Ymato Group’s 100th Anniversary Commemorative Publication
Contetns

Greetings………003 Yamato Timeline………004

1 Innovations that Pioneered Logistics
One Hundred Years of the Yamato GroupPart

Chapter 1◉ The story of Yamato Group’s founder, Yasuomi Ogura………008

1 “Compete against time, not people” 2 Fostering individuals to grow the company 3 Leading business as an innovator

Chapter 2 ◉ The story of TA-Q-BIN’s birth………012

1 Entering a period of rapid economic growth 2 Why the idea of TA-Q-BIN was born 3 Bet-the-company approach

Chapter 3 ◉ The story of TA-Q-BIN’s growth………016

1 Starting TA-Q-BIN 2 The road to a national network 3 Moving ahead through new product development
Did you know? sThe appeal of movement

Chapter 4 ◉ The story of business diversification………020

1 Yasuomi’s efforts toward diversification 2 Masao’s efforts toward diversification

Chapter 5 ◉ The story of Group collaboration………024

1 Promoting Group management 2 Further evolution of the delivery business 3 New development of non-delivery businesses
4 Toward Value Networking Design 5 Focusing on the 100th anniversary of the Yamato Group

2 The Spirit of the Core Values Alive Throughout 100 Years
Stories to be Retold for Generations―― ❶Part

Chapter 6 ◉ The story of passing down the Core Values………028

1 From Core Values to corporate philosophy 2 Participatory Management in action 3 Shouldering the intention of customers
4 We conduct ourselves both professionally and ethically 5 Keeping appearances and vehicles respectable

Did you know? sThe story of two cats—a sheet of drawing paper that led to the black cat logo

3 Creating a Framework to Pursue Customer Satisfaction
Stories to be Retold for Generations―― ❷Part

Chapter 7 ◉ The story of framework evolution………033

1 Untold story behind development of walk-through vehicles 2 Reforming packaging materials
3 Initiatives to improve work efficiency and manage quality 4 Improving safety 5 Initiatives to improve productivity

Chapter 8 ◉ The story of information systems………037

1 From the introduction of computers to development of the NEKO System
2 Moving to systems developed from the customer’s perspective

4 Aiming to Become a Company that is Most Familiar and Loved
Stories to be Retold for Generations―― ❸Part

Chapter 9 ◉ The story of caring………041

1 Customer contact 2 Environmental initiatives

Chapter 10 ◉ The story of support………044

1 Emergency response 2 Initiatives for inclusivenessYamato Group Companies and Related Organizations………048

006

100 Year Journey
Yamato Group’s 100th Anniversary Commemorative Publication

Yasuomi Ogura (right) with drivers in the early days

Part 1

1

One Hundred Years of the Yamato Group｜Innovations that Pioneered Logistics

Chapter 1!

The story of Yamato Group’s founder, Yasuomi Ogura
In a time before all the streets were paved, when horse-drawn carts were common, one man predicted the age of
speed. With this in mind, Yasuomi Ogura launched his truck-based transport business. He believed that public
transport is the mother of civilization, and truck-based transport business is becoming an integral part of it, andthis belief remains with the company today. With the company’s three Core Values formulated to create a senseof unity among his employees, Yamato Group founder Yasuomi Ogura showed the way forward.
Yasuomi Ogura wearing a frock coat at the inaugural general meeting (1919)

1“Compete against time, not people”—The mind of a merchant
Hachisaburo Ogura was born in 1889 to one branch of a family of paper raw material wholesalers operating in the Ginza districtof Tokyo since the Edo Period. Eighth (hachi) child and third son(saburo) of the family, he changed his name to Yasuomi Ogura in
February 1930. Even before he was old enough to understand, hedeveloped the mind of a merchant through his parents.
Always peppering his elementary school teachers with questions until satisfied, Yasuomi went on to study at a trade and technical junior high school where he was good at arithmetic and English.
Unfortunately, he was forced to leave school when the familybusiness that his eldest brother inherited closed down. Instead, hetook classes at night, always carrying his mathematics and English
books with him while working at various places including a woodand charcoal dealer, owned by his eldest sister’s husband, and atextile factory in Yokohama.
In 1914, Yasuomi was finally able to open his own business.
With a hand-drawn cart that he received, he started a greengrocer
business walking around town selling vegetables. After about a year,with his business on track and his life becoming stable, he married
his wife Hana, five years his junior, whom he met through a friend.
She devotedly supported him for many years until suddenly falling
ill and passing away in 1939.

his thoughts to finding his true life’s work.
Yasuomi wanted to create a modern business with a focus onlabor but was unable to decide what he wanted to do. From around
June 1919, he started finishing work at his greengrocer’s at noonand spending his afternoons collecting information. Just then, asJapan’s economy started to boom as a result of World War I, theautomobile made its appearance and started to spread as a modern
mode of transport. Turning to relatives and friends for help, hemade regular visits to bus operating companies and automakers tolearn how to repair and dismantle vehicles, and as a result became
quite knowledgeable about automobiles.
Around that time, an event occurred that would change his
fortunes forever. In September 1919, Japan introduced its first traffic regulations banning ox- and horse-drawn carts from the mainstreet of Ginza. This came as a great shock to Yasuomi, who wasfamiliar with not just hand-drawn carts but also ox- and horsedrawn carts. Always of the belief that you should not let time beatyou, Yasuomi intended to “compete against time, not people.”
Watching automobiles rumble through town, he intuitively felt theimminent arrival of the age of speed, so he turned his attention
again to automobiles. Although ox- and horse-drawn carts were
locked out of Ginza’s main street, road transport at the time still
relied mainly on ox-, horse- and hand-drawn carts.

Predicting the age of speed

Launching a truck-based transport businessWith his greengrocer cart business flourishing, he opened ashop, which he named Manryoya1, in Tokyo’s Azabu district about
six months after his marriage. For Yasuomi however, his greengrocer
business was only ever a means of saving money so that, one day, he
could work in a business that truly satisfied him. Finally, with thespirit and resourcefulness of a merchant coursing through his veins,
he reached his 10,000-yen target earlier than planned and turned

While searching for a new business, Yasuomi also devoted
himself to researching automobiles. One of his friends who heard
his thoughts brought him a prospectus for a new trucking company
that someone had planned. A single reading convinced Yasuomithat this was exactly what he was looking for, and that it was indeed
his true life’s work. He purchased the business plan and on November 29, 1919, on the day he turned 30, he founded his truck-based

3—Ford Model T 1-ton truck used at the time of founding(circa end of Taisho era)

1—Manryoya members including Yasuomi
Ogura (front left)

008

2—Sketch of area around headquarters at the time of founding (currently known as
Ginza 3-chome in Tokyo, with the Asahi Club to the immediate left)【Chapter 1】

transport company.
Named Yamato Transport Co., Ltd. (“大和運輸株式会社” all inJapanese kanji characters), the company was launched with 100,000
yen in capital, which in addition to Yasuomi’s share, was easily collected through a capital raising. Around that time, most truckers
ran one-person operations but Yasuomi instead chose to start anincorporated company. Reasons for his decision included that hewanted to run his lifelong business as a corporation, that multiple
methods of capital participation would be useful for expanding his
company, that the rights and obligations of capital and labor would
be clearer as an incorporated company, and that, to make the bestuse of manpower, it was preferable to become a corporation.
Above all though, Yasuomi’s decision was made because of his
own deep attraction to the idea of this new business structure bornfrom capitalism, and because he was trying to be a pioneer.

Yamato Transport—Naming the company
Yamato Transport was named after Yamato-ya, the name of awood and charcoal business owned by his eldest sister’s husband
where he had worked at one time. While planning his new company, Yasuomi worked from an office on the second floor of a building owned by Yamato-ya, and he also liked the name because Yamato was an old name for the country of Japan. When he started his

2business, Yasuomi chose to be senior managing director rather thanpresident. His reasoning was that at 30 years of age, he was not yet
ready for that job, so he asked his brother-in-law Mr.Tanimura to
be president.
Yamato Transport began operation on a clear fall day. The inaugural general meeting was a solemn occasion held on the second
floor of the Asahi Club in an area currently known as Ginza
3-chome in Tokyo. With about 10 people in attendance dressed inJapanese kimonos, only Yasuomi wore one of the frock coats thatwere fashionable at the time, showing yet again his pioneering spirit.
Yamato Transport’s first headquarters was located at 41 Higashi-Toyotama-kashi, Kyobashi-ku (currently Ginza 3-chome) in a
rented two-story tiled wooden house2. It had a staff of 15 people, of
which eight were either drivers or their assistants. It started with
two trucks; one 2-ton Denby and one 1-ton Ford3. The businessbegan operating at the end of 1919 and then added an additional
two 1-ton trucks. With freight fares of 17–18 yen per day, which
was about three times more expensive than the 6–7 yen that horsedrawn carts commanded, Yamato Transport was considered expensive at the time and came to be used mainly for transporting coal forgovernment agencies. While still few in number, there were alreadycustomers who were looking for speed in transport.

Fostering individuals to grow the company

Surviving the recession that hit soon after its launchWith the catchphrase “Quick and cheap,” Yamato Transport
got off to a good start. However, it quickly found itself in dire straits
in March 1920, four months after it was launched. In complete
contrast to the boom years after the end of World War I, the stock
market was hit by a recession that resulted in suspension of trading.
Yamato Transport was also affected, experiencing a drop-off in workin 1921 that made the payment of wages difficult. While continuing to earn income the usual way, it branched out into new areas ofbusiness, including carrying fish to shops from the local fish market
in Nihonbashi. In 1922, it opened an agency in Yokohama City andbegan scheduled transport services to its headquarters in Tokyo.
Rather than the usual model of charging for chartered use of atruck, it started using an innovative small-lot, combined-load transport model that aggregated multiple small items in a single truck.
Also in 1922, it began delivering furniture as far as Yokohama
for Mitsukoshi Gofukuten (now Isetan Mitsukoshi Holdings) at a ratethat was not much different from rates for delivery services byhand-drawn cart. Because of its speed, it was also asked to starttransporting goods to Yokohama in January 1923 and to start delivering throughout the city of Tokyo in April 1923. Until then, Mitsukoshi had relied mainly on private vehicles to deliver goods, but
it made the decision to start using Yamato Transport because of its
low freight costs, the positive work ethic of its drivers, and becauseof the credibility that an incorporated company could provide.
Thanks to this and other business, Yamato Transport opened abranch office in Tokyo’s Yotsuya in July that same year. With a fleetof 12 trucks, it was almost ready to meet the growing demand from
customers in the fourth year after foundation4.

Surviving the earthquake and building trust
The Great Kanto Earthquake struck just before noon on September 1, 1923, at a time when Yamato Transport was establishinga new pillar of its business through contracts with Mitsukoshi.
At the time, Yasuomi took action to protect his trucks fromaftershocks. He started by moving eight new trucks, which wereparked at Mitsukoshi headquarters, to his Higashi-Toyotama-kashi

The story of Yamato Groupʼs founder, Yasuomi Ogura

headquarters by 4:00 p.m. on that day. When he heard of fire outbreaks in Ginza, he then made the decision to move the trucks
further towards Yoyogi. With the flames reaching Ginza 5-chome,
he loaded documents, furnishings and his neighbors onto the trucks
and left Yamato Transport headquarters. One of his 12 trucks was
eventually destroyed by fire, and in the middle of the night Yamato
Transport headquarters was also burnt to the ground. Standing in
the charred remains the following morning, Yasuomi realized that
he would certainly have lost everything if he had not moved hiseight trucks from Mitsukoshi.
On the following day, he relocated his business to a tent erected on grassland behind Meiji Shrine. From September 4, he wassending trucks to the Tokyo Prefectural Office and Home Ministry.
Compared to the going rate of 15–16 yen, he was able to get favorable terms of 50 yen per day, with gasoline and meals included, aspart of emergency measures put in place by then Home Minister
Shimpei Goto to accelerate reconstruction.
In this way, Yamato Transport received contracts to transport
goods for reconstruction under the favorable terms outlined above
for ministries, agencies, and local governments. With the income
received from these contracts, Yasuomi was able to continue making
payments in cash. The government had to temporarily suspend payments because of the earthquake, but Yasuomi’s cash payments had
the effect of greatly improving trust in Yamato Transport.
One day around that time, one employee at work took theliberty of taking a book to read from a consignment entrusted by asecond-hand bookstore in Kanda while the shipment was unable tobe delivered due to the chaotic situation. Yasuomi was furious when
he heard this, so he explained that the company’s mission was topick up parcels from customers and safely carry them to their destinations. The shipper of the book was finally found about twomonths later and was extremely grateful when the book was delivered in its original condition. This is just one episode that shows theconvictions of Yasuomi communicated in the Core Values.
Through its considerable contributions to reconstruction in
the aftermath of the earthquake, Yamato Transport was able tobuild an office and garage (the company’s second headquarters) in Janu-009

ary 1924 at 1-7 Kobiki-cho, Kyobashi-ku (currently Ginza 1-chome).
While the land was leased, this was the first building owned by thecompany. In December 1924, Yasuomi’s second son Masao wasborn. Then in quick succession, Yasuomi built new garages, repair
shops, company housing and sales offices, and by the beginning of1927, he had a total of 23 vehicles, completing the foundations forhis business in the company’s seventh year.
Having had an enormous impact on Tokyo, the earthquake
had also changed transport in a way that gave trucks the leadingrole. Everyone was able to recognize the effectiveness of rapid transport for tasks such as cleaning up after the fires and carrying relief
supplies. There was a rapid increase in the number of small trucking
operators, but when reconstruction demand fell away about six
months after the earthquake, a discount price war began in thefreight business. Yasuomi decided that being caught up in a freight
discounting war was not in his best interest, so he went in search of
business opportunities that were out of the reach of the small players.
What he eventually did was to specialize in moving services
and transport of wedding furniture. His company had smart looking vehicles that those of other companies could not match, uniformed and well-spoken drivers, thick cushioning to prevent
scratches on furniture, special colorful vehicle bodies for transporting wedding furniture, Japanese arabesque-patterned covers, anddecorations to create a festive mood. Meeting a broad range of requests from the families of couples getting married, he could put
together a number of vehicles to make a small amount of wedding
furniture seem greater, or even play down the affair to make thetransport less conspicuous.
With the popularity of his ideas, he was rushed with orders. In
1925, after becoming official transporter for the Imperial Household Ministry, Yamato Transport enjoyed a virtual monopoly intransporting wedding furniture for the Imperial Household and theupper classes5.

Creating a sense of unity among his employees
Yasuomi had overcome the earthquake and was already a fullfledged businessman, but in his heart, he retained the ideas he had
had when trudging around town in straw sandals and pulling carts
loaded with vegetables. Whether goods can be loaded efficiently, or
whether they can be delivered as promised, are matters that depend
upon the people in the workplace. Without the workers who sweat
and toil, businesses like trucking would not get off the ground, andbecause he highly valued the workplace, Yasuomi never lost his

3gratitude and respect for them. He sought to improve his businessstructure with these thoughts in mind. With a focus on management, he actively recruited university graduates that were still few innumber at the time for management positions, and increased thenumber of sales offices to grow sales. With a belief that the drivers
represented trust in his company and its sense of decency, in 1924,
he gave them khaki uniforms with napped blue collars, which werenovel at the time, with large hats made of thick black woolen material (later changed to leather). As for footwear, they wore laced shoes,
which some of the more fashion-conscious drivers among thempaired with leather gaiters6.
With his organization growing, Yasuomi started holding regular business meetings every month to democratize management bylistening to feedback from his employees. As one outcome of thesemeetings, he made the “cherry blossom and letter Y” trademark, in
use from around 1922, the company’s official emblem and finalized
its registration in 19287.
Yasuomi was also fully aware of the character of the trucking
business, with a variety of workplaces ranging from the sales offices
to the places of customers, clients, and others. This is why goodcommunication within the company was necessary, to ensure thatno matter where they were, his workers would be able to share thesame ideas. To this end, in 1930, he started publishing a monthly
internal newsletter and gathering all employees at headquarters at
6:40 a.m. once each year for an early morning meeting to discuss
directions for the new year. Then in 1934, he introduced an employee notebook that all employees would carry with them. Prior to
distribution of the notebooks, he formulated the company’s Core
Values in December 1931 to enable his employees to independently
work anywhere while sharing the same ideas.
Those three Values, which remain with the company today, are“We all represent the company,” “We connect our customers’ hearts
with every delivery,” and “We conduct ourselves both professionallyand ethically”.
In his notification of these Core Values to his employees, Yasuomi explained that with trucking being a leading and representative form of transportation, Yamato Transport should work hard tofulfill its mission for this important business. These words expressed
his true convictions. This is what makes the persons transporting
goods so important, and makes it essential to improve their quality.
In 1941, Yasuomi established his instructional objectives with thisin mind. For that first year, the motto for 1941 was “We strive forpunctuality,” which honored the spirit of the Core Values to emphasize courtesy and discipline.

Leading business as an innovator

Regular service network creates the foundations forthe next generation

While busy expanding his business through delivery services
for Mitsukoshi, moving services, and transporting wedding furni6—Drivers wearing uniforms(1927 New Year’s gathering,group photograph)

4—Truck used exclusively for Mitsukoshi
work (circa 1935), standing in front of thethird headquarters built in 1929
5—Advertisement of truck
used exclusively for weddings

010

7—Office staff badge (prewar)

8—Wakaba Sales Office, Yokohama
City (circa 1937)【Chapter 1】

ture, Yasuomi Ogura felt that there were limits to a business based
only on chartered use of a truck. At the same time though, he wasunable to find a new business model that could meet wider andincreasing transport demand in the future. His small-lot scheduledtransport services between Tokyo and Yokohama were suspended
because of the Great Kanto Earthquake, and were still not operating
at the time.
Coincidentally then, Yasuomi was sent to represent Japanesetrucking companies at the International Automotive Transportation
Summit held in London. The year was 1927.
That was where Yasuomi learned of Carter Paterson & Co.,
Ltd.. Headquartered in London, the company was employing aunique cargo booking and delivery system, operating regular truck
services to regional cities. It also operated a scheduled parcel pickup
service around the city using covered wagons. When customers had
a parcel that they wanted to have delivered, they would hang up asign outside their home with the initials “CP,” and the company’s
employees would go to the home to pick up the parcel. At the sametime, payment for the service would be received, and then after collection, the parcel would be transferred to the regular service goingto the regional cities. This door-to-door service was just the systemthat would satisfy Japan’s demand for small-lot transport and change
the way delivery was done. Following his intuition, Yasuomi decided to recreate the same regular service network in Japan. He
chose to launch his system across the entire Kanto region, with inspiration drawn from efforts by Mitsukoshi at the time to expand its
free delivery area, covering the same area for its customers.
Yasuomi had a number of things to do before he could introduce this brand new delivery system. He had to create his own
waybills, set freight fares according to weight and dimensions, andsell the service. He placed large advertisements on his trucks andhad his drivers hand out leaflets. Whereas Carter Paterson & Co.
had distributed its “CP” signs to each household, Yamato Transport
got tobacco shops and general stores to operate as agencies and gavethem triangular flags with red resist-dyed “cherry blossom and letterY” emblems on yellow backgrounds. When the shops received parcels for delivery, they would put the flags out in prominent locations. When the trucks started doing the rounds of the agencies,
curious neighbors started bringing in more and more parcels fordelivery, and new life came to the shops that took on the role of aparcel pickup location. The regular Tokyo-Yokohama service thatstarted in 1929 became Japan’s first regular transport route. While
the world was still in recession, Yasuomi was able to expand his
network across the entire Kanto region by the end of 19358. He
then changed the name of his service to “Yamato Courier.”

Overcoming a potential breakup and diversifying his
business
The Pacific War started in 1941 and severely impacted Yamato
Transport’s business. Forced to suspend its Yamato Courier service,

9—Yamato Transport truck, loaded with luggage during withdrawal, leaving General
Douglas MacArthur’s residence (currently
Embassy of the United States of America). A
worker at the time met General MacArthur
as well, and remembered his wife as being avery kind person.

Yamato Transport was ordered in 1945 to transport supplies as theMusashi Plant of Nakajima Aircraft Company, a manufacturer ofmilitary aircraft, was evacuated. A special unit called the Hikari
Transport Division was formed to transport important goods to
Asakawa (now Hachioji City) in the mountains.
In August, after completing that mission, an army general ordered the incorporation of Yamato Transport into the army but
before the command could be carried out, the war ended on August
15, 1945. Relieved that his Yamato business had survived, Yasuomi
quickly set about reviving his Yamato Courier small-lot delivery
business as fast as he could. In September 1946, Yasuomi was finally able to restart his long-awaited business with the Odawara
Route. Then in 1947, at the age of 57, Yasuomi was promoted fromsenior managing director to president as he continued to lead hisbusiness. In this way, by the end of 1949, he had rebuilt his Yamato
Courier network to about the same level as it was before the war.
While rebuilding his business, Yasuomi streamlined operations, including consolidating business locations, and expanded thebusiness yet further. With preferential allocations of gasoline, Yamato Transport accepted highly profitable jobs from the Allied Occupation Forces (GHQ), and used work that included packing andtransport of furniture and household goods for army personnel as aspringboard to expand into a new local truck charter business. It
was also involved in moving services when General Douglas MacArthur of the Allied Occupation Forces left Japan9. During this period, Yamato Transport was taking its first steps toward its businessdiversification later (see Chapter 4).

Achievements of Yasuomi Ogura
In 1946, the Yamato Courier business was revived and expanded outside the Kanto region. Further expanding its delivery
area, the Taira Route to Fukushima was launched in 1954 and the
Sendai Route was launched in 1955. Then finally in 1960, the Osaka Route was opened (see Chapter 2)10.
In the middle of expanding routes in the 1950s, the company
experienced difficult economic times amid a sudden freight discounting war. However, Yamato Transport maintained a resolutestance and worked to improve its service while charging “appropriate freight fares,” which resulted in an increased number and larger
scale of transport jobs. Yasuomi’s workers, entrusted with carrying
those parcels, were the ones who guaranteed service quality. With
respect for his frontline workers, he developed plans to guide andtrain them to appropriately handle shipments and maintain a positive work ethic.
While the Yamato Courier business was expanding its network, it was also laying the foundations for the TA-Q-BIN service
according to one particular person. That man was Mikihiko Tsuzuki, who joined Yamato Transport in 1950 and went on to later
become the company president. Looking back on that period, he
explained that without that network, the TA-Q-BIN businesswould not have been able to rapidly expand throughout Japan.
Having laid the foundations for TA-Q-BIN over the pre- andpost-war years, Yasuomi retired as president in 1971 and passed on
the reins to Masao Ogura. While still president, Yasuomi attendeda Rotary Club convention in the U.S. in the spring of 1969. Immediately after returning to Japan, he had a brain infarction andwas confined to a wheelchair thereafter. On January 15, 1979, hepassed away in hospital at the age of 89. That was three years after
the TA-Q-BIN service was created on the foundations of Yasuomi’s
Yamato Courier service and through the strenuous efforts of both
Masao Ogura and Mikihiko Tsuzuki.

10—President Yasuomi Ogura cutting theribbon for the first service on the Osaka
Route (1960)

The story of Yamato Groupʼs founder, Yasuomi Ogura

011

Part 1

1

One Hundred Years of the Yamato Group｜Innovations that Pioneered Logistics

Chapter 2!

The story of TA-Q-BIN’s birth
Overcoming the post-war turmoil, Yamato Group’s founder, Yasuomi Ogura was diversifying his business but
was a little late in venturing into long-distance operations due to his emphasis on the entire Kanto area coveredby the Yamato Courier service. Masao Ogura took over as president in 1971, but the company was suddenly hit
by the first oil shock. As Masao went on looking for something new, he came up with the idea of entering thehome-delivery market, which had been overlooked so far.
President Masao Ogura around the time he started focusing on small-lot deliveries

1Entering a period of rapid economic growth

Breaking into long-distance routes
With the Yamato Courier service expanding routes, it applied
for a license to extend its western route to Osaka in January 1957.
Seino Transportation and other businesses in Western Japan
were already operating truck-based transportation services along
National Route 1, which traced the old Tokaido Road from Tokyo
to Kyoto and Osaka. With the number of parcels increasing daily,
the Tokaido Route became known as the Golden Route. Yamato
Transport, on the other hand, had so far relied on express freighttrains on Japanese National Railways lines (JNR, currently the JR
Group) for its transport between Eastern and Western Japan. WhenJNR introduced an express, non-stop container service between Tokyo and Osaka, Yamato Transport also took advantage of that. Unfortunately, the frequent strikes that JNR experienced were a sourceof annoyance. Without a foothold in Osaka, Yamato Transport expanded its business through a partnership with a local transportcompany.
Yamato Transport did not use trucks between Eastern andWestern Japan. Instead, Yasuomi limited his trucking business to
the Kanto Plain, an area of 100 km radius centered on Tokyo because, according to a superstition in the trucking business, “there
were ‘ghosts’ on the other side of the Hakone mountains, so theyshouldn’t be crossed.”Yasuomi himself had attempted a trip over the Hakone mountains in 1946, when he traveled the route in a 10-ton truck in trial
production by one automaker. With the poor state of roads at thattime, he decided that 100 km was the limit for truck performance.
Yasuomi’s instructions to not cross the Hakone mountains was theresult of careful discussion within the company. In particular, he
was attached to short-distance, small-lot transport in the Kanto region where Yamato Transport had been born and nurtured.
However, in no time at all, the roads and truck performance

1—President Yasuomi Ogura discussing reasons for application at a public hearing on the
Tokaido Route (January 1959)

012

2—Newly established Osaka Branch at
Kawaguchi-cho, Nishi-ku, Osaka City (December 1961)

were both improved. These changes managed to drive growth forthe other companies that first took their trucks over those Hakone
mountains.

Being named “a risky company”
Crossing the Hakone mountains was not an easy task. When
Yamato Transport made an application for a license to use the Tokaido Route, there was strong opposition from businesses in the
Kansai region. Japan’s Transportation Council held a public hearing
over five days in January 1959, with no result forthcoming despite
heated discussions1. The company finally obtained the license on
November 28 of that year.
Yamato Transport started trucking goods on this route the following year2, and built terminals at Tsunashima3 in Yokohama Cityand Moriguchi in Osaka City in 1963. Mikihiko Tsuzuki4 was appointed as the first Tsunashima Branch Manager. Although hestarted sales activities straight away, it became clear that the company was lagging behind. Many companies in the region had already signed contracts with other transport companies. In its attempt to increase sales, the company began transporting large-lot
cargo but revenues deteriorated due to low unit costs. The cost ofcapital investment was also a burden.
In the year that Yamato Transport opened its terminals, Kuniyoshi Urabe, a professor at Kobe University, launched a book called
Abunai Kaisha (risky companies), published by Kobunsha. Yamato
Transport was the only land transportation company named in thisbook with its sensational title. Having been in operation for over 40
years, it was seen as an old, rigid company unable to take on new
challenges.
Masao was later to comment that Yamato Transport at thattime was “an extremely fastidious company with too much formality.” As an example of its occasional irrationality, if a worker re-

3—Newly established Tsunashima Terminal
at Tsunashima Higashi, Kohoku-ku, Yokohama City (1963)

4—Mikihiko Tsuzuki later worked as a Board
Member to launch TA-Q-BIN and went on
to become Yamato Transport president【Chapter 2】

ceived a promotion, a custom-designed desk would be ordered forthe worker. By the time the people at Yamato Transport noticed the2

Why the idea of TA-Q-BIN was born

Masao Ogura’s trials and errors
While continuing its reliance on large-lot cargo, with its low
unit costs and additional effort, Yamato Transport’s long-distancetrucking business between Eastern and Western Japan5,6 was slow
to take off, but at the same time its existing business began to decline.
At one point, rail freight transport via JNR accounted formore than 20 percent of total earnings of Yamato Transport, but therepeated strikes resulted in a loss of customers. An eight-day strikein 1975 in particular was critical, with freight forwarding dropping
to less than 10 percent of earnings.
Operating profits also started declining when department store
deliveries, which had been performing well, increased beyond a certain number of deliveries. This was because site maintenance expenses and labor cost ratios increased to handle busy periods. The
company eventually fell into the red in some months, and the profits from the two-month-long high season of Bon (the Buddhist summer
festival) and year-end festivals had to cover the remaining 10 monthsof deficits.
When Masao took over as president from his father Yasuomi
in 1971, his first job was to extricate the company from this situation. His problem was how to turn Yamato Transport around frombeing “a risky company” to being one with sound management.
While puzzling over this, Masao realized that rather than sticking tomarkets where other companies had already taken the lead, it mademore sense to use the know-how they had developed so far to develop a completely new business category.
However, he did not know which direction to turn. At thesame time, the number of large-lot cargo jobs handled by the company dropped dramatically in 1973 with the first oil shock, androad transport volumes in 1974 dropped by close to 25 percent

3external criticism, they were already at rock bottom.

from a year earlier7.
With Yamato Transport on the brink of failure, Kaoru Seto,
who went on to become Yamato Holdings president, joined thecompany in 1970. Years later, he commented about that time; “Ijoined Yamato Transport thinking it was a prestigious company, butwith the disposal of its various facilities, the situation within thecompany was quite harsh.”

Inspiration found in unexpected places
Even though the business had hit a wall, daily business activities continued. One day, Masao had to send some of his son’s old
clothes to a nephew who lived somewhere else. What he noticed
was that there was no convenient way to send them. There were few
ways including JNR small-parcel delivery services and parcel postdelivery services, and the parcels had to be taken to an office andpackaging had to comply with detailed rules. And deliveries were
slow. Masao felt that Yamato Transport should be carrying small
parcels for delivery from one home to another. Yamato Transport
had expertise in delivering small parcels quickly to customers’
homes, as it had already provided home-delivery services for shipment from department stores and such8. And cargo should be limited to this kind of small parcels. As the Yoshinoya chain of restaurants had proven when it successfully reduced the number of menu
items to serve only gyudon beef bowls, handling many different
products was not necessarily the best model.
Moving away from the business model of transporting anything and everything was therefore good for both the continued
existence of Yamato Transport and for society as a whole. The ideathat Masao had in his head was later to be called TA-Q-BIN, thematerialization of an idea for an innovative service that wouldchange the face of logistics in Japan.

Bet-the-company approach

Focusing on the home-delivery market
Door-to-door parcel delivery is the transportation of occasional and sporadic parcels. You only ever know who the sender will be
and how many parcels will be sent when it happens. There is also
little likelihood of large quantities sent as commercial cargo, andparcels have to be delivered to any place where people live.
As a result, it was a common belief in the industry that it was
not a profitable business, so no companies were looking to enter thisfield. However, when Masao had to send the clothes to his nephew,
he felt that the level of service for the existing choices was quite low,

6—Yamato Courier sales office (Honjo)

5—8-ton truck used on Osaka Route (colorand design changed from 1960)

The story of TA-Q-BINʼs birth

so he found considerable potential in this market.
If there was no constant demand for large-parcel deliveries, hethought that it would be better to collect all these little parcels fromprivate homes. Like picking up spilled beans one at a time, thiswould enable him to fill his trucks and carry more per trip. He
therefore had to increase the number of people wanting Yamato
Transport to deliver their parcels. Masao imagined a door-to-door
small-lot delivery system designed from the customer’s perspective;
one which provided next-day delivery, as a rule, of items without
packaging requirements and at a fixed price set by region to lessen

7—Yamato News cover printed in black andwhite due to oil shock-related business downturn
8—Working at a center (Shinonome, Kotoku) constructed in 1968 for department store
deliveries

013

the burden on the sender, who was generally a housewife.

Convinced of demand and looking for profitability
Although Masao predicted the success of TA-Q-BIN, evensupposing he could carry more per trip by picking up these “beans,”
he realized that if the beans were not there, he could not pick themup and could not make it profitable. So, he set about counting thosebeans.
He estimated that there were about 250 million small parcels
being carried by parcel post and other existing systems at the time.
That was enough beans. If each parcel cost 500 yen, that would
mean sales of 125 billion yen. That was certainly a large enoughmarket for Yamato Transport to renew its foundations. The nextquestion was how to most efficiently pick up those beans.
Masao realized that even if he did launch a service, there would
be no parcels to gather if he did not ask for them. He anticipatedthat if he put in the effort and got enough parcels to exceed thebreak-even point, expenses as a percentage would drop and profitability would increase dramatically.
The next issue Masao faced was how to calculate and exceed
the break-even point for a completely new logistics network. Standing on an intersection in New York, he found the inspiration he had
been looking for. In September 1973, Masao went to Manhattan tovisit the company’s New York sales office opened two years earlier.
There were four pickup and delivery vehicles parked near the intersection. The four vehicles belonged to UPS, the country’s largest
transport company. He realized that each block adjoining that intersection had its own dedicated vehicle.
He further realized that the total income and expenditure of asingle pickup and delivery vehicle was the total income and expenditure of a total network. Therefore, he was confident of success if
the vehicles were located appropriately and they focused on increasing the number of parcels to reach their break-even points. Masao’s
reading of the landscape was that it would take the entire network
four to five years to become profitable.
However, vehicles alone would not make a network. He needed places to which the parcels could be carried for sorting and forwarding. Masao envisaged a “B-C-D network,” where B stood for“bases” that would work like hub airports in the airline industry.
The C stood for “centers” that would work like each connected
airport, and D stood for the specialized “depots” that would receive
parcels and do other work further down the chain. In Masao’s vision, parcels picked up from individual homes would be moved
through depots and centers to bases, from which they would be sent
to other bases, and then moved via centers and depots again to finally be delivered to their destination homes.
Actual trials of this small-lot delivery service began on October
7, 1974. Called the KOGUCHI-BIN service in Tokyo, it offerednext-day delivery for small parcels up to 20 kg per piece. With its
experience delivering to homes, the department store division wasin charge of this new service. A dedicated site was also established

9—Parcel sorting during busy period for department store deliveries

the following year to handle small-lot deliveries and turn these trials
into a full-scale service.
To escape the hardships of the recession, Yamato Transport ran
a campaign focused on small-lot sales in September 1975.

Opposition to the TA-Q-BIN concept
Most of the management team were opposed to Masao’s ideaof turning his nationwide TA-Q-BIN concept into a full-scale business based on these trials. Of course, those opposed to his ideas had
a good reason. It was because of their experience with department
store deliveries, which at one point were the source of considerable
earnings for Yamato Transport. During the busy present-giving periods of Chugen and Seibo, the volume of department store deliveries handled were tenfold or more than that of average months9.
Costs soon mounted up when acquiring and maintaining sufficientequipment and personnel to serve for this period. The management
were therefore concerned that the TA-Q-BIN service would experience the same issue.
Additionally, they were against the idea of picking up parcels
from people’s homes. Not having done this with their department
store deliveries, they felt that having to pick up individual parcels
would also be a burden and a cause of losses. Some people also
thought next-day delivery, which was one of the potential sales
points of TA-Q-BIN, would be too difficult and should, at the very
least, be limited to certain areas such as prefectural capitals.
One at a time, Masao countered the arguments. The TA-QBIN service would not have the seasonal fluctuations as large as
department store deliveries, topping out at a maximum of twice thenormal volumes so costs would not be such a problem. Also, by
guaranteeing next-day delivery, the number of parcels handled
would increase as people realized how convenient the service was.
While expounding his theory this way, Masao felt it was crucial for
him to move quickly in order to take hold of this huge potential
market.
He felt that when Yamato Transport launched TA-Q-BIN andstarted to make a profit, other companies would surely copy hismodel. In such situations, the first one there is the one that profits.
The reason is that the one that starts a business first is the one thatgets the first feedback from customers, and is able to reflect that in
improved services.

Cooperation of the labor union
Around that time, the Yamato Transport Union stopped thestrikes it had been conducting on and off. This was because Masao
was sympathetic to the union’s strong demand for unification of theretirement and wages systems of both office and manual workers.
With the collapse of transport demand as a result of the first oilshock in 1973, he also promised that he would not lay off any employees, and he was keeping that promise. The union leaders had
the trust in Masao.
This was why the union was also receptive when Masao talked

12—TA-Q-BIN first day of operation (Fukagawa Sales Office)

10—Negotiations between labor and management in 1976, with labor union Central
Executive Chairman Makoto Aihara at right
11—Introduction to TA-Q-BIN, including
basic policies and features (January 1976)

014【Chapter 2】

of taking a new turn with TA-Q-BIN. Of course, not everyone in
the union agreed. As management feared, picking up parcels fromdoor to door was not an easy task and some of the workers, whowere used to handling large-lot cargo, naturally had doubts about
this new work. However, if Yamato Transport had not made thisattempt, it might have ended up proving that being once designatedas a “risky company” was correct.
For the union leaders, it was painfully clear that Masao was
taking a bet-the-company approach with TA-Q-BIN as he worked
to get the company into shape. More than that though, they also
understood the anxieties and troubles of the union members, andthat they should not be on the company’s side only.
This was the strong belief of Chairman Aihara, then head of
the Yamato Transport Union, who questioned how much the company valued its union members at a collective bargaining opportunity10. In a frank discussion, he explained his fear that directors
coming to work in company vehicles available only for such privileged persons could not possibly understand the concerns of union
members. Masao immediately responded that he would cease thecompany car service if that would help, and the directors started
commuting by train the very next day.
On seeing this, Aihara understood everything. He understoodthat the actions and passion of this president were very real, andthat any delay in working on TA-Q-BIN service would be fatal tothe company. The union gave its approval to launch the TA-Q-BIN
business, involved some of its members in a project to flesh out theservice, and began efforts to convince those remaining union members who were still opposed.

Working to launch TA-Q-BIN
Ahead of the union approval, Masao submitted his own “Main
Points of TA-Q-BIN Development” at the August 1975 meeting of
the Board of Directors. His basic approach was summarized as follows.
(1) Consider things from the consumer’s point of view(2) Regard TA-Q-BIN as a lasting and developmental system(3) Maintain a uniform standard of service that is better than others(4) Target an unspecified large number of shippers or parcels ofcargo(5) Streamline operations thoroughly
In September, an internal working group was formed to materialize a concrete service based on these points.
As a result of those discussions, it was decided that TA-Q-BIN
would handle parcels each of which was up to 1 m, being the sumof three dimensions, and up to 10 kg per piece. The maximum
weight of 10 kg was chosen because they wanted to exceed the
maximum 6 kg limit for parcel post at the time. Incidentally, amaximum of 20 kg was not chosen in anticipation of a future withmore female drivers, and concerns that it would be too heavy.
At the time, both JNR small-parcel delivery and parcel postdelivery needed shipping tags to be prepared, and required parcels

14—First leaflet for TA-Q-BIN (January1976), originally called YPS TA-Q-BIN
13—Sales Driver explaining details of TA-QBIN service in front of customer’s home (Fujieda Branch, Shizuoka Prefecture, 1976)

The story of TA-Q-BINʼs birth

to be firmly tied with string. To make it easier, TA-Q-BIN only
required that items be placed in a box or wrapped in paper andbound. With this, the hurdle to sending parcels was dramaticallylowered for many housewives who would find it troublesome tostrictly follow instructions for packaging and preparation of waybills each time they visited an office to send something.
Also, with TA-Q-BIN, parcels no longer had to be carried tosome distant office. With a single phone call, someone would be
dispatched to pick up even a single parcel. Shippers also had another option of taking the parcel to an agency.
With next-day delivery, TA-Q-BIN was infinitely more convenient than parcel post delivery service, where taking several days wascommon. And the declaration of “next-day delivery” also carried
more impact than just “fast.” Yamato Transport was certain to beable to collect lots of “beans” if it could guarantee this next-day
delivery.
Companies had to abide by the route trucking price schedules
published by the Ministry of Transport (currently the Ministry of Land,
Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism). The maximum fare for transporting a parcel weighing up to 20 kg within a 100 km circle was 200
yen. Of course, profitability was impossible at that rate. With theJuly 1974 amendment of this law, the maximum fare was changed
to 500 yen for a parcel up to 20 kg transported within a 20 km radius. This amendment was half expected with the cost of everything
increasing. Without the amendment, TA-Q-BIN would never havebeen born.
The country was divided into nine regions with a fixed price of
500 yen per parcel within each service region. At the time, theminimum (hourly) wage in Tokyo was 258 yen, so the fixed priceequated to a two-hour wage. Freight fares to other regions werehigher than this, but were clearly detailed on a single piece of paper.
Low and easy-to-understand freight fares had benefits for both thesenders and the company trying to streamline its business. In fact,complicated freight fare systems would make nobody happy.

TA-Q-BIN finally launches
In this way, TA-Q-BIN was launched on January 20, 1976
under the principles of “pickup with a single phone call” and “nextday delivery,” with the initial area covering the entire Kanto region11-16. TA-Q-BIN was launched just one year and three months
after the KOGUCHI-BIN trial. Yamato Transport took this opportunity to change the terms “driver” and “pickup and delivery
person” to “Sales Driver.”Now, it is also important to look at the term “TA-Q-BIN.”
Actually, “TA-Q-BIN” made an appearance in an internal bulletin
reporting on the small-lot delivery trials. In his “Main Points”
above, Masao also used the term. As a result of this, TA-Q-BIN
took root as the name of this new service.

15—Pickup and delivery vehicles used at thelaunch of TA-Q-BIN

16—First tally sheet used after the launch of
TA-Q-BIN, showing “11” as the number ofparcels of January 23, counted for the first
time

015

Part 1

1

One Hundred Years of the Yamato Group｜Innovations that Pioneered Logistics

Chapter 3!

The story of TA-Q-BIN’s growth
TA-Q-BIN started operating on January 20, 1976, using the Yamato Courier route network developed by
Yamato Group’s founder, Yasuomi Ogura. To further increase the density of that network and expand
nationally, Masao Ogura changed the company’s course dramatically by withdrawing completely from large-lot
cargo business and focusing mainly on the TA-Q-BIN business. He then proceeded to develop new services andproducts available for use anytime, anywhere, and by anyone.
President Masao Ogura explaining how the TA-Q-BIN transport system works (February 1980)

1

Starting TA-Q-BIN

Utilizing the Yamato Courier Kanto route network

The role of agencies

TA-Q-BIN started operating in the Kanto region on January
20, 1976. The quick launch in Kanto was made possible thanks to
the Yamato Courier route network developed by former president
Yasuomi Ogura. At the time, the company already had sales offices
and a department store delivery network covering the six prefectures
and Tokyo in the Kanto area. Yamato Courier’s four sales offices inFukagawa, Suginami, Itabashi, and Tokyo also converted to TA-QBIN sites and they started sales operations as TA-Q-BIN sales offices.
The first day that parcels were counted was January 23, with a
total of 11 parcels, while the total number received for that monthending February 25 was just 8,591. Even having the existing smalllot cargo switched to TA-Q-BIN hardly increased those numbers
either.
In August, a sales office was also opened specifically to receive
parcels for TA-Q-BIN. That first store was opened in Fukaya in thenorthern part of Saitama Prefecture, next to Tokyo, in expectationof shipments including Japanese leeks and pickled cucumbers. The
Tokyo-Nakano TA-Q-BIN Center was also opened by renovating aformer dry cleaning store1. However, not a single parcel was broughtin during the store’s first week of operation. There were no TA-QBIN inquiries either, just inquiries about normal cargo and moving
services. With just two staff members, their main task was handing
out leaflets in front of the station in the morning and afternoon. It
took about one month for them to get customers starting to use
TA-Q-BIN. A mortician’s office next door also started using TA-QBIN for sending gifts in return to people who made a funeral offering, but even that did not satisfy the workers or management. Commercial delivery business, which the company had engaged in
before launching TA-Q-BIN, started to flow into other companies.
It had to do something to start receiving more parcels from homes.

Masao’s concerns were how to ensure he could pick up every
parcel with his limited manpower when he did not know how many
would come and where they would come from. What system would
convince potential senders of the convenience of his service? He
concluded that agencies located close to the senders could accept
parcels, and he envisaged a distribution system where agencies
would be located within 100 m of people’s homes. He wanted touse existing places that housewives would be familiar with, such as
stores dealing with fuel, rice or liquor. He therefore gave his staff anadditional task of increasing the number of agencies. As a result,agency contracts were signed with 24 stores in Tokyo in October
1976.
One of the stores that became an agency for TA-Q-BIN at thattime was Mishimaya Shoten2,3, a liquor store located in Nakagawa,Tochigi Prefecture. With the number of parcels increasing rapidly,
the agency employed a part-time person to write out waybills. “Everyone said how fast deliveries seemed with Mishimaya,” commented one family member about that period. “The best thing aboutbecoming an agency is that we could help and please our customers.”
At the end of March 1981, there were more than 12,000 agencies. However, around that time, many other companies were joining the parcel delivery service market, which increased competition
for new agencies. This was due to the importance of agencies as ameans of growing the market.
After reviewing its standards for establishing agencies, Yamato
Transport focused on increasing the number of agencies to achievea national network of over 100,000 stores. As a result of these efforts, the number of agencies increased to 44,449 by the end of
March 1983, and then to 116,165 by the end of March 1985,
thereby achieving its goal. Convenience stores helped dramatically

3—Agency signboard at launch of TA-QBIN service

1—Nakano TA-Q-BIN Center opened inAugust 1976 for receiving TA-Q-BIN parcels

016

4—First animated television commercial(March 1976)

2—Mishimaya Shoten, a liquor store in Nakagawa, Tochigi Prefecture (photo taken in the
1980s)【Chapter 3】

expand the agency network. From the second half of the 1970s,
24-hour convenience stores started to spread across Japan, and there
were moves for rice stores and liquor stores to become affiliated withconvenience store chains. After negotiations with these national
convenience store chains and exchange of contracts, Yamato Transport was able to expand its sales channels. As a result, its agency
network reached 200,000 by the end of March 1989.

The struggle to promote TA-Q-BIN
TA-Q-BIN was launched with the catchphrase of ‘next-day
delivery with a single phone call,’ but the first issue it faced was how
to promote its existence. Without that, the number of parcels would
not increase, so the company set about creating a television commercial.

2

TA-Q-BIN’s first advertising commercial was an animation,broadcast in March 1976, about six weeks after its launch4. Immediately afterward, the headquarters started receiving many telephone inquiries. The commercial provided a great boost, especiallyat a time when they were trying to break the 50,000 parcel-permonth level. With the “Kuroneko Yamato no TA-Q-BIN” jingle
appearing in commercials in 1979, three years after the service
launch, the name of TA-Q-BIN became well-known quickly5.
Efforts were made to increase brand recognition in other ways
as well. One was the Yamato-kai private taxi service set up by agroup of former Yamato Transport workers. Yamato-kai devised andimplemented various PR methods, including inserting TA-Q-BIN
posters in the taxi seat covers and hanging leaflets inside the cabs6.

The road to a national network

Business transformation centered on TA-Q-BINIn December 1977, TA-Q-BIN broke through the 1 million
parcels per month level. Compared to the previous year when theservice was first launched, this represented enormous growth but
Masao was not satisfied. TA-Q-BIN sales still only accounted for 9
percent of the company’s total sales. Among frontline employees,
there remained a feeling of dislike for small-lot cargo as they tended
to prioritize large-lot cargo that they had been more familiar withfor years.
Masao made a critical, irreversible decision, instructing his
company to completely withdraw from large-lot cargo business inspring 1979. As a result, Yamato Transport turned down all orders
from large electrical equipment manufacturers and others withwhich it had worked for many years. Sales naturally dropped, butwith no way to go back, the decision gained momentum toward
becoming a door-to-door parcel delivery (TA-Q-BIN) company. The
drastic measures had an immediate effect, with the lost sales recovering by the following year. That same year, the company also started operating on Sundays and national holidays, which was standard
in the service industry, so that by the end of March 1981, it had
handled more than 30 million parcels for the year.

Thinking of a national network
The reason that the company was delivering more parcels wasthat TA-Q-BIN was made available in more areas and to more customers. However, next-day delivery was originally limited to cities
and certain other areas.
Masao wanted more. Even before launching the TA-Q-BIN
service, Masao had envisaged a nationwide network. He felt thatbeing able to collect parcels from anywhere in Japan and deliver
them to anywhere would raise the quality of the service and createa point of differentiation from competitors, which would make

5—First advertising commercial character
Kuniko Ashihara with Yamato employee
Takamitsu Arakawa

6—Advertising support from Yamato-kai private taxi service

The story of TA-Q-BINʼs growth

people using TA-Q-BIN happy.
Using the 1986 TA-Q-BIN Center Network Concept, Masao
calculated how many stores would be required to satisfy the conditions of having one or more stores in each city, ward or district, one
store per 40,000 households, and each territory having a radius of
up to 20 km, about the same as a 30-minute drive radius. His answer was 1,200 stores, which was the same as the number of police
stations across Japan at the time, and he reached that target in 1994.

Expanding areas under the DAN-TOTSU (Absolute top
position in Japanese) Three-Year Plan
As people heard about TA-Q-BIN, they would ask for theservice in their area, and this sort of feedback increased day by day.
There was an urgent need to expand service areas across Japan toquickly meet this demand. It was essential for the company to improve its services, by primarily focusing on expanding service areas,so as to continue to survive and grow further. The problem was that,in anticipation of the popularity of the TA-Q-BIN service, 113
companies offering 35 service brands entered the market.
In 1981, TA-Q-BIN launched its DAN-TOTSU Three-Year
Plan with the purpose of distancing itself from the other companies
and creating a huge lead ahead of the pack. The name was chosen
through an internal competition and was used in subsequentplans—the New DAN-TOTSU Three-Year Plan and DAN-TOTSU
Three-Year Plan, Part 3. As a result of nine years of DAN-TOTSU
plans, TA-Q-BIN service areas became larger, covering 99.5% ofJapan (area ratio).

Acquiring licenses for trucking routes
Although TA-Q-BIN was applying for licenses for trucking
routes in each region, it was not easy for the license application to
be granted. This was due to local businesses opposing TA-Q-BIN

7—President Masao Ogura giving his opening statement at a public hearing into routelicenses for National Route 20 (January
1984)

8—Opening ceremony for Kofu Regional
Branch (August 1984)017

expansion, and the Ministry of Transport delaying in considering
the applications. By delivering parcels from door to door, TA-QBIN was making a clear distinction from conventional route business, which local businesses found difficult to understand. The Ministry of Transport was also slow to act so discussions made little
progress. Meanwhile, the voices of people waiting for TA-Q-BIN tobecome available kept rising.
In Yamanashi Prefecture adjacent to the Greater Tokyo Metropolitan service area, requests for launching TA-Q-BIN were heard
particularly loud. Despite applying for that license in August 1980,
there had been no word from the ministry because 13 local businesses were strongly opposed. The number of opposing businesses
gradually declined but one business alone refused to agree. TA-QBIN’s hopes rested on a public hearing on January 18, 1984, where
Masao stressed that, “TA-Q-BIN would only be able to meet customer needs by completing its nationwide network7.” As a result,3

approval was granted in May that year, a total of three years andnine months after the initial application. The Kofu Regional Branch
was finally opened in Yamanashi Prefecture on August 1, with 744
parcels received on that day alone8. The majority of those parcels
contained local specialties such as peaches and grapes.
One after the other, regions across Japan went through thesame changes, from the Kyushu Route to the Northern Tohoku
Route. In June 1991, on hearing that then President Mikihiko Tsuzuki was stepping down, President Hideo Okajima of Fukui Transport, a long-time business partner, thought that President Tsuzuki
would regret not completing his network, so he transferred his company’s trade rights to TA-Q-BIN. With this, TA-Q-BIN was able tooperate directly in every Japanese prefecture. Then in November
1997, six years later, with the addition of the Ogasawara Islands
area, TA-Q-BIN’s national network was completed.

Moving ahead through new product development

New products to meet specific needs
While expanding its areas, TA-Q-BIN also increased the variety of things it could transport. In 1982, the Nagano Branch foundthat the number of parcels carried dropped significantly after theapple season finished. In other words, the arrival of winter meant adecrease in the number of parcels. One employee was looking forsomething new to carry in winter when he noticed some skiers carrying long and heavy skis over their shoulders as they walked along.
He wondered if TA-Q-BIN could carry them, too. While the total
dimensions of skis exceeded the one-meter rule for TA-Q-BIN parcels, he expected the skiers would happily let TA-Q-BIN carry theminstead. In December, the Nagano Branch launched a "Hands-Free"ski courier service and carried 17,000 skis through to the following
April. Headquarters was also paying attention and devised packaging materials suitable for this new service and turned it into a national service called Ski TA-Q-BIN9.
In 1984, it also launched the Golf TA-Q-BIN service carrying
golf bags to golf courses10. The new service had its own issues todeal with, including that many golf course names were similar andthat the golf bags had to be delivered the day before rather than on
the day of play. Golf clubs could also be damaged if the bags werecarried on their side, so the company developed golf bag cases andtransport vehicles and registered the designs for them.
It also created Cool TA-Q-BIN for cold items to be delivered
cold. This particular project was launched in 1984 as part of the
New DAN-TOTSU Three-Year Plan. The development concept was“a service available for use anytime, anywhere, and by anyone, regardless of types of packaging, to have a parcel delivered at the righttemperature to an individual.”
The first thing that came to light after discussion was that thisservice would initially require an enormous investment. Nevertheless, Masao prioritized meeting the definite demand.
Getting the idea from a refrigerator chiller function that was
becoming popular at the time, Masao created three temperature
settings: 5°C, 0°C and –18°C. After a trial in the 23 wards of Tokyo,
the service was launched nationally in 198811,12. With the start ofJapan’s economic bubble and a boom in the popularity of gourmet
foods, individual consumerism was also on the rise. Five years after
the launch of Cool TA-Q-BIN, the original three temperature settings were reduced to two in line with the way refrigerators wereused in homes.
The Airport TA-Q-BIN service was launched in November
1989, carrying luggage for overseas travelers from their homes orhotels to Narita International Airport, where the bags could be collected from a counter. With this service, travelers could travel to the
airport without the burden of large suitcases. Sales offices in Kanto
were the first to offer the service, but by March 1990, less than six
months after its launch, all agencies around Japan were receiving
suitcases.
There was one common need that Airport TA-Q-BIN, Ski
TA-Q-BIN and Golf TA-Q-BIN met. That was the need for around trip service. To eliminate the hassle of writing out waybills
for return delivery at airports or other destinations, a detailed system was developed and put in place to make it possible for all necessary booking for roundtrip delivery to be made when filling out
waybills for outward delivery. These services enabled “hands-free”
enjoyment of leisure activities and travel.
In 1983, an International TA-Q-BIN service was launched foroverseas deliveries. This service kicked off where the company had
local subsidiaries—in seven cities in America, in Hong Kong, and

9—Ski TA-Q-BIN delivery at launch of service

11—Cooler bag used at launch of Cool TAQ-BIN

018

10—Golf TA-Q-BIN delivery (1990s)

12—Walk-through vehicle, equipped withrefrigerator with three temperature settings,
at launch of Cool TA-Q-BIN service【Chapter 3】

in Singapore. Over time, there was a sharp increase in demand forother areas, so UPS TA-Q-BIN was launched in collaboration with
the United Parcel Service of America (UPS) to expand service areas13.

New service enables specification of delivery time
As the TA-Q-BIN service spread, it became evident that receivers were often not at home at the time of parcel delivery. It wasa situation where parcels would be carried to homes but then carried back when no-one was home to receive them. Masao felt that
Yamato Transport was at fault because parcel delivery was attempted when people were not at home.
When TA-Q-BIN was launched, an attempted delivery notice
was generally issued and left in the newspaper mailbox or someother location when the recipient was not at home. The parcel
would generally not be left with a neighbor. From surveys and other responses, it was clear that many people were reluctant to let thedrivers entrust parcels to neighbors, and neighbors were reluctant toreceive them. That was when TA-Q-BIN started delivering whenpeople were at home. If that time was known in advance, parcels
would be delivered accordingly, and if for some reason the recipient
was not at home at that time, the parcel would be carried back andthe recipient contacted to arrange a suitable time for delivery byeither 8:00 p.m. that day or during the morning of the following
day. The system called “Delivering-when-recipients-are-at-homesystem” started in 1985.
In November 1988, an evening delivery service was started sosenders could specify a desired delivery time zone when parcels werereceived14. For people who tended to be away from home during
the day, a delivery time between 6:00 and 8:00 p.m. could be chosen. This also improved efficiency by reducing the number of redeliveries required.
This service evolved into the Time Zone Delivery service ten
years later in 1998. Starting in March in the Kanto and Southern
Tohoku regions, and then nationwide in June, people could choose
a 2-to-4 hour time zone for delivery of their parcels. Then at the endof 1996, TA-Q-BIN started operating over the year-end and New
Year holiday period, with the cooperation of the labor union, as thecompany moved to a 365-day business year.

Size changes and new service initiatives
While the TA-Q-BIN service spread, parcel sizes were alsochanged in line with actual usage. The service started with a maximum parcel weight of 10 kg, which was increased to 20 kg in 1977
at the same time as introducing a new S-size and M-size service.
However, customers were asking for lower prices in line with thelower weights. One student was also heard to comment; “If you cancarry small and light items for less, then I might use it more forlending and borrowing notebooks.”
At that stage, TA-Q-BIN freight fares were set based on thesame rules applied to commercial cargo with regular truck routeservices. Yamato Transport had two size classifications: M and S.
S-size parcels were carried for 100 yen less than M-size parcels (up to
20 kg each). However, to improve convenience for its customers,
Yamato Transport decided to introduce new P-size parcels of up to
2 kg that were even cheaper than the S-size parcels. As a result, itestablished unique TA-Q-BIN freight fares with M-size, S-size, andP-size parcels varying by 200 yen between sizes. It then applied forapproval from the Ministry of Transport.
Unfortunately, the application was not considered for a wholeyear. Prior to that, it was also normal practice for the Ministry ofTransport to decide when new price schedules would be introduced.
In the morning edition of a newspaper on May 17, Yamato
Transport ran an advertisement announcing it would start handlingP-size parcels, but the ministry still refused to budge. Then on May
31, it ran another advertisement saying that acceptance of P-size
parcels would be postponed due to delays in the approval from the
Ministry of Transport. The public response was enormous, finallypushing the ministry to act. Just two months later, on August 15,
Yamato Transport was able to launch its new freight fares as plannedwith the P-size classification.
In the mid-1980s, with the growth of the mail-order market,
demand for cash-on-delivery services increased. COD was a common service for department stores. In 1986, based on this type ofservice, Yamato Transport launched a new service called TA-Q-BIN
Collect, whereby recipients pay for items on delivery and moneytransfer is made to mail-order companies within one week of delivery, contributing to the development of the mail-order market, andmeeting the needs of consumers and mail-order companies.

Did you know?: The appeal of movement
Banner flags flapping in the breeze at the entrance to agencies. Use of these flags started in October 1981, with the first ones
made by a dye house in Maebashi City at the request of a Department of Sales employee, in the Takasaki Regional Branch in Gunma Prefecture, who felt that sign boards alone did not stand out.
The flags had red lettering on a yellow background. The Divisionof Sales at Headquarters was not impressed when they received asample, commenting that the flags looked like ones used by theatrical troupes in the countryside. However, Masao was very impressed because the moving flags would draw the eyes of passersby
when they flapped in the breeze. From that point, the TA-Q-BIN
flag would fly high all around Japan. The colors might be different
today, but the flag has become a familiar part of the landscape all
across the country. And it all started from one employee’s idea andMasao seeing its merit.
Standing sign board (1977) and banner flag(1982)

13—First UPS TA-Q-BIN service (1987)
14—Poster announcing a new business model for TA-Q-BIN, with four parcel size categories and the launch of an evening delivery
service (1988)

The story of TA-Q-BINʼs growth019

Part 1

1

One Hundred Years of the Yamato Group｜Innovations that Pioneered Logistics

Chapter 4!

The story of business diversification
Yamato Group’s management structure, which enhances overall strength through multiple businesses, was built
on the foundation of efforts by Yasuomi and Masao Ogura to diversify their business. In the midst of post-war
turmoil, Yasuomi entered into a broad range of logistics-related businesses. Even after TA-Q-BIN, Masao
continued to launch businesses designed to meet the evolving needs of customers. This chapter follows thechallenges that these two men accepted.
Yasuomi Ogura greeting Vice-President James Cummins from Allied Van Lines

1

Yasuomi’s efforts toward diversification

The path to business diversification
As mentioned in Chapter 1, Yamato Transport’s efforts towardbusiness diversification started in 1946 with the acceptance of orders from the Allied Occupation Forces. Recognized for its job performance, the company continued doing similar work and branchedout from its trucking business into areas such as customs clearance,
air cargo and sea cargo. In 1953, it established a Division of Business to oversee operations of packing and transport, air cargo, andsea cargo all together, enabling itself to build the foundation forfurther business expansion.

Expansion of department store delivery businessYamato Transport’s department store delivery business also
grew significantly after the war. This was one of the markets developed by Yasuomi to increase work that had been negatively affectedby the Depression of 1920.
Deliveries had been suspended during the war, but with the
Mitsukoshi Department Store resuming its delivery service in theTokyo area in 1949, Yamato Transport also restarted its businessand established the Mitsukoshi Office. In addition to Mitsukoshi, it
then expanded its department store delivery business to other storesincluding Shirokiya, Matsuya, Isetan, and Takashimaya. It also became involved with deliveries for Odakyu Department Store, Keio
Department Store, and others when they opened between the mid1960s and mid-1970s, and opened the Tokyo Delivery Center in
Shinonome, Koto-ku in Tokyo in 1968.
Around the same time that business was growing for department store deliveries, the impact of a recession took its toll on theroute transport business that had been the company’s core business
until then. Department store deliveries gradually became the mainstay that propped up Yamato Transport’s management base.
As explained in Chapter 2, department store deliveries camewith a unique problem—busy season. Yamato Transport was able toovercome that difficulty with the introduction of 2-ton trucks,
which it was able to quickly dispatch to locations everywhere. As a

1—Roualt Exhibition (1965), with Managing Director of Louvre Museum giving directions

020

2—Specialized truck developed and patentapplication filed for carrying Coca-Colaproducts (circa 1970)

result of continuing department store delivery service through creativity, this particular business grew until it accounted for about 20
percent of the company’s total business in the 1960s.

Pre- and post-war local truck charter business
The local truck charter business, specializing in contracted
transportation of company products and parcels, was also born inthe early twentieth century and grew strong after the war. With its
beginnings in 1923, after the Great Kanto Earthquake it rented 10
trucks to the Department of War for carrying relief goods and other cargo. After that time, it provided similar services to Ministries
including the Ministry of Communications, Ministry of Education,
Imperial Household Ministry and other government offices including the Tokyo Government and local governments in Yokohama
City and elsewhere. From the early 1930s, it also extended the service to the private sector.
Immediately after the war, on September 10, 1945, the local
truck charter business was resumed to meet this private demand fortransportation. Fresh fish, vegetables, fruit and other foods were themajority of items brought by shippers along with gasoline which
was difficult to obtain.
Then, as companies relocated their offices, other cargo formoving was added, including office items. One unique job involved
transporting, setting up and dismantling a wrestling ring for a professional wrestling organization performing all around Japan.
After the war, Yamato Transport also packed and transported
household goods. This particular business had its origins, as mentioned previously, in the packing and transportation of furnitureand household goods for army personnel of the Allied Occupation
Forces when they moved house or returned to their home countries.
US Army-related work was conducted from 1957 in partnership with American company Allied Van Lines. When the volume
of work increased, the volume of work using that company’s 5-ton
container also increased. This partnership continued for five years
until the US Forces in Japan were reduced.

3—Mixed cargo loading bays at Akihabara
Station (from 1956 business guide)

4—International air cargo vehicle (1950s)【Chapter 4】

Yamato Transport was able to leverage its technologies andsites at the time to pack and transport furniture and household
goods for ambassadors and ministers of various countries, and to dowork related to wedding anniversary events for the then Crown
Prince of the Imperial Family. In 1972, the company also started
transporting cargo for Yomiuri Giants professional baseball players.
Shigeo Nagashima, the then team manager and former player, wasquoted in a company’s internal newsletter interview as saying that,“Yamato is another member of the Giants.” Other famous people inhistory that Yamato Transport carried for were Junko Tabei whenattempting to summit Mount Everest as the first woman to do so,and Pope John Paul II on his visit to Japan.

Packing and transportation of popular works of art
From about 1955, Yamato Transport started packing andtransporting works of art. The idea for this came from the personal
experience of one employee. One day, when visiting his friend’s
house to see some decorative art as valuable as important cultural
assets, he felt that there must be demand for transporting suchitems as well. Looking around, he noticed that newspaper companies and others were holding various art exhibits.
The first job came in May 1958 when the company was contracted to work on an Inca Empire cultural exhibit, and then in
June on a Roman Empire exhibit. Auguste Rodin’s “The Thinker,”currently at the National Museum of Western Art in Tokyo was alsotransported by Yamato Transport. While gaining this experience,the company received the opportunity to learn about how to handle
and pack works of art over a period of one year at the Tokyo National Museum1.
Many works of art have been carried over the years, but there
are two in particular that are worthy of their place in history. The
first was ‘mummies’ and the second was ‘sunflowers.’
The mummies were the center of interest in an exhibition of
Inca civilization and mummies held in 1975. The person in charge
traveled to Peru where he packed 11 mummies in the presence ofstaff from the Agency for Cultural Affairs, customs officials, and anotary public. As the necks were the most fragile parts of the mummies, they were packed carefully, as if they were high-quality china
cups, to prevent them from being broken.
Sunflowers is the name of a painting by Vincent van Gogh. At
an auction in 1987, a major Japanese nonlife insurance company
made global news when it paid 5.8 billion yen for the painting.
Yamato Transport was asked to transport the painting, and thistime, took extra care not only to pack them properly but also totransport them safely while taking security into account.

Local truck charter business earns trust
One final mention of Yasuomi’s local truck charter business isthe work the company did with Tokyo Coca-Cola Bottling (nowCoca-Cola Bottlers Japan Holdings). Begun in 1961, Yamato Transport
carried products from the Coca-Cola plant in Shibaura, Tokyo, toMisawa Air Base (partly US Air Force Base) in Aomori Prefecture. Backthen, some employees did not even know what Coca-Cola was.
A plant was later built in Tama, Tokyo, and demand exploded.
This led to the establishment of the Coca-Cola Office within Yamato Transport’s Takahama Branch in 1964, the Coca-Cola Sales Office on a site adjoining the Coca-Cola plant in 1966, and the CocaCola Sales Division in 1968. The Coca-Cola business accounted forthe greatest share of local business at the time2.
Yamato Transport earned sufficient trust to later be put incharge of work that included replenishing the plant’s stocks of empty bottles and cans, moving products ready for shipping, and delivering to liquor stores and wholesalers. This work continued until
2009.

The story of business diversification

Rail freight transport supports the company’s operations
During the period of recovery after the war, Yamato Transport
started a rail freight transport business using Japanese National
Railways lines rather than just trucks as a method of transport. Taking advantage of the elimination of a rule limiting the number ofcompanies to one per station, the company obtained rail freighttransport licenses in 1949 for the main freight stations of Shiodome,
Akihabara3 and Iidamachi in Tokyo. Thanks to information received from connections made through work with the Allied Occupation Forces, it was able to quickly submit the application
forms.
The business started in 1950. Small-lot mixed cargo, using a
combination of rail transport and truck route networks, became so
popular that the business was making a profit by the third year, andaccounted for more than 20 percent of the total company earnings
another two years later.
However, the rail freight transport business is easily impacted
by the economy of the times. Cargo volumes increased as an effectof Japan’s economic boom from 1956, and then fell in the economic doldrums of 1958. During this period, however, Yamato
Transport introduced forklifts and pallets to streamline its operations.
When JNR started full-scale operation of a container train in
1959, Yamato Transport also became actively involved in the operation, and maintained that involvement even after launching its own
truck service between Tokyo and Osaka in 1960.
As a result, the rail freight transport business steadily improvedand earnings continued to increase through to the early 1970s, supporting the company’s operations throughout this period.

Business expansion into air cargo, sea cargo, andtravel markets
From the beginning, Yasuomi maintained a special focus on“competing against time,” so it was natural that airplanes attracted
his attention. In 1932, he launched an air cargo transport businessfor customers who needed speedy services.
After the war, in 1950, he relaunched this business startingwith customs clearance for army personnel stationed in Japan whenreturning home. In September of that year, the business acquired acustoms broker license. Next year, it also started handling air cargo
after entering a passenger and freight agency contract with Civil Air
Transport (CAT), a Taiwanese company that was not a member of
the International Air Transport Association (IATA). It also qualified
as an IATA Cargo Agent in 1955, which further expanded its air
cargo business4.
With the volume of international air cargo increasing dramatically, and further growth expected, a representative was posted to
New York in 1968, and Yamato Transport’s first overseas representative office was opened. The New York Sales Office was opened in
1971, the Los Angeles Representative Office was opened in 1972, andEurope’s first representative office was opened in Amsterdam in 1975.
Yamato Transport acquired a license for domestic air cargotransport in 1962 and established its own independent system fortransportation operations by means of the main routes, excluding
Okinawa, by 1973. With this, it achieved a network of high-speed
connections between Tokyo and the regions.
In 1952, the company entered the sea cargo and port transportbusiness. This created an integrated transport structure able to handle all transport by itself, including the barge transport it had previously left to other companies, while acquiring all the qualifications
required when handling luggage for army personnel stationed inJapan on the occasion of returning home, such as for packing, transportation, shipping and customs clearance.

021

Yamato Transport quickly added support for sea container transport as well. In 1967, the company’s employees went to Shinagawa
Pier to see the first container ship to arrive from America with theirown eyes. Like when the first foreign steamships visited Japan in thepast, this container ship seemed to signal the coming of a new era. It
carried 325 10-foot containers, but Yasuomi’s employees sensed theywould get bigger in the future. During that year, Yamato Transport
conducted land transportation tests of sea containers. After establishing internal systems as well, it transported its first sea container in1968 in collaboration with Japan Line (now Mitsui O.S.K. Lines)5. That
container, transported from Noda City in Chiba Prefecture to Yokohama Port, was filled with soy sauce products.
Afterward, Yamato Transport became involved in related businesses, including unloading and leasing containers, and established2

Far East Lease Co., Ltd (now Yamato Lease) in 1977. This enabled thecompany to build a door-to-door, international integrated multimodal transport system. In 1979, the system carried large playground equipment for an amusement park, and an airship larger
than a Jumbo Jet from overseas.
At one time, Yamato Transport also became involved in thetravel business. It launched a travel agency business in 1963 and adomestic tourism agency in 1967.
The Yamato Transport package tour brand “Cat’s Eye Tours”
was launched in 1983. This was a project of the Travel Service Division, which was an offshoot of the Air and Sea Business Division. The
number of Japanese people traveling overseas increased dramatically
two years later, with the appreciation of the yen under the Plaza Accord, indicating that the company had anticipated this change.

Masao’s efforts toward diversification

Identifying potential user demand
While Yasuomi took advantage of the social structure change
associated with the end of World War II as an opportunity for business diversification, Masao identified potential demand among users and developed new products as a way to diversify his businesses.
TA-Q-BIN was a good example of this. Masao grasped theneed for a door-to-door service that would enable even a single
parcel to be delivered, and did not require troublesome packaging.
With this, he was able to create the mechanics of his TA-Q-BIN
service. With the policy of “Service comes first, and profits will follow” in his mind, he prioritized meeting customer needs.

Developing moving business with new ideas
After the war, Yamato Transport’s moving business, which had
focused on army personnel stationed in Japan when returning
home, transitioned to a moving service for government agencies
and corporations during a period of rapid economic growth. In
1973, it established a new Moving Center within the Headquarters
Division of Development to expand and capture business including
the relocation of offices to an increasing number of high-rise buildings. Then in 1978, it started a new business called the Small Moving Service for the general public. This service was originally limited
to Tokyo and Osaka cities and their environs. During this time, italso developed packaging materials for fragile plates and bulky futon bedding, and equipment to facilitate the carrying of heavy items
up and down stairs.
In 1984, the four members of the newly established Divisionof Moving Development conducted a comprehensive review of thecompany’s moving services. One of those members was Masaki Yamauchi, who went on to become President of Yamato Holdings.
Masao instructed him to think about “how people can enjoy thesame lifestyles when they move to a new home.” For example, he
was tasked with finding out how to enable a father, who just moved
home, to go off to work in the morning, return home after work,and sit down to a meal like he did every day prior to the move.
As a result, the company developed its Easy Moving Pack in
1985 so that families that were moving did not have to pack or
unpack. They could leave everything up to Yamato Transport, frompacking and carrying goods, to removing them from boxes and putting them in place at their new location. A new Moving Advisor
role was created, and this advisor had detailed meetings with people
who would be present on the day of the move. Moving was also
redefined as “moving living spaces” rather than “transporting household goods.” At the time, the new Easy Moving Pack was positioned
as the company’s second pillar alongside TA-Q-BIN6.
In 1990, a new moving service “My Move 2m3” was launched022

for people without the amount of luggage that would need to charter an entire truck, such as university students living alone for the
first time. After the popularity of test sales within the Chubu Regional Office, service areas were expanded in no time at all. Development of new moving services like this, matched to the life stageof each customer, continued afterward as well.

Challenges of domestic air cargo transport
Continuing to meet the need for faster deliveries, TA-Q-BIN,
which was launched in 1976, expanded its next-day delivery areas
with the help of domestic air cargo transport.
After expanding the next-day delivery areas for TA-Q-BIN, asame-day delivery service was launched in 1982 and a businesshours delivery service was launched in 1986 to meet the need forever-faster and accurate deliveries7.
The business-hours delivery service combined the speed of airplanes or bullet trains with the maneuverability of motorcycles tomeet requests for specific time deliveries, which made it extremely
convenient for exchanging documents between companies. Of
course, this was in a time before data could be transmitted over theInternet.
Afterward, Yamato Transport combined a range of value-added services with speed to provide customers with optimal services.

Initiatives to pioneer new businesses ahead of thetime
There are examples where pioneering business models werecreated by leveraging the existing TA-Q-BIN networks to meet potential demand from customers.
For example, it is not unusual that it takes a week or longer fora book to arrive when ordering it from a bookstore. The book distribution system at the time, which routed books via bookstores,
was an outdated business model. Masao thought it might be interesting to blow some fresh air through that distribution system, so in
1987 he launched his Book Service8. Book orders were taken by
postcard, fax or telephone, and the books were delivered over the
TA-Q-BIN network. The majority of publishers and distributors
were unreceptive to this new idea, but the response from users when
the service was actually launched was fantastic, with some users
even sending thank you cards. This was an innovative service in atime before the spread of e-commerce.

Kuroneko Mail service
Another new business that utilized the TA-Q-BIN network
was the Kuroneko Mail service. This new service was launched as aresult of increases in post office rates in 1994. With people asking【Chapter 4】

whether Yamato Transport could also deliver magazines, the company set about commercializing its postal service on a full scale.
Developed from the point of view of user convenience, it’s a newservice where delivery would take one day longer than with TA-QBIN, a pickup service was available, and there was no need for users
to manage stamps and other inventory. With trials of the service
from August 1996, it was launched nationally in March of the following year. It started with a B4 size limit and, in response to customer inquiries, a mail service sticker using bar codes was introduced. As Kuroneko Mail service delivery partners (individuallycontracted agents), deliverers called Kuroneko Mate were also actively
involved at this time.
After subsequent changes to postage sizes, delivery speeds, andother aspects of the service, it handled up to 2.3 billion items per
year (fiscal 2010). However, risk associated with the Postal Act resulted in cancellation of the service in 2015, despite continued support from customers, to avoid inconveniencing the customers. At
the same time, the company launched two new postal services—
Nekopos and Kuroneko DM-Bin.

Venturing intro integrated logistics
Logistics refers to a system for efficiently and constructively
managing the distribution of goods. In the latter half of the 1990s,
Japan began to focus on third-party logistics (3PL), or centralized
management of a company’s goods by third-party businesses. Yamato Transport’s first foray into logistics can be traced back to thebeginning of the 1980s.
Around that time, Yamato System Development, which had
expertise in information and communications, and in developing
the NEKO System, received an order from a confectionery company to develop a sales system for new products. It was also tasked
with managing product storage and inventory control.
In 1982, the new business was launched from a rented roomin a condominium. At the time, it was unusual for an information
systems company to be involved in this sort of business, and thecompany’s employees were confused as well. But having their own
onsite work enabled them to create an onsite response system that
could be used to resolve any issue that suddenly occurred.
This led to the launch of the Te-Ashi-Tsuki VAN service, combining information systems and logistics. The Te (hands) stood forcomputers, the Ashi (feet) stood for TA-Q-BIN, and the VAN was

the company’s communications network. As the TA-Q-BIN service
spread across Japan, Yamato Transport was forming a detailed information and communication network that this new service would
use. This unique service, combining information, logistics and communications, was able to provide customers with tailored, optimal
systems that were both economical and effective9.
On the other hand, Yamato Transport was handling logistics
processing, storage and other tasks in-house at the request of theirmajor customers. These tasks, however, were considered to be partof the TA-Q-BIN business. Around the middle of the 1990s, they
were developed into a full-scale business. Other business handled
included everything from storage and management to packing andshipping of products for catalogue sales and mail order.

Expansion of logistics businessIn this way, in line with customer requests, the unique Yamato
Transport logistics business was created to integrate all the operations of storing, ordering, processing and transporting, by utilizing
information systems and TA-Q-BIN networks. As previously mentioned, there was an increase in the number of logistics businesses
providing 3PL services in the latter half of the 1990s, so there wasan urgent need for new services to be developed for the industry.
This was when reverse logistics came to the attention of Yamato Transport. Reverse logistics means transporting things in the
opposite direction to normal, such as items to be sent back to manufactures for return or repair. And it was common for the manufacturers to be in charge of this kind of operation. When the Kuroneko
Quick Maintenance service, which was expected to reduce time
taken for repairs, launched in 1997, the first customers were officeequipment traders. The number of customers increased in recognition of the speed and convenience the service offered. Replacement
items were sent to customers during repairs, and the replacement
items also had to be checked, so Yamato Transport also became involved in repair work.
As a result, Yamato Transport and part of the logistics businessof Yamato System Development were integrated in 2000. Thereafter, as organic connections were made between Group management
resources, the company was able to expand integrated services acrossthe full logistics spectrum in response to customer needs10.

5—Container trucks delivering cargo to container ship at Keihin Port (late 1960s)

6—Easy Moving Pack service (1980s)

7—Business-hours delivery service rider (1988)

8—Packing and shipping for the Book Service (1994)

9—Shipping work at Yamato System Development’s Kawaguchi Logistics Center (Saitama Prefecture) opened in 1987

10—Aerial view of Yamato Transport’s Kanagawa Logistics Terminal completed in 2007. At the time, it was the YamatoGroup’s first full-scale logistics terminal, including a logistics
building that housed the Kanagawa Sorting Hub and Yamato
Logistics.

The story of business diversification

023

Part 1

1

One Hundred Years of the Yamato Group｜Innovations that Pioneered Logistics

Chapter 5!

The story of Group collaboration
The rapid growth of e-commerce, evolution in digital technologies and other factors were driving significant
changes in our lives. In the middle of this, Yamato Transport adopted a pure holding company structure in2005 as a new growth strategy for the company. Enabling appropriate distribution of the management resources
created through the growth of TA-Q-BIN, the new structure would revitalize existing businesses and promote
the growth of new ones. With this, the company embarked on new initiatives to reflect Masao Ogura’s words
about “things that should be changed, and things that should not be changed.”
Haneda Chronogate, Yamato Group’s largest logistics terminal (2013)

1

Promoting Group management

The birth of Yamato Holdings
In 2005, Yamato Holdings Co., Ltd. was established by transforming into a pure holding company structure. With Group-widedecision-making and supervisory functions, Yamato Holdings oversaw the operations of its companies in charge of their respective
business fields—Delivery, BIZ-Logistics, Home Convenience, eBusiness, Financial, and Group Support. (See page 48 for the current
structure after subsequent changes.)

Behind this new structure was the intention to move awayfrom an almost total reliance on TA-Q-BIN and appropriately distribute the management resources, created through TA-Q-BIN,
across both existing and new businesses. Keiji Aritomi, Chairman
and President of Yamato Holdings at the time, felt a sense of ur-

2

gency, commenting, “TA-Q-BIN has grown strongly over the years,
but that growth will not necessarily continue forever.” He felt thecompany had to respond to changing times and develop new businesses, other than TA-Q-BIN, that would support the next generation of Yamato, so he decided to take the company in a new direction1.
The new business formation was already decided with the release of the company’s “Rebirth and Evolution Three-Year Plan” in
2002. By separating the delivery business from the other businesses,
the plan would enable the delivery business to respond more quickly when required. It also clarified that this change would enable thenon-delivery businesses to pursue growth independently.

Further evolution of the delivery business

Meticulous service over the last-one-mile
After the holding company structure was created, the Grouplaunched its Create Satisfaction Three-year Plan in 2008. The Yamato Group’s strengths lie in the well-developed networks of the meticulous service. In other words, its strength is the last-one-milefrom distribution points to the customer’s doorstep. This plan set
forth directions to ensure greater satisfaction for customers by
evolving existing businesses and adopting a new business structure
to move toward business efficiency and new growth.
One of the methods used to improve customer satisfaction was
Kuroneko Members, a membership-based service for individual
customers, which the Group launched and expanded from 2007.
Aimed at making TA-Q-BIN more convenient and easy to use,
Kuroneko Members introduced a number of services that facilitatedreceiving, sending, and paying2.

The TA-Q-BIN e-mail notification service had already been in
operation since 2002, but this service was further evolved throughKuroneko Members. Launched in 2010, the TA-Q-BIN DeliveryTime-and-Place specification service let customers specify, in advance by e-mail, not only a delivery time zone but also how to receive a delivery, with options to choose from. As the lifestyles of its
customers changed, their ways to receive deliveries became morediverse. So this service introduced a new approach to deliver to anindividual person rather than to an address. This led to a further
evolution that enabled people to pick up parcels from Pick Up &Drop Off (PUDO) stations, which were parcel lockers installedaround Japan, from 20163. Additional functionality was also implemented from 2017, including use of social media to send delivery
schedules and attempted delivery notices, and an easy way to issue
waybills by smartphone. With the growth of e-commerce enabled

1—Keiji Aritomi, President of Yamato Transport, discussing promotion of Group management (2003)

3—Pick Up & Drop Off (PUDO) stations installed
all across cities. This open parcel locker allows users
to receive parcels from other couriers as well, helping
to resolve a range of issues faced by society. In addition to receiving parcels, some parcels can also besent from PUDO stations.

024

2—NekoPit terminal installed at the reception of TA-Q-BIN centers to provide services
for Kuroneko Members

4—Dedicated boxes for TA-Q-BIN
Compact (2015)【Chapter 5】

by increased use of smartphones, other functions were created for
mail-order companies to provide on their websites, including functions to change delivery time zones or the way to receive a delivery.
At the same time, the spread of e-commerce increased the needfor delivery of small parcels. Two new services launched to meet thisneed in 2015 were TA-Q-BIN Compact4, which enabled deliveryof anything that would fit in a dedicated box regardless of weight,
and Nekopos, which combined next-day delivery with delivery to
mailboxes. These services are evolving further, able to be used withother services including anonymous delivery and cash on delivery,and have become more convenient services for customers using flea
market apps and the like.

Expansion into delivery services for corporate clients
The corporate client’s business environment was also changing,so the Yamato Group developed a range of services in response. Partof that was to change the stereotypes in the route business in particular, with the launch of the JITBOX Charter service in 2006.

3

This service was provided by Box Charter Co., Ltd., established as a
joint investment with another company in the same field, to transport cargo loaded into roll containers called “roll box pallets.” It was
an attempt to improve transport efficiency by combining delivery
know-how and networks of both parent companies. The YamatoGroup embarked on “platform business” to provide business opportunities.
Later on, the business model was further developed in an attempt to provide a joint transport and delivery platform for air andother cargo. S-PAT, which was launched in 2009 by Yamato Holdings’ joint investment company Express Network Co., Ltd., was ashared delivery service developed in collaboration with 10 domestic
air transport carriers.
From 2004, Yamato Transport ventured into intra-building
deliveries for locations like high-rise buildings and large shopping
centers, which grew into the Building and Town Management service. Then in 2012, it also launched the Yamato Business Members
service as a business support portal site for corporate clients.

New development of non-delivery businesses

Creating a unique trailblazing business model
The Yamato Group was working to create new non-delivery
businesses even before transforming into a holding company structure. One of the mechanisms employed was Y-Venture Dream, aninternal start-up company system. In the first round of applicationsin 2002, an idea that came from Yamato Transport’s Call Center
was used to establish Yamato Contact Service Co., Ltd. the following year. In 2016, the name of the system was changed to New
Value Challenge in support of endeavors to create new values.

Formation of each businessIn the BIZ-Logistics business area, cross-organizational structures were promoted. Depending on the business expansion being
pursued by a customer, combinations of functions were proposed,
including procurement and production, sales, promotions and marketing, and after-sales support. Through this, a range of mechanisms were created for reducing the total cost of corporate logistics.
One such mechanism was Auto Pick Factory, an automatic warehousing system that was adopted at Kanagawa Logistics Terminaland other locations. Operating 24/7/365, it handles everythingfrom storage of customer goods to picking, logistics processing, anddelivery. The speed and high productivity provided by this mechanism is helping customers expand their businesses. In 2011, theTokyo Medical Maintenance Center was also opened in Edogawaku, Tokyo, as the Yamato Group enhanced its support of the medical-related field5.
In the Home Convenience business area, moving services and5—Cleaning medical equipment in the BIZLogistics business area (2019)

6—Comfortable Lifestyle Support Service,providing house cleaning in the Home Convenience business area (2014)

The story of Group collaboration

other community-based services for all areas of life are being further
evolved. While TA-Q-BIN delivers parcels to the front door, thisbusiness steps inside the homes to provide helpful services to consumers. One of the services provided is the Comfortable LifestyleSupport Service, providing house cleaning, housework and othersupport6. This business has also been involved in manufacturing
and selling private brand goods, including toilet paper from 1997
and drinking water from 1998.
In the e-Business area, the Group’s information network andknow-how were utilized to develop a diverse range of services. Witha focus on the keywords of “security” and “packaging” in addition
to “tracing,” meaning “parcel tracing system” developed throughTA-Q-BIN’s parcel tracking systems, these services included various
kinds of services such as streamlining operations in the credit card
industry, system operations outsourcing, one-stop solutions for
mail-order businesses, system solutions for business continuity support, and streamlining of logistics supply chains.
In the Financial business area, businesses focused primarily on
TA-Q-BIN cash on delivery services, but as the mail-order market
grew, they expanded operations to also include credit card payments
for e-commerce sites and e-money terminal rentals for events.
The Autoworks business area grew considerably after being developed out of the Delivery business. Originally working on vehicle
maintenance for the Yamato Group, this business has been extended to provide vehicle maintenance for other bus and truck carriers
as well. It now provides a maintenance service that enables non-stop
logistics operations by conducting scheduled maintenance during

7—Superworks maintenance plant operated in the Autoworks business area025

vehicle downtime. With the popularity of user-friendly scheduled
maintenance, maintenance divisions were transformed into profitable business. Keiji Aritomi, President of Yamato Transport at thetime, was involved in development of this business. He comment-

4ed; “That was a successful example of refining a target market.” Asof April 2019, the maintenance plant network has expanded to 71
locations nationally, including 25 Superworks maintenance plants7.

Toward Value Networking Design

Expansion of the Asian network
In 2008, the Division of Global Solution Sales was created at
Yamato Transport as part of a strategic overseas expansion. The objectives were to enhance the company’s ability to handle international distribution, build a base for proposing solutions, expand the
TA-Q-BIN business globally, and connect and expand the frontline
networks in each region. Prior to that, in 2000, Yamato Transport
signed a licensing agreement with a local company in Taiwan todevelop its TA-Q-BIN service there. This new division was an attempt to expand the initiative throughout Asia. From 2011 as well,
expansion of this Asian network was one of the basic strategies put
forward in the DAN-TOTSU Three-Year Plan HOP management
plan.
In January 2010, the TA-Q-BIN service was launched in Singapore and Shanghai, where there was no equivalent distribution
business despite rising living standards. In the same year, Yamato
Transport relaunched its International TA-Q-BIN service to connect Japan with Taiwan, Singapore8 and Shanghai9. TA-Q-BIN
was also launched in Hong Kong10 in February 2011, and in Malaysia in September that year. With its very high Internet penetration, the decision to launch in Malaysia11 was based on anticipatedmail-order demand. In 2017, TA-Q-BIN was launched in Thailand
as well.

Promoting Value Networking Design
In 2013, the Yamato Group unveiled Value Networking Design, which became a basic strategy of the DAN-TOTSU Three-Year
Plan STEP management plan launched the following year. Behind
this new concept were dramatic changes in the logistics environment, including a dwindling workforce in Japan, a rapid expansionof e-commerce, evolving AI and digital technologies that were impacting every business and industry, and increasingly borderless logistics. Changing distribution from a “cost-oriented” strategy to a“means of creating value,” Value Networking Design aimed to help
both individual and corporate customers improve the productivity
and international competitiveness of their businesses. In this way,
the Yamato Group is working to revolutionize logistics for an evenbroader range of customers. Makoto Kigawa12, the then Presidentof Yamato Holdings, discussed this concept; “This represented ourThird Innovation, after our initial move into the route transportbusiness and subsequent launch of the TA-Q-BIN business. Until
this point, the value of logistics was measured by addition, or in

8—Press conference announcing the launch of TA-Q-BIN in
Singapore, with Kaoru Seto (center), President of Yamato
Holdings (2010)026

other words by meeting one of three needs in delivery service: quality, speed, and cost. Now, though, overall value would be lost if wewere unable to meet expectations for any one of those three needs.
At the same time, improving any one of the three would deliver amarked improvement in overall value, which meant a service wasnow assessed by multiplication of improvements in logistics value,
not by addition.”
To realize the Value Networking Design concept, the YamatoGroup had to accelerate the creation of diverse value-added models
centered on corporate logistics. For example, it set about creatinghigh value-added business models that merged Yamato Group’s information technology (IT), logistics technology (LT), and financial
technology (FT) functions with cross-border networks. These logistics systems would maintain the same quality and speed without
increasing costs even if cargo volumes increased, and meet the
emerging need in Asia for small-lot, high-frequency procurementand delivery, international refrigeration, international mail-order,
customer product logistics processing and other services.
A number of facilities were also built in response to thesemoves. One of them was Haneda Chronogate, which started operations in 2013 as the Yamato Group’s largest logistics terminal. Located close to the main land, sea and air terminals, the new center
provided customs clearance, customs bonding, shipping and otherprocesses that quickly connected Japan with overseas destinations.
It also functioned as a base for value-added services that require
speed, such as cleaning and maintenance of medical equipment,
and assembly and repair of products and components. In 2015, theSouthern Gate global logistics center in Okinawa was also opened.
In addition to offering non-stop logistics operations running
24/7/365 and serving as a base for the International Cool TA-QBIN service, it was also engaged in filling and packaging cosmetics
and IoT device kitting business. To promote non-stop logistics, thecompany opened the Atsugi Gateway in 2013, the Chubu Gateway
in 2016, and the Kansai Gateway in 2017, and is running highfrequency trunk line transportation between the gateways. At thesame time, it is working to automate operations, optimize theGroup’s networks as a whole, and reduce costs13.
Furthermore, as one mechanism to transform logistics into a“means of creating value,” Yamato Logistics developed the Free
Rack Auto Pick System (FRAPS) as a unique logistics system14. With
movable racks to increase effective space within warehouses, FRAPS
made the process of receiving and shipping cargo faster, while in-

9—TA-Q-BIN center and pickup and delivery vehicle at thelaunch of TA-Q-BIN in Shanghai (2010)

10—TA-Q-BIN in Hong Kong (2015)【Chapter 5】

11—TA-Q-BIN in Malaysia (2011)

12—Makoto Kigawa, President of Yamato Holdings, discussing Value Networking Design (2013)

creasing productivity and reducing costs. This system has also been
adopted by Yamato Group customers and others.
As a refrigerated parcel delivery service offered mainly in Asia,
the group also launched an International Cool TA-Q-BIN service
in 2013, operating from Japan to Hong Kong, and later expanded
it to include Taiwan, Singapore, Malaysia and Thailand15. At thesuggestion of the Yamato Group, and with the participation of

5

13—Cross belt sorter at Chubu Gateway, with a sliding basemechanism that doubled the previous processing capacity

door-to-door delivery and other related companies, industry bodies
and experts, British Standards Institution (BSI) formulated the PAS
1018 international standard for refrigerated parcel delivery services
in 2017. Through public-private collaborations, Yamato Group
worked to increase penetration of the PAS 1018 standard, which
went a long way toward establishing refrigerated parcel delivery services as trusted infrastructure in Asia and other overseas countries.

Focusing on the 100th anniversary of the Yamato Group

Community-based, lifetime lifestyle support infrastructure
One of the basic strategies put forward in the DAN-TOTSU
Three-Year Plan HOP management plan was “Establish community-based lifetime lifestyle support platform.” To meet the needs ofcommunity life, this strategy developed into Project G, a collaborative initiative with government for creating shared value (CSV) (seeChapter 10).
Through TA-Q-BIN and other services, the Yamato Group
had already developed face-to-face contacts with many customers.
Making use of these contacts, the Group aims to promote CSV
activities contributing to communities through services of its corebusiness, rather than social contribution activities separate from its
core business, and play a role as a social infrastructure company.

Toward new reforms
In September 2017, the Yamato Group announced its new
medium-term management plan “KAIKAKU 2019 for NEXT100.”
The Group will celebrate its 100-year anniversary in 2019, so thisplan aims to reinforce the Group’s management foundation to allow
it to realize sustainable growth for the next 100 years16. Behind thisplan was the fact that Group system construction was unable tokeep up with dramatic changes in the business environment, including a rapid expansion of e-commerce markets and tightening oflabor supply and demand, which created a significant burden for

14—Free Rack Auto Pick System (FRAPS) in use at Atsugi
Gateway

frontline employees. With a focus on workstyle reform, it will workto achieve structural reform of the delivery business, reform of revenue and business structures to achieve discrete growth, and reformof Group management structure to achieve sustainable growth.
To achieve workstyle reform, the Group will develop “employee-friendly” and “rewarding” working environments, and will goback to its roots where “Participatory Management” (everybody is involved in management) is practiced. To achieve revenue and businessstructure reform, it will further develop Value Networking Design,develop platforms for each industry, and establish business structures that enable continuous provision of high value-added services.
Following this policy of reform, in 2017, it reviewed its Time Zone
Delivery Service service and other services and worked to develop
reasonable pricing levels, which included the first price increases for
TA-Q-BIN in 27 years and reviews of contracted freight fares withcorporate customers.
The Yamato Group will continue changing into the future.
Masao once talked about “things that should be changed, andthings that should not be changed.” Looking ahead to the next 100
years, the Group must consider how it will protect the “things thatshould not be changed,” and in line with changing times, how itwill take the lead in changing the “things that should be changed.”
This is a challenge that the Group must continue into the future.

15—Loading refrigerated airline containers into a cargo planeat Okinawa International Logistics Hub

The story of Group collaboration

16—Masaki Yamauchi, President of Yamato Holdings, providing an outline of the “KAIKAKU 2019 for NEXT100” plan ina booklet for shareholders (2017)027

Part 2

1

Stories to be Retold for Generations-1｜The Spirit of the Core Values Alive Throughout 100 Years

Chapter 6!

The story of passing down the Core Values
One of the “things that should not be changed” throughout the 100-year history of the Yamato Group is thespirit of the Core Values, alive almost since the beginning of the company. Established by Yasuomi Ogura andcarried on by Masao Ogura, the Core Values incorporated into the corporate philosophy represent theunshakeable inner drive and resolve that endure to this day. Ideas expressed in the three statements of the Core
Values weave together a number of stories.
48-year-old Yasuomi Ogura with Masao Ogura as a junior high school student (1938)

1

From Core Values to corporate philosophy

Yasuomi Ogura’s philosophy

Philosophy carried on by Masao Ogura

Yamato Group founder, Yasuomi Ogura, established the Core
Values in December 19311.
Yasuomi became sure of one thing about running a company—no matter how efficiently it’s managed, the company itself is
nothing but a formal structure. He believed that for a company tobe accepted by society, it was of paramount importance that each
person working for the company had the right attitude to theirwork.
Yamato was what its employees made it, as implied in the shortstatement, “We all represent the company.”“We connect our customers’ hearts with every delivery” isbased on the understanding that people in the business of transporting goods are an important part of social infrastructure and dutybound to deliver in a timely and precise manner with a sense of
responsibility and sincerity, while keeping the intention of eachshipper in mind.
“We conduct ourselves both professionally and ethically” clearly underlines the need to remain disciplined and the importance ofcompliance.
These Core Values were communicated to all employees together as direct instructions2. Yasuomi knew it would take time for
instructions to filter through the hierarchy from top to bottom
given the dispersed nature of the transportation workforce, but thiswould be more than offset by the initiative of individual employees
placing importance on the Core Values.
The same idea was embodied in the “cherry blossom and letterY” company emblem in use from around 19223,4. The individual
petals represent employees coming together to form flowers. Inturn, the flowers come together to form a tree in a depiction of thephilosophy of Participatory Management.

The philosophy Yasuomi embodied in the Core Values was
carried forward by Masao Ogura. In particular, he interpreted “We
all represent the company” as also saying all employees are out there
on the field, with nobody on the bench. He tied it to the idea ofParticipatory Management, whereby each employee thinks and acts
to resolve issues, deciding for themselves what to do and then taking
action; determining for themselves what customers want and helping them get it.
Sales Drivers are symbolic of Participatory Management. Especially in the TA-Q-BIN service, they had been indispensable5,6. Forcommercial cargo, the sales representative and the person transporting the cargo were different people, but that was not the case for
TA-Q-BIN. Precisely because they were the ones visiting people’s
homes, Sales Drivers had a better idea about where the next job
might come from, and how many pieces should be expected.
Masao described what he expected from Sales Drivers as follows.

2—In February 1932, after the Core Values were established, Yasuomi produced a recording ofcompany directions and a company song and presented the record to anyone who wanted a copy.
The company song was actually written in October 1929. After an internal competition to write
the lyrics for a company song, the winner was Yoshio Koto, a Waseda University student who was
the younger brother of an employee of Fujiya Taxi, of which Yasuomi was the representative. The
name of the composer is unclear.

1—Core Values with portrait of Yasuomi Ogura

028

3—Design of the “cherry blossom and letterY” company emblem

4—Company emblem worn by Masao Ogura【Chapter 6】

First, instead of working like people in a restaurant where anorder-taker, chef and waiter do their own work separately to complete one task together, he wanted Sales Drivers to be like a sushi
master who does everything and attends to each customer request
one at a time.
Second, he wanted them to be the forwards in a soccer team
who must engage in close-knit cooperative play and make instantaneous decisions. Masao wanted Sales Drivers to be talented forwards.

Ideas incorporated into the corporate philosophy
Participatory Management and the policy of “Service comes
first, and profits will follow” were catching on among employees,
but it was some time before such concepts were put down in writing. The turning point came in 1991, when the Japan Business
Federation (Keidanren) established its Charter of Corporate Behavior.
A call subsequently went out to companies, demanding clear statements about their value to, and role in, society. Yamato Transport
proceeded to establish a corporate philosophy, complementing the2Core Values with the Management Philosophy, Corporate Stanceand Employee Code of Conduct.
In deciding how to express the Management Philosophy, Masao was unsure right to the end if they should insert the words“social infrastructure” in reference to the TA-Q-BIN service. Masaki Yamauchi, then a member of the project team assigned to formulate the philosophy, clearly recalls Masao contemplating if it
might not be too presumptuous. It showed his mixed feelings ofenthusiasm for the TA-Q-BIN service becoming a social infrastructure and resolve to shoulder the tremendous responsibility thatwould entail7.
In this way, the corporate philosophy of Yamato Transport wasestablished in 1995, displayed on panels at each sales office, while abooklet was distributed to all employees8,9.
Masao did not believe that rules, once set, had to be preservedat all costs. For example, the way employees take leave would naturally change as society changes. Some aspects, however, were simply
not to be tampered with; such as the philosophy behind the Core
Values, as demonstrated in the form of Participatory Management.

Participatory Management in action

Employees keep the spirit alive
Right after the launch of the TA-Q-BIN service, Sales Drivers
became the face of Yamato Transport in both name and reality.
Underlying that was the pride and sense of responsibility that drivers already possessed -before TA-Q-BIN was launched.
Around the time of the company’s founding, driving automobiles for a living was the dream of many. But in Yasuomi’s eyes, justbecause you could drive did not mean you were suitable to be adriver. Until they became experts in vehicle maintenance and cargohandling, too, he made them build up experience in handling andotherwise learn the ropes as assistants. He also made drivers wear auniform with a regulation hat—a first for the trucking industry at
the time—and by doing so reminded them they were the company’s

5—Sales office morning meeting (Okayama-minami Sales Office, 1987)

banner carriers10.
Times changed and Masao gave Sales Drivers more leeway tomake their own decisions. Though limited to that period, he gavethem the authority to determine where agencies were needed and toenter into contracts, and the authority to develop new clients. In
the event of an accident involving cargo, Sales Drivers were also free
to handle matters as they saw fit.

Fostering a corporate culture
A wide range of initiatives were employed to facilitate smoothcommunication among employees and to foster a corporate culture.
Yamato News, the monthly internal newsletter, first came out in
1930. Its purpose was to provide a medium for top-down and bot-

6—Sales Drivers checking parcel destinations on the map before delivery (Kurashiki Sales Office, 1983)

7—Like water, gas and electricity, TA-Q-BIN delivers convenience 365 days a year: New Year’s newspaper advertisement(1997)

8—Yamato Transport Corporate Philosophy booklet (1995)

9—Koji Miyauchi, President of Yamato Transport (1995)

The story of passing down the Core Values

10—Drivers in uniform (1927)029

tom-up communication, and a space where everyone could freely
and frankly express their views and open each other’s eyes. Reading
articles in the bulletin about remarkable activities of employees
whom they had never met, and who worked in other places unfamiliar to them, was a major source of inspiration11.
The Core Values are recited in unison each day during morning meetings. It is a shared affirmation, serving as a reminder of thespirit of the Core Values coming back alive, whenever suddenly
faced with making a decision—indeed, it is a kind of survival in-3stinct.
One relatively recent initiative was the system of “Satisfaction
Points,” launched by Yamato Transport in November 2008. Whenone employee praises another, both the praised and the praising
employees receive points, as well as badges corresponding to thenumber of points they have attained. Initially launched in the hopethat praising one another would lead to a positive spiral, it has beenrevamped as the “Satisfaction Bank” and is spreading to other groupcompanies12.

Shouldering the intention of customers

Beliefs of Yasuomi and Masao Ogura

Customer Centric approach

Yasuomi later revealed that one of the Core Values, “We connect our customers’ hearts with every delivery,” has its origins indelivery services provided to department stores. In the eyes of department store customers receiving their shopping items at home,
Yamato Transport was the final point of contact with the store. For
that reason, Yasuomi kept reminding his employees that they should
act like department store staff members when serving shoppers. Ifthey were delivering a bride’s household effects, for example, those
items were to be transported in the appropriate manner accordingly.
Masao also always considered the people receiving items. In
opening remarks at a party commemorating the 70th anniversary of
the company’s founding, after TA-Q-BIN had enjoyed strong
growth and a positive reception, Masao said he wanted employees
to realize that just one letter of complaint about items not arriving
on time carried more weight than any accolade bestowed on themso far.

Seeing the customer’s point of view—it is easier said than done. But the belief in it really did turn into action.
It was December 1984. Nagaoka City in Niigata Prefecture
was hit by a record-breaking snowstorm. The Nagaoka branch waspart of the network for the Ski TA-Q-BIN service launched the year
before, but deliveries to ski resorts in Nagano and Niigata Prefectures were delayed by the snow. Despite urgently mobilizing employees from across the country in support, the power of nature wasinsurmountable13. Yamato Transport contacted affected customers
using the ski transport service and offered to pay all costs relating to
ski hire, even including ski wear purchases, along with an apology.
Concerns about if customers would use the services the following year turned out to be unnecessary. The message had got across—that Yamato Transport went the extra mile. Masao was overjoyed
and tremendously reassured that the swift response of employees, as
the embodiment of “Service comes first, and profits will follow” hadearned the trust of customers, and that employees themselves hadrecognized how important that was.

4

We conduct ourselves both professionally and ethically

The most important teaching”Courtesy and discipline first” was introduced as the slogan of
the year, alongside Yasuomi’s greeting in the January 1, 1942 edition of Yamato News. Yasuomi provided his own insight, touchingon the Core Values. Noting that everyone was well aware of theneed to conduct themselves ethically by practicing courtesy anddiscipline, he explained, “Precisely because it is the most importantteaching humans should follow, I made a point of including it in
the Core Values so it would be observed without fail at all times.”

As practiced by employees
In March 1984, a visitor to a hospital was removing his shoesat the entrance when somebody said to him, “Here you are.” Thena pair of slippers was placed before him. It was not a person thevisitor knew, or even a hospital employee, but a Yamato Transport
Sales Driver who happened to be there delivering a package. Masao
would later find out about it since the visitor to the hospital was so
impressed he penned a letter.
And in 2005, president of Yamato Transport at the time, Atsushi Yamazaki14, received an email from a customer. According to
the message, the customer driving in to visit a Yamato Transport
sales office was “warmly welcomed with greetings” at his car on arrival. And when he was leaving after dropping off his packages, his
car was guided back to the road for his safety with a “Thank you.”
The sender of the email expressed his appreciation, noting the “natural greetings and cheerful expressions.” Yamazaki found the praise
received for courtesy and discipline shown by employees a source of

12—Satisfaction Bank’s “satisfaction badges”
presented according to points collected

11—Oldest existing copy of Yamato News
(March 1941 edition)

030

14—Atsushi Yamazaki, President of Yamato
Transport
13—Snow vehicle used during heavy snowfall to pick up and deliver parcels at Ishiuchi
Ski Resort, Niigata Prefecture (1985)【Chapter 6】

Transformation of uniforms worn by the route transport and TA-Q-BIN drivers /office workers

1924
Yasuomi Ogura believed that the attitude and clothing of his
drivers had an effect on the company’s reputation, so in 1924 heintroduced a uniform policy that was unprecedented in thetrucking industry. The uniform was extremely innovative at thetime and drew a lot of public attention for its stylishness. (phototaken in 1979)

1955
Yamato Courier and others introduce uniforms for drivers

1969
New design to celebrate the 50th anniversary of the company,
with a two-tone color scheme for the jacket and trousers tomatch the vehicles. These uniforms were used at the start of TAQ-BIN. The photo on the right shows a later change made to thetrousers.

1977

1990

2000

First uniform for female workers, creating a clean look with easeof movement (replica of summer uniform, photo taken in 2019)

New design to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the company,
with different male and female uniforms and the inclusion of aknitted vest and jacket for female office workers

New (and current) design to celebrate the 80th anniversary of thecompany, with matching male and female uniforms. The photoon the right shows the Asia region uniform, with different colorcap.

joy and pride.

Compliance initiatives
The launch of the Compliance Committee in 2003 was one
element of systematic efforts to entrench professional conduct.
Measures such as introducing an internal whistleblowing systemgave management direct access to internal risk-related information.

5

To prevent driving without the necessary qualifications or licenses
due to human error, a control system using IC chip-embedded
driver’s licenses was constructed in 2014, complementing visualconfirmation.
Initiatives are underway to truly establish compliance-based
management, which remains an important theme today.

Keeping appearances and vehicles respectable

The spirit is passed down
Similar to the value he placed on courtesy and discipline, Yasuomi placed importance on keeping vehicles in good condition andmaintaining a neat appearance. As referred to in Chapter 1, Yamato
Transport took on transportation of wedding furniture for imperial
and upper-class households in the mid-1920s, toward the end of the
Taisho era, while improving what the drivers wore and their customer communication skills as part of realizing a high-value-addedtransportation service. And as mentioned earlier, drivers were madeto wear uniforms and hats. Their smart, novel look caught people’s
attention, and it became an incentive to develop the drivers’ motivation.
Yasuomi’s meticulous ideas of having the drivers look neat
were passed on, and took hold among Sales Drivers even in the TA-

The story of passing down the Core Values

Q-BIN age. In a roundtable discussion among Sales Drivers thatappeared in the Yamato News in 1976, the theme was keeping theirdelivery vehicles clean and tidy. Comments included: “An unsteadymind shows through in the vehicle.” And: “Just like attire, vehicles
are an indication of the state of mind of the people who drive them.
Keeping their cars clean is fundamental to the service, and gives afinishing touch to it.

Uniforms reﬂecting the customer’s perspective
This understanding would not change with time. Uniforms of
Yamato Transport Drivers were renewed and redesigned at eachmilestone with due consideration of how they appeared to customers. In 1969, for example, the colors of their uniforms were selected
to be in harmony with their delivery vehicles, making Yamato031

Transport Sales Drivers recognizable at first glance. That was when
the cat logo on the sleeve was added. In 2000, the same design was
adopted for uniforms of both men and women, imparting a senseof consistency in the service provided to customers, as well as asense of togetherness. They incorporated functionality, safety during
night work, and environmental considerations.

Did you know?: The story of two cats—a sheet of drawing paper that led to the black cat logo

1—Yasuomi Ogura empathized with the idea of a cat logo used by American company Allied Van
Lines. The logo on the left was used by Market Street Van and Storage, whose president was James
Cummins. As vice president of Allied Van Lines in 1948, Cummins acquired the rights to use thelogo from Market Street Van and Storage. He changed the design and then registered the new logo
on the right.

4—Picture known to be the origin of the new logo (front of drawing paper)

The idea for the black cat logo emerged when Yasuomi Ogura madean alliance with American firm Allied Van Lines, Inc. in 19571. The logo
of a company that made a business out of long-distance transportation
featured a mother cat and its kitten. Yasuomi empathized with the conveyed idea of “careful handling” in the logo, and obtained permission to
use the design. The job of designing Yamato Transport’s own cat and kitten logo went to editor of the Yamato News, Takeshi Shimizu2,3. At thetime, the Shimizu household kept a black cat named Kuro. Shimizu’s
young daughter drew a picture of Kuro on drawing paper with crayons4.
The pointed ears looked just like the black cat logo to come later, andthere were two kittens alongside the mother. Even after the logo was completed, Shimizu kept the picture safe in a drawer at work, not least because it was considered the initial proposal for the black cat logo. In 2016,
another cat drawing was discovered on the back of the paper5. It also
featured a mother and its kitten, but the position of the kitten was different from the one on the front. The mother had the kitten hanging fromher mouth, which looks more like the official black cat logo. The catchphrase next to the black cat logo—“For reassurance, leave it to us”—wasalso penned by Shimizu and became widely known, together with thelogo itself6.

032

2—Takeshi Shimizu, designer of the Kuroneko (Black Cat) logo (front right,
1963)

3—Cover of Yamato News (January 1967), with photo taken by
Takeshi Shimizu, a committed
and passionate employee

5—Drawing of cat on back of drawing paper,with kitten hanging from the mother’s mouth

6—Official logo at the time with the catchphrase “For reassurance, leave it to us”【Chapter 6】

Part 3

1

Stories to be Retold for Generations-2｜Creating a Framework to Pursue Customer Satisfaction

Chapter 7!

The story of framework evolution
Providing a service that satisfied customers was just the beginning. To maintain and improve the quality ofservices, initiatives were constantly evolved in areas such as employee working environments, development from
fresh perspectives, safety considerations, and productivity improvements. Initiatives were led by the wisdom andingenuity of those in headquarters and on the frontline.

Copy of Masao Ogura’s handwritten manuscript of his speech titled “What is a good truck?”1

Untold story behind development of walk-through vehicles

Finding the best vehicle for TA-Q-BIN
Masao Ogura felt that rather than horsepower, the best vehicle
was one that was easy to get into and work from. From the 1970s,
he was already thinking about finding the best vehicles for carrying
parcels.
After the launch of TA-Q-BIN, as parcel volumes grew, themain vehicles used were 650-kg and 1-ton trucks. As the number ofparcels increased, so too did the frequency of loading and unloading
parcels, and getting into and out of trucks.
There was an increasing number of Sales Drivers feeling exhausted by the evening just closing the truck’s rear-opening doors.
So, Masao attempted to reduce their exhaustion by introducing better vehicles designed from the drivers’ perspective.

Launching a project to develop TA-Q-BIN pickup anddelivery vehicles
Masao had discussions with automakers about building a prototype vehicle that was easy to work with, enabling drivers to walkinside between the driver’s seat and the cargo space in the back of
the vehicle without having to exit from the driver’s door. Unfortunately, he did not receive his expected response. Around that time,in 1980, employees at the Fukuoka Branch formed the New YPS(Yamato Parcel Service) Vehicle Project Team to develop a dedicatedpickup and delivery vehicle that was safe to drive and more efficient
to work with1.
Using an abandoned vehicle that they dismantled and plywood, they built the first vehicle prototype2,3. This provided a big
boost to the development of a new vehicle. At headquarters, a teamtasked with developing the special-purpose vehicle worked with one
automaker that agreed to cooperate regardless of profitability whenothers would not. In 1981, they completed the first full-scale prototype vehicle4. With input from Sales Drivers around Japan, theresulting vehicle was named a “walk-through vehicle.”

Birth and evolution of walk-through vehicles
The first feature of the walk-through vehicle was a sliding door

3—Prototype TA-Q-BIN pickup and delivery vehicle made from plywood (March
1980)

4—First walk-through vehicle prototype (August 1981)

The story of framework evolution

on the left side for exiting the vehicle5. This feature helps prevent
accidents with other vehicles when exiting from the driver’s door on
the right side. The sliding door was also able to be opened andclosed with minimum effort. Another feature was the “walkthrough” construction after which the vehicle was named. It enabled drivers to walk to and move around in the back of the trucks,
directly from their seats, which minimized the frequency of getting
into and out of the vehicles. The seats were also made of highly
absorbent material, which prevented them from becoming damp if
they got wet on rainy days. An antitheft system was also installed.
With doors locking automatically when closed, with or without the
key in the ignition, people other than the drivers were prevented
from opening the vehicles.
After test driving, the walk-through vehicles were added to thelist of the automaker’s products to be mass produced, and enteredfull-scale use at Yamato Group from 1982.
Walk-through vehicles have been modified a number of times
over the years. The initial change was to improve safety, including adesign that made it difficult for children to crawl under and theminimization of blind spots. In 1999, the vehicle underwent a complete redesign. A window dubbed “Cat Window”6 was installed toprovide a view under the vehicle from the driver’s seat, a rear-view
camera was installed, and the floor of the cargo area was lowered bythree centimeters to make it easier to load and unload parcels. In
2007, hybrid walk-through vehicles were adopted and other changes were made as the vehicles kept evolving in line with changing
times.

1—Design specifications for vehicle developed by New Y.P.S. Vehicle Project Team at
Fukuoka Regional Branch (March 1980)

5—Sliding door on the left side of the vehicle

2—President Masao Ogura inspecting prototype vehicle from the inside

6—“Cat Window” installed below the driver’s seat

033

2

Reforming packaging materials

Packaging materials suited to the item being sent
The history of TA-Q-BIN is also the history of the development of packaging materials. From the late 1970s through to the
middle of the 1980s, TA-Q-BIN service areas expanded across Japan and packaging materials became more diverse. Many different
packaging materials were created simultaneously, offering different
materials, sizes, designs and prices in each region. To respond to thissituation, the Department of Packaging Materials at headquarters
collected and repeatedly investigated samples of those packages tocreate easy-to-use ways of packaging that enabled users including
customers to carry goods safely. This eventually led to the launch ofa nation-wide range of packaging materials, with the “Heart Box”7
in 1979, “Yellow Bag” in 1981, and “Heart Bag” in 1983.

Packaging materials continue to evolve
Packaging materials were always being improved. Every one or
two years, new boxes meeting the necessary standards such as
strength, usability, cost and other requirements came out on themarket. Nevertheless, more and more improvements were made toachieve even better usability8.
In 1980, four years after the launch of TA-Q-BIN, bottle
packaging materials were developed after the company received an
inquiry about whether TA-Q-BIN could deliver large Japanese sakebottles. The first bottle boxes were simple ones with cushioning
material to wrap around a bottle, but the boxes tended to breakwhen they were piled up on top of one another. So, those firstboxes were improved quickly after that.
Large Japanese sake bottles are ideally carried in a fixed vertical
position because they break when pressure is applied to the sides. Also,
while the bottle necks were very resistant to impact, the curved shoulder sections were fragile, so the issue became how to protect that part ofthe bottle. One solution trialed was to secure the bottles by using expanded polystyrene around the neck and base areas. This became the“Bottle Pack” (subsequently renamed “Japanese Sake Pack”) in 1981.

3

Later, in 1993, the “Japanese Sake Box” and “Bottle Box” werelaunched with cardboard used as a cushioning material instead of
expanded polystyrene because of environmental concerns. Lateragain, a number of improvements were made, including making
them easy to assemble, and sturdy enough to protect fragile bottles
packed inside9.

Developing new materials for packaging
The desire to be able to carry anything at all led to the development of new materials. For example, there were no boxes suitable
for sending broken consumer electronics products to the manufacturers for repairs. Consumer electronics can be large appliances with
uneven surfaces that make them difficult to secure. For this purpose, Yamato Packing Technology Institute developed new packaging materials in 2007. The film cushioning was named Quick Fit10.
It is protective-wrapping film highly stretchable, attached inside anouter cardboard box. It is resistant to piercing from sharp objects,
and holes do not expand much even if the film is pierced. The elasticity of the film is able to keep consumer electronics securely inplace, and as long as sizes are correct, anyone can easily pack theirproducts. Computers, printers, digital cameras and similar products
have increased in number as times change, but this new packaging
has enabled them to be easily and safely transported.
The production and disposal processes for cardboard and otherpackaging materials generate a considerable amount of carbon dioxide. To eliminate those emissions, FLIX was developed in 2008 as areturnable packaging material that can be reused multiple times11.
Taking the idea from a traditional Japanese wrapping cloth, FLIX isa light and soft material that enables highly flexible packing options. Using a pump accessory, air is removed from an item wrappedwith FLIX to create a solid package that acts as cushioning. Neco fit
is a packing box in which the FLIX wrapping material is attached,and it has become indispensable when transporting computers andprinters.

Initiatives to improve work efficiency and manage quality

Quality management for next-day delivery
Masao was unsparing in his efforts to improve efficiency in orderto ensure accurate and fast delivery of parcels. He gave considerable
thought to how he could improve the efficiency of cargo handling,sorting and other work to improve TA-Q-BIN service levels.
In 1981, the Division of Quality Management was split into
the Division of Operations Improvement and Division of Work
Improvement in order to understand and improve TA-Q-BIN quality. At the time, information systems were not as developed as they
are today, so the Division of Operations Improvement was tasked
with the efficient collection of information such as where a particular parcel currently was and whether delivery had been completed.
Likewise, the Division of Work Improvement was tasked with creat-

ing a framework for actually carrying parcels and with monitoring
operational performance. The two divisions worked together toachieve their goals.
The Division of Work Improvement worked on creating acountry-wide next-day delivery framework while building a systemfor checking outcomes. The company’s sales offices were alreadysorted by branch code. By linking the code number of each sales
office with its zip code number, and drawing up its own delivery
schedules between terminals, the company became able to get an
updated status of operations through the national network, which
led to further initiatives to make improvements.
It also created its own service level table to confirm whether
next-day delivery had been completed. With departure points on

8—“Ski Cover”(left, December1983) and “Basic
Golf Bag Cover”(right, April 1984)

7—“Heart Box” (March 1979)

034

9—“Japanese Sake Box” and “Bottle Box” with improved cushioning material of expanded polystyrene and cardboard【Chapter 7】the vertical axis and arrival points on the horizontal axis, next-day
delivery success rates were recorded and color coded on a grid,
which enabled confirmation of service levels at a glance.
Through various such experiments, Yamato Transport was able
to clarify issues related to next-day delivery. The three challenges it
found were how to quickly establish transport routes, how to reducetime spent at transit points and streamline operations there, andhow to develop a pickup and delivery system. Despite it being evident that it would cost an enormous amount of money to addressthese challenges, Masao already made up his mind, only looking
ahead, saying: “It’s fine even if it costs us. Let’s just do it.”Merging the tangible, the intangible, and the human
In 1978, the Greater Tokyo Area Sorting Hub in Toda City,
Saitama Prefecture, was completed. Masao made the decision to
install an automated parcel sorting machine manufactured by Sandvik at this facility12. He believed that a system comprises tangible(hardware), intangible (software), and human elements, with the human element being the most important. Humans are the key todrawing out the potential in the tangible and intangible. Installation of the automated sorting machine was based on this belief13.
Even before the TA-Q-BIN service was launched, streamliningof cargo handling work was already a major issue. Pallets were mainly used in the route transport business, but over the long hours
worked, loads of differently shaped parcels would sometimes collapse due to vibrations while on the road, and resulted in damage tothe parcels. To respond to this issue, a unit load system was used as

4a trial. Using this system, parcels of different sizes and shapes would
be loaded into a regular-shaped unit, with transport and storage
managed by the unit. When trialing this system, Masao had theidea of using traditional Japanese wrapping cloths. With wrapping
cloths, anything can be easily wrapped, bound and carried. He feltthat because everyone in Japan understood this concept, the unitload concept would also succeed.
In 1971, box pallets that combined the functions of both pallets and containers were introduced to help build the unit loadsystem. When first introduced, the box pallets had to be moved byforklift because they weighted as much as 70 kg each, even whenempty with nothing inside. However, after sorting out the boxes bydestination and ensuring everything was transported by box, it became possible for a single worker to transport cargo, and unloading
time was greatly reduced. As a result, they managed to increase thespeed and efficiency of operations and by 1974 were also transporting everything between bases using these boxes. On the other hand,roll box pallets (or roll containers), which were box pallets with wheels
attached, started being used for department store deliveries from1971, so when TA-Q-BIN was launched, their use became mainstream14. Due to their weight and difficulty of assembling, a newmodified type of roll box pallet was introduced in 2000.
These days at Haneda Chronogate, where the latest equipment
has been installed, many parcels are automatically sorted without
any human contact. All these systems had their foundations in theaccumulated inspiration and ingenuity of employees who dared totry new ideas.

Improving safety

Safety philosophy
Around 1955, while Masao was temporarily transferred towork at Shizuoka Transport, where due to the frequent industrial
accidents, the Labor Standards Inspection Office recommended hevisit a model carpenter shop that had few accidents. The advice hegot while there was “If you try to achieve both safety and efficiency
equally as the highest priority, neither will be achieved.” Comingback from his visit, he developed his “Safety first, sales second”
motto, which he put into practice at Shizuoka Transport. This led
to a gradual decline in accidents that actually had a positive effecton sales. Even after he returned to Yamato Transport, Masao remained committed to this approach.

Organization-level initiatives for safety training
Yamato Transport established the Division of Safety in March
1969. With an increase in the number of privately-owned vehicles,
there was a sudden increase in traffic accidents around that time.
Masao felt that accident prevention was the responsibility of managers. Rather than prioritizing driver education, he felt that manager education should be prioritized and that managers should understand how the drivers went about their daily business. Therefore,
he ensured thorough training of transport managers while frequently exchanging information with the General Manager of the Division of Safety, and newly enacting supplementary regulations of the
13—Tray-based automated parcel sorting
machine (Osaka Regional Branch, 1985)

driving management regulations.
With the whole company working together, one particular
positive result was achieved in 1974. During the 10 days of the falltraffic safety campaign, there was not a single accident15. Masao
explained his feeling in the company’s internal newsletter: “Oneday, many years from now, I hope that people will be able to point
to Kuroneko trucks and say, ‘that’s a zero accident company.” A
safety instructor system was developed that same year, and a safety
training center was established at the company the following year.
Taking overall responsibility for aptitude tests and training of newdrivers, the center led to the establishment of the Central Safety
Training Center in 1984.
A newspaper advertisement for Yamato Transport, publishedat the beginning of 1994, focused on the driver's nameplate attached to each vehicle. It explained that proudly driving around10—“Quick Fit” film used to secure items(camera) inside box

11—“Neco fit” box using “FLIX” packaging
material

14—Roll box pallets(or roll containers)
with caster wheels
used for department
store deliveries

15 — Whiteboard showing
zero accidents(1974)

12—Automated parcel sorting machine
manufactured by Sandvik (circa 1990)

The story of framework evolution

035

with their own name on vehicles was an expression of the determination and responsibility of each driver to ensure safety for people,
for the town, and for their cargo.

Developing the tangible and intangible to achievesafetyAs with the system itself, accident prevention also works wellthrough a good combination of tangible, intangible, and humanelements. With this in mind, the company also actively developed
physical accident prevention measures.
One measure in particular was a popular rear-view camera,
called a “Back-Eye Camera,” which was installed in vehicles from1995. Focusing on the high rate of accidents when reversing, “reversing counters” were also developed the following year to better

5

understand the situation with a view to reducing the actual numberof times a vehicle was reversed. Efforts to visualize transport operations through numbers also led to the installation of the See-T
Navi in-vehicle system in 2010. Development of this system, toprevent traffic accidents and support the drivers, started in 2008. It
was put into use in 2010, and is now also linked to the NEKO
System (see Chapter 8). From 2019, all its vehicles were equippedwith drive recorders and digital tachographs, both combined into
in-vehicle devices that had communication functionality. This particular initiative accompanied the expansion of the Internet ofThings (IoT), where a wide range of equipment connects to the Internet. One principle that remained with the company through thechanging times was “safety first,” which contributed to healthy andlong-term growth for Yamato Transport16.

Initiatives to improve productivity

Improved productivity directly affects services
The principle of “Service comes first, and profits will follow”
was also maintained throughout the process of service diversification and differentiation for TA-Q-BIN. The company had to figureout how to improve efficiency to ensure service quality did not decline, and employee workload did not increase. This need was behind the launch of the Shorter Working Hours Project.

Measures to achieve faster deliveries and later pickups
In 1989, labor and management launched a Shorter Working
Hours Project at headquarters to conduct a fundamental review of
all their initiatives ever taken toward shorter working hours.
To start with, a survey was conducted to understand the current state of affairs, including processing time per parcel, delivery
vehicle driving times, and finally the relationship between parcel
volumes and working hours. After this research, it was found that
Sales Driver’s working hours were a product of parcel volumes anddriving distances multiplied by a co-efficient of the customer absence rate and other set regional attributes. Based on these two factors, the total working hours required for each sales office were calculated and the appropriate number of employees for each was
decided. Rather than deciding based on the experience and arbitrary guess of the manager at each sales office as before, the numberof employees required was decided based on calculations of how
many persons were needed to bridge the gap between target working hours and actual working hours.

Benefits of adopting “Assist System” for pickups anddeliveries
In 1990, following a proposal from the Shorter Working
Hours Project team, Matsumoto-nishi and other sales offices adopted the “Assist System,” where work required before and after
normal Sales Driver’s working hours was handled by part-time assistants. This system achieved improved service quality, while reducing working hours, by meeting customer needs for faster deliveries
and later pickups. At the Matsumoto-nishi Sales Office, three years
after adopting the Assist System, productivity was increased while

reducing total annual working hours compared to the previous year.
While a trade-off is usually expected between shorter working hours
and improved service quality, this time both were achieved. The Assist System was later extended right across Japan.

Various initiatives to increase pickup and delivery efficiency
A range of efforts were made to increase the efficiency of pickup and delivery work. In 1995, Kaoru Seto17, who was Osaka Regional Branch Manager at the time, was visiting America when henoticed UPS pickup and delivery vehicles traveling bus-like routes.
Following a set timetable and stopping at specific locations, handpushed trolleys were used at each location to deliver parcels. Besides
enabling them to minimize the number of vehicle starts and stops,
this system was effective from safety and efficiency perspectives. Afterward, Yamato Transport also adopted a headquarters-driven “BusStop Method,” which was similar to one already trialed since the1980s at centers and other locations in charge of business districts.
Moving into the 2000s, sales offices in various locations trialed new
ideas that would continue to grow in later years.
One of those ideas was “Mobile Assist” where a pickup/delivery assistant was paired with a Sales Driver as a team. The assistantreceiving a load of parcels from the driver would deliver them in
one area using a delivery hand cart. And then, at the last place in thearea where the assistant finished the delivery, the assistant would
receive another load from the driver, to be delivered in another areawith the cart. This process enabled the team to increase the efficiency of delivery.
Around the middle of the 2000s, the Mobile Assist and Bus
Stop Method were merged to create “Team Pickup and Delivery”
and other efforts18. In light of such initiatives, the Division ofGroup Transformation developed new vehicles that could easily
adopt the Bus Stop Method.
Frontline employees of Yamato Group, working at their own
discretion, used their ingenuity to proactively implement effective
measures. Underlying these efforts was their passion for improving
customer satisfaction.

16 —Yamato Transport’s national safety competition at Suzuka Circuit, Mie Prefecture(2014). With Yamato Group companies
competing on safety knowledge and driving
skills, this driver contest is held to raise safety
awareness among employees.
17—Kaoru Seto, as chairman of Yamato
Holdings, traveled around work sites to give
instruction on improving productivity

036

18—“Team Pickup and Delivery” using “BusStop Method” (2013)【Chapter 7】

Part 3

1

Stories to be Retold for Generations-2｜Creating a Framework to Pursue Customer Satisfaction

Chapter 8!

The story of information systems“Machines should be things that we humans use, and we should use them effectively without being used bythem.” These words by Yasuomi Ogura, at the opening of a computer room in 1969, live on today in
information systems development by the Yamato Group. This is the story of development for businessefficiency, and its subsequent change to development from the customer’s perspective.

President Masao Ogura launching “NEKO Total System” (1974)

1

From the introduction of computers to development of the NEKO System

Computer introduction: A new dawn
The Yamato Group mechanized various tasks and developed
various information systems over the years to streamline its operations and diversify its service offerings.
The first steps were taken from 1960 to 1961, when the operation divisions introduced motor-driven electric typewriters andelectric calculators1. At the time, these items were a treasured addition to the office equipment.
With a focus on further streamlining and labor-saving measures, Yamato Transport considered introducing computers morecapable than accounting machines. On June 1, 1968, when making
an official decision to introduce such computers, the company established an office in preparation for the introduction. Without asingle computer specialist of its own, it was starting completelyfrom scratch. When opening the computer room in June the following year, Yasuomi commented: “Machines should be things that
we humans use, and we should use them effectively without being
used by them.”2-4

Birth of the NEKO System (1st Generation NEKO System)
In the mid-1960s, there was a wave of companies in industry
going online by connecting computers to networks. Yamato Trans-

port first started considering this for itself in 1970. In the middle ofchanging direction toward large-volume integrated transportation,
the transport industry looked at online systems for their impact on
this new direction5.
Having become President, Masao Ogura made a decision in
March 1972 to spin off a newly established computer division into
a separate company. He made a comment saying, “To make computers more available and useful for everyone who needs them,rather than only for some people who can afford them, the newly
established computer division should not be shoehorned into thecorporate organizational structure, but should be able to work as anindependent, separate entity so that the division can give itself an
opportunity to shine in its own way.” As a result, January 1973,
Yamato System Development (YSD) was born.
The online system, used at the time to calculate freight fares
for route transport and rail freight transport, was named “NEKO
Total System” (NEKO means “cat” in Japanese)6 and became the 1stGeneration NEKO System. The system consisted of terminals ineach sales office connected online with the host computer at Yamato Transport, and keypunch operators at each sales office would
input various information from the waybills received from drivers.
This system helped achieve more effective use of workers, standard-

1—NCR-33 accounting machine used for payroll accounting(Photo: NCR Japan, Ltd.)

2—President Yasuomi Ogura at opening ceremony for computer room (June 16, 1969)

3—President Yasuomi Ogura and computer room staff, with
General Manager Hidetoshi Tsuru, who later became Yamato
System Development’s first president, at front left (1969)

4—First HITAC 8210 computer installed at headquarters, fifth
floor (1969)

5—Online Research Group (1970)

6—“NEKO Total System” on launch day (February 1, 1974)

The story of information systems

037

ization of administrative tasks, improvement of transport quality,
and raising awareness among office staff.
With the birth of TA-Q-BIN in 1976, the way the company’s
information system worked also changed. At the time, Masao said,“The core of an information processing system is its people. We
should not fall into the trap of believing computers are the core.”This comment was the natural progression of Yasuomi’s original
belief that “machines should be things that we humans use.”
When TA-Q-BIN was first launched, it used a manual systemthat did not require computers. Together with special adhesive waybills
that also served as parcel labels, “black cat” stickers were used to manage
the number of parcels and payments received. Later, a parcel label making machine, called a “Labeler7,” was used as well but it was onlyaround 1979, when the number of parcels exceeded 10 million peryear, that using computers to process parcels became an urgent issue.

2

New developments accompanying the birth of TA-QBIN (2nd Generation NEKO System)
The company had to increase the speed of data processing andimprove accuracy of data entry, so as time went on, the history of the
NEKO System became the history of the pursuit of speed and accuracy. At that point, it focused on bar codes and scanners. With new
bar-coded waybills attached to parcels, workers were able to use pentype bar code reader from the dedicated “NEKO-POS” devices installed at each location to read and enter the waybill numbers. At thattime, there were signs of bar codes starting to be used at places likechain stores, but their use in the general transportation business was
groundbreaking. The 2nd Generation NEKO System was developedin this way in 1980, with a national TA-Q-BIN online information
network completed in 1981 and the system phased in by 19828-10.

Moving to systems developed from the customer’s perspective

Making it easier for new Sales Drivers (3rd and 4th Generation NEKO Systems)

The 3rd Generation NEKO System was implemented gradually from 1985, bringing driver’s terminals outside the sales offices.
All Sales Drivers had a portable POS (PP) terminal that they could
use to input information with an attached pen-type bar code reader
at the customer’s front door. Each sales office also had computer
workstations with dedicated TA-Q-BIN applications that werelinked to the host computer. When the Sales Drivers returned to thesales office, they would connect their PP terminals to the workstation by cable and transfer that data11,12.
This third-generation system was the result of a further increase in TA-Q-BIN volumes and diversification to include services
like Ski TA-Q-BIN and Golf TA-Q-BIN. The new system achieved
more accurate data entry and reduced the workload on office staff.
On the other hand, it also highlighted some problems: Sales Drivers
made a mistake in handling their PP terminals, they had to wait inline to use the workstation back at the sales office, and so on.

The 4th Generation NEKO system was an attempt to improve
operability so that anyone, not just young computer-savvy people,
could use it with ease13. Rather than blaming errors on the users,
the development approach was to put that blame on system-side
deficiencies. One particular solution was to use IC cards14. By recording information on corporate contracted freight fares on thesecards, they reduced the workload of data entry for Sales Drivers
when picking up parcels, and eliminated mistakes. New PP terminals with easy-to-use touch screens were also introduced. After aperiod of time when both systems were used together, the new system was fully adopted in April 1993.

5th Generation NEKO System designed for the Internet era
Immediately after the 4th Generation NEKO System waslaunched, Japan experienced the Internet boom. Personal computeruse increased and the number of internet users exploded. Yamato
Transport launched its Internet-based online Parcel Inquiry System

8—Bar-coded waybill (1980)
7—Parcel label maker machine “Labeler” and its label
9—“NEKO-POS” data input (1980)

10—First message of congratulations sent to commemorate
launch of the 2nd Generation NEKO System (1981)
11—3rd Generation NEKO System with pen scanner attached
to portable POS (PP) terminal enabled more accurate entry of
information at the customer’s front door (1990s)

038

12—3rd Generation NEKO System enabled all Sales Drivers
to transfer waybill information from their PP terminals toworkstations at their sales office (1990s)【Chapter 8】

in 1998, and E-mail Notification Service in 2002. In the middle ofthis upheaval, the system was also updated.
The 5th Generation NEKO System was developed to handle
the increasing number of TA-Q-BIN parcels, and to support corporate customers using it in their computer operations15. This new
system was phased in between 1999 and 2002. It enabled 24-hour
online operations and, by rebuilding the Parcel Inquiry System, improved TA-Q-BIN tracking accuracy16.

6th and 7th Generation NEKO Systems developed
from the customer’s perspective
NEKO System evolutions 1 through 5 were designed to improve business efficiency, while evolutions 6 and later were developed from the customer’s perspective.
Behind the development of the 6th Generation NEKO System, was the shift to an Area Center System when rebuilding the
TA-Q-BIN network. An increase in the number of Yamato sales
offices made TA-Q-BIN even closer to its customers, with an increase in service quality achieved by paying closer attention to theirneeds. However, the two or three times per month that systems
needed to be updated on workstations became an issue. To respondto this issue, the system was installed on a host server rather than on
workstations, which reduced system management costs without
having to make any changes to the workstations or communicationlines at the centers.
Sales Drivers had to carry around four devices with different
functionality—a PP terminal for data input, a printer, a mobile
phone for communication, and a card payments terminal. With
each device connected by Bluetooth, it was possible to completetasks without having to deliberately hold terminals together, which
reduced the workload for Sales Drivers. Because the mobile phone
could be used to access the internet as well, it could function as ameans of uploading information from the PP terminals. Leading
the industry, this system became known as the Yamato Model. In
this way, the new system was launched in 2005 with the ability totake TA-Q-BIN Collect credit card payments at the customer’s
front door, simplification of the redelivery instruction process by

printing 2D code stickers for attempted delivery notices, and realtime information of delivery status17.
Launched in 2010, the 7th Generation NEKO System wasthoroughly redeveloped from the customer’s perspective, with theintention of getting closer to the customers.
With the change from feature phones to smartphones, delivery-related information became fully digitalized. To accommodate
Kuroneko Members services in particular, infrastructure was built
to enable PP terminals to be connected in real time to the databases
in data centers. This enabled the provision of the Easy Label IssuingService and Kuroneko Members registration at the customer’s front
door, and the provision of the TA-Q-BIN Delivery-Time-and-Place
specification service. Electronic money was also added to meet theincreasingly diverse payment methods used by customers. In an industry first, electronic money from a number of companies was
accepted18. The PP terminals were also equipped with contactless
IC card readers and integrated with card payment terminals. From
this new system, it also cooperated with the unique See-T Navi invehicle system.

8th Generation NEKO System improves customer services and business efficiency
Introduction of the 8th Generation NEKO System started in
201719. Rapid expansion of e-commerce led to an increased workload for Sales Drivers. With the aim of “reforming the pickup anddelivery processes,” the new system introduced tablets as a majorchange from the seventh generation. Tablets enabled visualizationof electronic maps of residential areas, pickup and delivery status,and pickup and delivery routes, which resulted in more reliable support for customers. Sales Driver’s mobile phones supported multiple mobile phone operators. This was due to the experience of theGreat East Japan Earthquake of 2011, where there were differences
between mobile phone operators in how they recovered communications after the disaster. When the new system is complete, it isexpected to enable further improved services and more efficientbusiness operations.

14—Three types of IC card for Sales
Drivers, customers, and agencies (inorder from top) used by the 4th Generation NEKO System. Groundbreaking use of IC cards reduced the previous burden of analogue data entry byboth agencies and Sales Drivers

15—B-CAT terminals, integrating software and hardware,
launched to improvebusiness efficiency forcorporate customers(1996)

13—4th Generation NEKO System also used pen scanners,
while the system helped prevent input errors by Sales Drivers
and improve the efficiency of frontline operations (1990s)

16—5th Generation NEKO System with laser
scanner attached to PP terminal enabled instant reading of bar codes (2001)

17—Sales Driver accepting credit card payment at customer’s front door using 6th Generation NEKO system (2010)

The story of information systems

18—7th Generation NEKO System enabled
TA-Q-BIN Collect and other payments using electronic money loaded on Kuroneko
Members cards

19—8th Generation NEKO System enabled
confirmation of pickup and delivery status ontablets

039

History of the NEKO System
Sales Driver’s portable terminal(1974)

2nd Generation(1980)

3rd Generation(1985)

4th Generation(1993)

5th Generation(1999)

6th Generation(2005)(2010)

8th Generation(2017)

040

Telex

Operations centered on route transport and rail freight transport:
Online connections were established between terminals at each sales officeand the YSD Headquarters host computer. Various systems were also
incorporated, including automatic freight fare calculations, parcel tracking
and inquiries, and exchanging messages.

Terminals at sales office

2nd Generation NEKO System
NEKO-POS

Building the TA-Q-BIN system: Special bar-coded waybills anddedicated NEKO-POS devices were used. Information was entered threetimes (“Shipped Out,” “Out for Delivery,” and “Delivery Attempted”),
and the system had the ability to issue error reports. Thanks to thisprogress, necessary information became available and was used for service
level and quality control as well as for responding to inquiries from
customers. The national TA-Q-BIN online information network was also
completed.

3rd Generation NEKO System
Data entry at customer’s front door: All Sales Drivers had a portable
POS (PP) terminal to use with an attached pen scanner to input waybill
information when picking up parcels at the customer’s front door. The
system provided enhanced input functionality for “Shipped Out,” “Outfor Delivery,” and “Delivery Attempted,” more comprehensive printing
functionality, and simplified methods of overwriting systems accompanied
by development of new services and products. It also had the ability toautomatically calculate freight fares and search for destination centers.
Workstations were installed at each sales office.

PP terminal

Workstation

PP terminal

PP station

4th Generation NEKO System
Work completed at customer’s front door: New PP terminals withtouch screens, and three types of IC card (for Sales Drivers, agencies, andcustomers) were introduced. The system had the ability to issue receipts,
and print destination center labels, at the customer’s front door. It also
introduced PP stations with the ability to transfer data from 12 PP
terminals to the workstation at the same time. It included instant customerregistration system, instant agency-registration system, all-parcels-delivered
system, and work-report-storage system.

5th Generation NEKO System
Open systems and one-handed operation at customer’s front door: Data
center systems were migrated to UNIX-based real-time systems, with amove to open system design. PP terminals and printers became standalone
devices linked by wireless communication. PP terminals also became morecompact, lighter and higher capacity, with a laser scanner for reading bar
codes. Connection cradles were used when transferring data from PP
terminals to workstations.

PP terminal

CradlePrinter

6th Generation NEKO System
Online systems, accepting payments at customer’s front door, Bluetoothconnectivity: PP terminals, printers, mobile phones, and card payment
terminals became standalone devices linked by Bluetooth. Support wasprovided for cash, credit card, and debit card payments. The redelivery
instruction process was simplified by printing 2D code stickers forattempted delivery notices. Data was transferred by automatic upload at
the customer’s front door via a mobile phone.

PP terminal

Mobile phone
Printer

Card payment terminal

7th Generation NEKO System
Support for Kuroneko Members, electronic money payments accepted
at customer’s front door: PP terminals were equipped with contactless IC
card readers and integrated with card payment terminals. Support for
credit cards, debit cards, and electronic money was provided, with theability to use electronic money from a number of transport systems. The
system was equipped with online communications to achieve real-time
information processing. Wireless LANs were used to transfer data toworkstations.

PP terminal

Printer
Mobile phone

8th Generation NEKO System
Tablet-based visualization, delivery destination database: The systemused four portable terminal types (printers, integrated handy scanner andtablets, card payment terminals, and mobile phones). Tablets with PP
functionality enabled visualization of electronic maps of residential areas,
pickup and delivery status, pickup and delivery routes, and otherinformation. Past delivery information and Kuroneko Members
information were digitalized, and a delivery destination database wascreated.

TabletMobile phone
Printer

Card payment terminal【Chapter 8】

Change to development made from the customer’s perspective

7th Generation

1st Generation NEKO System

Development from the company’s perspective (improving business eﬃciency)

1st Generation

Sales office terminal

Part 4

1

Stories to be Retold for Generations-3｜Aiming to Become a Company that is Most Familiar and Loved

Chapter 9!

The story of caring
The Yamato Group has implemented a wide range of initiatives to meet its social responsibilities as a trusted
company in the local community, as a company contributing to improved convenience in our lives, and as acompany focused on TA-Q-BIN as an important piece of the social infrastructure. To meet customer
expectations and earn their trust, it is active in the areas of community, safety, and environment.

Kuroneko Yamato Environmental Class (also featured in newspaper advertisement, 2008)

1

Customer contact

TA-Q-BIN delivers music
Music TA-Q-BIN is one of Yamato Group’s social contribution programs, created in 1986, and still continuing today, out of adesire to bring real classical music to people all around Japan. It
aimed to bring culture to people who had few opportunities to enjoy live performances by full orchestras while relaxing, including
people in rural areas and people caring for young children.
The first year of concerts started at the Ishikawa Koseinenkin
Hall and then continued on to Hiroshima, Fukuoka and Nagoya
with free entry, the concerts were performed by local orchestras1,2.
Donations were solicited in the hall lobby areas to raise money
to help children who lost parents in traffic accidents. At such venues
all around Japan, it was common to see little children dropping
coins into the collection boxes3,4.
Largely because Music TA-Q-BIN offered an unprecedented
range of concerts, there was a degree of confusion during the process to make it happen. The hope was to present real classical musicso some of the top musicians and orchestras were asked to perform,
but there were concerns about the possibility of children chatting

and crying during the concert. From an operational perspective as
well, it was difficult to predict how many people would actually attend because the concerts were free. However, those concerns were
swept away on seeing all the happy families on their way home.
Later, the program expanded to include children using theirown instruments and playing with the orchestra, and, in 2006, theupdated program was given a new name: “Kuroneko Family Concert.5,6”
In 2010, a series of “Outreach Performances” were started inschools and community halls as well7. Even with the minimum
number of instrumentalists, the Yamato Group is able to deliver
real classical music experiences. The first performance was given ata small elementary school with a total of 44 students in Hirata Village, located in the Abukuma Highlands in the southeast of Fukushima Prefecture.
Music TA-Q-BIN resulted in the creation of a chorus song
called “Ametsuchi-no-uta.” Written by Nozomu Hayashi and composed by Maki Ueda, two well-known artists, it was first performed
in 2013. Since then, it has been sung by choirs all around Japan.

3—Complimentary plastic sheet given to donors, with picture of Neko Orchestra used as
an icon for Music TA-Q-BIN
1—Performance in Hiroshima, the following year after launch of Music TA-Q-BIN (1987)

2—Brochure of first Music TA-Q-BIN performance (1986)

4—Soliciting donations in the hall lobby area
to raise money to help children who lost parents in traffic accidents (2006)

6—Children participating in concert with
Conductor Norichika Iimori (2018)

5—Local choir and New Japan Philharmonic
together in concert (2013)

The story of caring

7—“Outreach Performance” held at Ogori
Special School (2018)041

In 2015, a concert was held at Suntory Hall in Tokyo to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Music TA-Q-BIN initiative. In a
special-fun segment of the concert, some participants held the conductor’s baton in front of the Tokyo Symphony Orchestra by taking
turns, and one of the participants was a lady who had enjoyed aMusic TA-Q-BIN concert in Hiroshima when she was a child.
Likewise, there were many other families in the audience with parents, who had enjoyed a concert when they were young, now bringing along their own children.

Children’s Traffic Safety Workshops created by frontline workers
Without the public roads that everyone uses, from children to
adults, the Yamato Group would not be in business. This is whyeach sales office has, at its own discretion, participated in activities
to watch out for safety of students on the school routes and in Traffic Safety Workshops held at preschools and elementary schools.
And one day, there was an occurrence in a residential area in
Hiroshima, which showed the effect of these activities. One Sales
Driver was returning to the vehicle after delivering a parcel, and saw
two small children waiting there. They said their ball had gone under the vehicle, and asked the driver to get it for them. What
stopped them from crawling under the vehicle was that they remembered a Traffic Safety Workshop at their preschool two years
earlier, where a Sales Driver told them they should never crawl under a TA-Q-BIN vehicle. Later, the workshop developed into theChildren’s Traffic Safety Workshop, launched in 1998, as a companywide social contribution program8-10.

2

In addition to daycare centers, preschools and elementary
schools, the program was expanded to include special-needs schools
in 2007. As of 2019, the workshops had been held more than
30,000 times, with as many as 3.3 million people attending over theyears.

Increasing engagement with children
Yamato Group’s social contribution programs expanded in response to changing society and community needs.
One example is the Kuroneko Yamato Environmental Class
that was first launched in October 2005, which by March 2019 hadreached more than 240,000 participants11.
Through this and other activities, the Group was increasing its
engagement with children. It exhibited at KidZania Tokyo in 2006,
and at KidZania Koshien in 2009, where children experienced different jobs in the community. It offered a program that enabled thechildren to experience the work that Sales Drivers do, including
pickup and delivery using vehicles and delivery handcarts. In addition to TA-Q-BIN pickup and delivery work, they were also taught
to follow traffic rules12.
From 2006 to 2017, the Business Seminar for Junior HighSchool and High School Students (later called the Yamato Transport Business Seminar for High School Students) was launched to enable students
to experience community involvement through work13. Then from2008, it provided support to the Rito Junior High School BaseballTournament (Rito Koshien), a national baseball competition for junior high school students living on remote islands, with the support
including delivery of the players’ luggage.

Environmental initiatives

Necology, Yamato Group’s environmental protection
activities
In 1991, Yamato Transport established an in-house Global Environmental Committee.
With its first Environmental Report (currently Yamato Group CSR

8—Kuroneko characters appeared in costumes at Children’s Traffic Safety Workshop

11—Kuroneko Yamato Environmental Class

042

12—Learning to be Sales Drivers at KidZania Tokyo (2018)

Report) published in 2000, and Statement of Environmental Protection Policy (revised in 2014) and Yamato Transport Global Warming

Prevention Targets established in 2003, it has actively engaged in arange of initiatives. In 2012, it coined the term “Necology” for the
Yamato Group’s environmental protection philosophy14, and9—Children’s Traffic Safety Workshop heldin Shanghai by Yamato (China) Co., Ltd. and
Yamato International Logistics Co., Ltd.
(2017)

10—Actual pickup and delivery vehicle used
for lessons at Children’s Traffic Safety Workshop (2009)

13—Business Seminar for High School Students with Yamato Transport employees
across Japan providing mentoring support forbusiness through to the final presentations(2015)

14—“Necology” portal site organized by category: Package, Carry, Deliver, Reduce, Recycle, Communicate, Create, and Think.

【Chapter 9】shared the philosophy among all Group employees. (“Necology” is acombination of Yamato Group’s “Kuroneko” brand and “ecology”). The
Necology philosophy makes three statements. (1) Every employee
should always maintain an awareness of environmental protection
and apply that awareness to their daily work. (2) They should apply
an ecological mindset to every area of business, not just the packaging, transporting and delivering tasks that are essential for logistics.
(3) They should always think about, and continue providing, environmentally friendly services so that use of Yamato Group services
meets the customers’ environmental protection expectations.

Evolution of low-emission vehicles
The Yamato Group was ahead of other companies in working
on low-emission vehicles as well, including making a trial of them,such as methanol vehicles in 198615, LPG and hybrid vehicles in
1993, CNG vehicles in 1997, hybrid vehicles again in 2002, fuelcell vehicles in 2007.

Benefits of vehicle-free pickup and delivery
Its first trials of vehicle-free deliveries were in 1983 in Kagoshima. In the prefecture’s busiest shopping district, Tenmonkan,
most of the shopping streets were closed off to vehicle traffic from11:00 a.m. At the beginning, vehicles were parked on nearby streets
and delivery handcarts were used to pick up and deliver parcels, allwhile worrying about traffic violations. This led to the developmentof “Jinriki TA-Q-BIN carts” (“Jinriki” means “hand-pulled rickshaws”),
which could carry more parcels than delivery handcarts and were
pulled from the local sales offices so that workers could concentrateon picking up and deliver parcels without being concerned aboutparking16. The carts were built by the employees who normally
maintained the Group’s vehicles.
There was also an increase in the number of satellite centers inTokyo where delivery handcarts were mainly used to pick up anddeliver parcels17. In 2006, 121 of the 135 centers operating under
the Eastern Tokyo Regional Branch stopped using vehicles.
From around 2002, the Group introduced electric bicycles
with trailers (new three-wheelers)18. Prior to the adoption, some peo-

ple were apparently concerned about their carrying capacity andtheir efficiency. However, once they started using them, their benefits became obvious because their maneuverability enabled faster
pickups and delivers and they enabled much better communication
with local customers.

Modal shift, expanded use
Aiming to dramatically reduce CO2 emissions, the Yamato
Transport switched part of the transportation of its TA-Q-BIN
trunk line road network to transportation by rail and ferry from1987, pioneering a modal shift within the industry. Employing
freight containers 30-feet long each for the first time with rail container transport, it was able to secure sufficient transportation capacity. Later, it jointly developed a wing shipping container of thesame level, which enabled loading and unloading from both sides.
In the 2000s, it also expanded non-truck transportation corridors
through initiatives such as an unmanned sailing system over four
long-distance ferry routes linking Honshu with Hokkaido, and trials of rail containers, for refrigerated and frozen shipments, with
two separate temperature settings on the route between Tokyo andFukuoka. In 2013, a Necology logo was designed for the rail containers as an expression of Yamato Group’s intention to continue
working with customers to develop eco-friendly logistics options19.

Kyoto projects
In Kyoto, a new initiative called the Kyoto projects waslaunched in May 2011. One of the outcomes of the projects was a
joint agreement between the Yamato Group and Keifuku Electric
Railroad to use the Randen Lines, which was also popular with
tourists and Kyoto’s only tramway, for delivery and pickup of parcels.
Under the agreement, one car of trams leaving the Saiin Station depot was reserved for Yamato Group’s delivery handcarts.
When the trams arrived at stations, Sales Drivers standing by there
would load the delivery carts, as they were, into three-wheelers fordelivery20. This project is becoming a new point of interest forpeople in Kyoto.

15—First low-emission vehicle, running on methanol (1986)

16—Jinriki TA-Q-BIN cart used in Tenmonkan shopping district in Kagoshima (1983)

17—Satellite center mainly using delivery handcarts for parcel
pickup and delivery (Ginza 2-chome, Tokyo, 2000)

18—Electric bicycle with trailer used for parcel pickup anddelivery (2015)

19—Modal shift to transportation by rail (2014)

20—Randen Lines tram with Kuroneko (Black Cat) logo, anddelivery handcarts waiting to be loaded (2012)

The story of caring

043

Part 4

1

Stories to be Retold for Generations-3｜Aiming to Become a Company that is Most Familiar and Loved

Chapter 10!

The story of support
Commitment to the world and to people is part of the DNA of the Yamato Group handed down through thegenerations. This DNA plays an even greater role in doing daily work even when disaster strikes or difficulties
occur in an area. The Group’s Corporate Stance, of assisting and advocating for persons with disabilities, is yet
another manifestation of that DNA. The Yamato Group is implementing various initiatives to provide support
during unprecedented disasters, to work with government in solving regional issues, and to be inclusive ofpeople with disabilities.
Buses on regular routes transporting TA-Q-BIN parcels together with passengers, Miyazaki Prefecture (2017)

1

Emergency response

Requirements during emergencies
In January 1940, a great fire tore through Shizuoka City, burning for more than 13 hours and affecting more than 28,000 people.
At the request of the Shizuoka City Office, Yasuomi Ogura put together a reconstruction relief team of 50 trucks. With controls on
gasoline, the gasoline supplied to the relief team from the city was a
precious commodity but Yasuomi refused to allow it to be used forany purpose other than reconstruction activities. Thirty-five years
later in 1975, Masao Ogura, having become President, wrote anarticle for the internal newsletter. “In the world around us there arealways special cases, and situations do occur that were not envisaged
when rules were created. [...] So what should decisions be based on
then? To me, that should be common sense. [...] Especially during
emergency situations, thinking or acting in an appropriate manneris exactly what you would expect of a human society.”
What that means is being conscious of one’s role in sustaining
the social infrastructure, and emphasizing the common-sense judgments of every member of staff. Even as the times change, the Yam-ato Group’s decisions and actions during emergency situations remain constant.

History of support for disaster-affected areas
One issue during times of disaster was how to deliver parcels
to customers in affected areas. Directly facing a number of disasters
over the years, the Yamato Group has implemented its own initiatives to support disaster-affected areas since the 1980s.
One employee and 13 employee family members were lost in
the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake of January 1995. Yamato
Transport Headquarters immediately established a crisis management team and gathered information after the earthquake. However, without waiting for instructions from headquarters, Yamato
Transport employees in the area took action on their own initiative.
Assigning themselves specific work such as searching for missing
people and assessing damage, the employees sought to overcome thehardships by themselves. About one month later, Yamato Transport
was able to open temporary housing it arranged for its employees

1—TA-Q-BIN pickup and delivery vehicle carrying disaster
relief supplies after the Great Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake (January 28, 1995)

2—TA-Q-BIN pickup driving through Rikuzentakata City,
Iwate Prefecture, which was affected by the Great East Japan
Earthquake (2011)

3—TA-Q-BIN pickup and delivery vehicle carrying relief supplies through Minami Sanriku-cho in Miyagi Prefecture after
the Great East Japan Earthquake (March 23, 2011, Photo: The
Asahi Shimbun Company)

4—Gradual restart of deliveries in the rubble left by the earthquake (2011)

5—Cooperating with the Self-Defense Forces to transport relief supplies after the earthquake: Kesennuma City, Miyagi
Prefecture (2011)

6—Employees volunteering after the earthquake (2011)044【Chapter 10】

and their families who lost their homes in the disaster. The company’s employees from across Japan also came running to help in volunteer activities on the ground. With this support, the local employees who were disaster victims themselves, walked thedisaster-affected areas and compiled lists of where their customers
had evacuated to and as a result were able to resume operations1.

Great East Japan Earthquake: Reconstruction support activities
At 2:46 p.m. on the 11th of March 2011, an earthquake occurred in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Tohoku in Japan. Seniorlabor and management were in a meeting at the time, but they immediately ended the meeting and put together an earthquake crisis
management team, led by Makoto Kigawa, the then President of
Yamato Transport, according to the Yamato Transport Headquarters Earthquake Crisis Manual that had been developed four years
earlier. In the Tohoku region, the Yamato Group lost a total of fivepeople, including employees, their families and Kuroneko Matecontractors. Nine of its facilities were destroyed and 58 of its vehicles were a total loss. Some people disappeared and some facility
damage was recorded in the Kanto region as well. While ensuringsafety and checking on the welfare of employees in the disaster-affected areas, the Group started transporting relief supplies. A significant difference from previous disasters was the shortage of gasoline. Securing a fuel supply proved challenging.
In the middle of this, the employees searched for things to do
for the disaster-stricken areas and put them into action. Cooperating with local governments and the Self-Defense Forces, when they
heard that the evacuation shelters had no food, they obtained ricefrom farmers and others and cooked rice balls to feed the victims.
They also registered as volunteers at government offices and helped
sort relief supplies. As logistics professionals, they freely provided
their accumulated knowledge and took charge of tasks such as classifying goods, managing inventories, delivery planning, and delivery itself.
It took 10 days for the TA-Q-BIN network to recover. Someone at Iwaki, Fukushima prefecture was heard to say that they wererelieved that the parcel delivery people were on the move again,
while someone at Shirakawa City in the same prefecture said that
their home could not function without the TA-Q-BIN delivery
people. At one center, an elderly crippled person came pushing a2

trolley by hand. This was before pickup and delivery could restart,
so deliveries could only be made at the centers. The Sales Driverpressed his superior for answers, saying, “I’m fed up with this situation!” He could no longer stand the situation where customers had
to come to pick up deliveries themselves. He pleaded, “Please let medeliver parcels to customers.” It was then that he realized again that
he would be able to get a “thank you” from customers by delivering
their parcels again2-7.
Yamato Holdings made the decision to donate 10 yen per TAQ-BIN parcel, and set up the “Great East Japan Earthquake Life,
Industry Infrastructure Recovery and Rebuilding Relief Fund.” Ingratitude to people of the area where TA-Q-BIN was nurtured,money raised was used specifically to regenerate the marine products and agricultural industries in the disaster-affected areas and torestore the social infrastructure that supports people living in thecommunities, including the hospitals and daycare centers. Including donations, a total of 14,274,264,524 yen was raised and provided to 31 projects through the Yamato Welfare Foundation. They
included relocation of the Noda Village nursery school in Iwate
Prefecture, damaged by the tsunami, to higher ground and reconstruction of it there; construction of a temporary fish market in
Minami Sanriku-cho in Miyagi Prefecture; and relocation and reconstruction of the Ono-machi Regional General Hospital in Onomachi in Fukushima Prefecture8.

Kumamoto Earthquake: Transporting relief supplies
After the Kumamoto Earthquake struck in April 2016, Yamato Transport offered its help to Kumamoto Prefecture, proposing totransport support goods9. Immediately after the Great East Japan
Earthquake, the company obtained a “list of items sent” from headquarters and a “list of items wanted” from the disaster-affected areas. While checking the lists, it sent company relief supplies to meetthe ever-changing needs. Yamato Transport was able to use this experience after the Kumamoto Earthquake.
Unexpectedly, through these disasters, Yamato Transport wasreminded that TA-Q-BIN had become a vital service for customers.
Quick recovery of business had become a social responsibility. For
this reason as well, commitment to the world and to people will
always be handed down through the generations.

Initiatives for inclusivenessEngagement with local communities

Solving regional issues

The various initiatives implemented hand-in-hand with local
communities were not led by headquarters. Instead, they started
through the independent actions of nationwide branch offices andsales offices.

In 1992, Japan’s first trials of the “Takuhai Bus” service (“Takuhai” means “home delivery” in Japanese) began in Iwate Prefecture10. This

7—All Yamato Group employees wore an armband in solidarity (2011)service used buses on regular routes to carry some of the TA-Q-BIN
parcels. This idea to transport people and goods together was ex-

8—Temporary fish market constructed in Minami Sanrikucho, Miyagi Prefecture, by the Great East Japan Earthquake
Life, Industry Infrastructure Recovery, and Rebuilding Relief
Fund

The story of support

9—Delivering to an evacuation shelter after the Kumamoto
Earthquake (2016)045

tended to Tomakomai City and Hakodate in Hokkaido, which enabled bus companies to improve productivity on unprofitable routes
to depopulated areas and enabled the Yamato Group to reducetransport time. In 2010, in another first-ever trial conducted in Japan, the Group transported goods together with passengers using
subway lines in Hokkaido.
In Aomori, the Yamato Group started a “Personal Shopper
Service.” Launched in 1998 in collaboration with a local supermarket, the service was for people living in rural areas where it wasdifficult to travel large distances to shop. To ease their burdens, it
was a service where shopping items ordered by customers would bedelivered to the customers when they need the items. In Iwate in2009, it also launched a “Watch-over Support Service" for elderly
people and others living alone. This was the direct outcome of thestrong wishes of a local employee who had direct experience of acustomer who died alone without anyone knowing. Conducted incooperation with the Iwate Prefectural Council of Social Welfare,the service was recognized as a model business by the Ministry of
Health, Labour and Welfare. The following year, the Watch-overSupport Service and Personal Shopper Service were linked together
to create the “Magokoro TA-Q-BIN” service (“Magokoro” means “sincerity” in Japanese) to watch over the elderly and help with shoppingin Nishiwaga Town, Iwate Prefecture11.
In this way, the Yamato Group started working with others
through its business to help solve local issues that the government
had difficulty addressing by itself.

Project G
It was in 2012 that the community-based initiatives launchedby the Yamato Group became a full-scale project as “Project G.”
With the G standing for government, the DAN-TOTSU Three-Year
Plan HOP management plan launched one year earlier had put
forward revitalization of local communities in collaboration withlocal governments as one of its basic strategies. The aims of Project
G were to provide lifestyle support for living safely and securely
through services including the shopping support and watch-oversupport, and to revitalize local economies.
A typical example of the lifestyle support provided was a service combining shopping support and watch-over support, which
was launched in Otoyo Town, Kochi Prefecture, in 201212. Locatedin a mountainous area of Japan, more than half of the residents of
Otoyo Town were aged 65 or older. With the social workers also
elderly, it was difficult to monitor the health of those residents.
Yamato Transport collaborated with the town and the chamber ofcommerce and industry to offer the service. If residents placed orders with participating stores by telephone or fax by 11:00 a.m.,
Sales Drivers would deliver the orders by 6:00 p.m., taking the opportunity to check on the customer’s health and filling in a survey
form. If anything unusual was identified at this time, the Sales
Driver would contact the town office or fire department.
In addition to regional areas, the Yamato Group also worked
on issues faced in urban areas. In Tama New Town, a part of TamaCity in Tokyo, newly established Neko Support Stations became
the hub for efforts to revitalize the local community and provide
support for the urban lifestyle13.
As of the end of March 2019, it had extended its service,
which transported TA-Q-BIN parcels together with passengers byusing unused space in buses and trains, to 14 prefectures around
Japan. Using its experience during the Great East Japan Earthquake
as well, it has signed a series of disaster agreements with governments around Japan to store, sort, and transport relief supplies.
As part of efforts to revitalize local economies, Yamato Transport also started initiatives to help expand sales channels for local
specialty products. One example of this was the “A! Premium” service14. Entering a partnership agreement with Aomori Prefecture,
Yamato Transport delivered apples, scallops and other agricultural,
forestry, and fisheries products, via its Okinawa International Logistics Hub, to destinations throughout Asia. With the fastest option
being next-day delivery, this enabled products to maintain theirfreshness. First trialed in 2014, the service expanded and by the endof 2016 had more than 100 participating companies. Another important service for foreign tourists to Japan was the Hands-Free

10—Trials of the “Takuhai Bus” service in Iwate Prefecture,with parcels loaded in the back of the bus (1992)

11—“Magokoro TA-Q-BIN” service delivering parcels to elderly residents living alone in Nishiwaga Town, Iwate Prefecture (2010)

12—“Personal Shopper Service” in Otoyo Town, Kochi Prefecture (2013)

13—Greenade Nagayama branch of Neko Support Station, a
local community base supporting the well-being of local residents, using management resources of the Yamato Group

14—Employee (left) listening to market needs, as part of “A!
Premium” service initiative (2015)

15—Opening ceremony for first Swan Bakery store (Ginza),with (from back left) President Keiji Aritomi from Yamato
Transport, Chairman Masao Ogura from Yamato Welfare
Foundation, and President Takaki from Takaki Bakery (1998)

046【Chapter 10】

Travel service. Offering luggage storage and delivery to hotels, thistourism support service was launched in each region across Japan.
Some of the services launched under the Project G initiative
have already been terminated after meeting a certain number ofcommunity contribution goals. However, many of the projects conducted were able to achieve both financial value and social value forthe company while helping to address issues for customers. These
were CSV (creating shared value) initiatives that improved the company’s own economic competitiveness while helping solve social issues. Japan is currently facing the social issues of a declining birthrate, aging society and depopulation. Going forward however, theYamato Group will continue contributing to society through its
core business by collaborating with local governments and others,
and focusing on the Project G initiative to help address these social
issues.

Masao Ogura’s thoughts on welfare
One article of the Yamato Group’s Corporate Stance includes
the statement: “The Yamato Group carries out business activities asa trusted member of the local community and actively supports
those who are socially disadvantaged, including those with disabilities.” Masao’s strong commitment was evident in this statement. He
actively employed people with disabilities to his workforce. Having
them work alongside able-bodied employees, he felt that they could
demonstrate and extend their abilities. Taking on board thesethoughts, the Yamato Group created worker-friendly environments
to enable persons with disabilities to easily work among many ablebodied workers, and it is currently making good progress in its employment of people with disabilities.
Tasked with supporting the independence of people with disabilities, the Yamato Welfare Foundation was established in September 1993. The capital injection behind the foundation camefrom Yamato Transport stocks held by Masao, who had taken on
the role of advisor after stepping down as chairman. He donated the
majority of those stocks. Speaking of his reasons for establishing the
Welfare Foundation, Masao said, “There was no special motivation.
I just wanted to provide a helping hand to people with disabilities.
It all started from those personal thoughts.” He also wanted to givesomething back to the community that took care of him.
The first initiative of the Foundation was to offer non-repayable scholarships of 50,000 yen per month to university students
with disabilities. It also provided funds for improving working environments for welfare workshops, which operated without Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare approvals and without any government subsidies.

Management reform for welfare

ited some of the workshops. What he saw was people with disabilities applying themselves to low-paid contracting jobs and recycling
work. It was obvious that they were not making profits, and that for
many of the people with disabilities, the welfare workshops werebeing used as daycare centers rather than as a means of earning an
income. In fact, monthly wages of only 10,000 yen or less werecommonplace. What he did was introduce a management perspective to the workshops so that people with disabilities working there
would get paid enough to live independent lives.
Starting in 1996, Masao went on a pilgrimage around Japan,
holding free management workshops under the name of Power Up
Seminars. The objective of the seminars was to provide management know-how to welfare workshop managers to help them getout of a situation where a monthly wage for each worker was 10,000
yen. At the same time, Masao was fully aware that he was not awelfare professional. He asked welfare professionals to look at each
person individually to consider appropriate work, while he devoted
himself to providing free management advice.
As a result, the first Swan Bakery store opened in 1998, withpeople with disabilities working both as bakers and servers
there15,16. When he learned of a frozen bread dough product soldby Takaki Bakery, Masao realized that this would allow people withdisabilities to also bake delicious breads17. Appealing for and gaining the company’s cooperation, he created a workplace model for
economic independence of people with disabilities

Other activities of the Yamato Welfare Foundation.
In 2004, a facility for people with disabilities started a Kuroneko Mail service delivery business. As Kuroneko Mates, theworkers were tasked with delivering Kuroneko Mail (later changed to
Kuroneko DM-Bin)18. In 2005, the Yamato Jiritsu Center (“Jiritu”
means “self-support” in Japanese) was established, with the Swan Kosha
Niiza and Swan Kosha Haneda nonresidential work transition support facilities opening after that.
In 2010, Masao’s Power Up Seminars were renamed Power Up
Forums, and scaled up to convey the message to as many people aspossible. In 2013, the Foundation also launched the Bridge toDreams Project (Yume E No Kakehashi Project) for facilities that wanted
to increase wages for their employees with disabilities. After creating
their own business reform plans, the facilities would receive funds
to put the plan into action. Success stories were then presented at
Power Up Forums, which also served to stimulate the next generation. “We should employ people with disabilities not just as manpower, but as valuable members of the workforce.” Little by little,
this commitment of Masao Ogura is beginning to steadily bear
fruit.

The Yamato Welfare Foundation added a new activity after theGreat Hanshin-Awaji Earthquake in 1995. It surveyed welfare
workshops affected by the disaster, and Masao himself actually vis-

16—Swan Bakery employees with disabilities at work

17—Masao Ogura (left) learning how to make bread at Takaki
Bakery Training Center (1997)

The story of support

18—Employee with disability delivering Kuroneko DM-Bin
mail (2015)047

Yamato Group Companies and Related Organizations
Holdingcompany

Yamato Holdings Co., Ltd. (founded in 1919 as Yamato
Transport Co., Ltd. (大和運輸))

DeliveryYamato Transport Co., Ltd. (est. 2005 as Yamato Spin-off
Preparation Co., Ltd.)

Overseas

YAMATO TRANSPORT (M) SDN. BHD. (est. 1988 in Malaysia)
YAMATO LOGISTICS INDIA PVT. LTD. (est. 2008)
PT. YAMATO INDONESIA (est. 2013)

Yamato Global Express Co., Ltd. (est. 2007 as Yamato
Express Co., Ltd.)
Express Network Co., Ltd. (est. 2008)

YAMATO LOGISTICS VIETNAM COMPANY LIMITED (est.
2015)

Okinawa Yamato Transport Co., Ltd. (est. 1985 as
Okinawa Unyu K.K.)

OTL ASIA SDN.BHD. (100% stake in CKE Transport Agency
Sdn. Bhd. acquired in 2017)

Yamato Dialog & Media Co., Ltd. (est. 2006)

OVERLAND TOTAL LOGISTIC SERVICES(M)SDN.BHD.
(stake acquired in 2017)

Yamato Contact Service Co., Ltd. (est. 2003)

OVERLAND TOTAL LOGISTICS(THAILAND) CO.,LTD. (stakeacquired in 2017)

Yamato.Staff.Supply.Co., Ltd. (est. 2002)
BIZ-Logistics

Yamato Logistics Co., Ltd. (est. 2008)

OVERLAND TOTAL LOGISTICS SERVICES VIETNAM JOINTSTOCK COMPANY (stake acquired in 2017)

Yamato Global Logistics Japan Co., Ltd. (est. 1999 as
Yamato UPS International Air Cargo Co., Ltd.)GUANGXI OVERLAND TOTAL LOGISTICS CO., LTD (100%stake acquired in 2017)

Yamato Packing Service Co., Ltd. (100% stake in Chiyoda
Packaging Industry Ltd. acquired in 1957)

SHENZHEN OVERLAND SUPPLY CHAIN MANAGEMENT
CO., LTD. (100% stake acquired in 2017)

Yamato Packing Technology Institute Co., Ltd. (est. 2006)

SHENZHEN SHUN ZHI TONG INTERNATIONAL LOGISTICS
CO., LTD. (100% stake acquired in 2017)

Konan Industry Co., Ltd. (est. 1963)
Home Convenience

Yamato Home Convenience Co., Ltd. (est. 1985 as Yamato
Home Service Co., Ltd.)e-BusinessYamato System Development Co., Ltd. (est. 1973)

YAMATO 365 EXPRESS COMPANY LIMITED. (stakeacquired in 2017)
PT. YAMATO INDONESIA FORWARDING (est. 2017)

Yamato Web Solutions Co., Ltd. (est. 1998 as Yamato
Career Service Co., Ltd.)
Financial

YAMATO GLOBAL LOGISTICS MYANMAR CO., LTD. (est.
2017)

Yamato Financial Co., Ltd. (est. 1986 as Yamato CollectService Co., Ltd.)YAMATO（CHINA）COMPANY LIMITED. (est. 2017)
YAMATO INVESTMENT（HONG KONG）LIMITED (est. 2017)

Yamato Lease Co., Ltd. (est. 1977 as Far East Lease Co.,Ltd.)

YAMATO（CHINA）TRANSPORT CO., LTD. (stake inShanghai Bus Logistics Co., Ltd. acquired in 2009)

Yamato Credit & Finance Co., Ltd. (stake in Fine Credit Co.,
Ltd. acquired in 2005)

Autoworks

YAMATO INTERNATIONAL LOGISTICS CO., LTD. (est. 2005)

Yamato Autoworks Co., Ltd. (est. 1957 as Yamato Shoji
Co., Ltd.)SHANGHAI WAI GAO QIAO BONDED LOGISTICS ZONEYAMATO WAREHOUSE CO., LTD. (est. 2008)

Yamato Autoworks Iwate Co., Ltd. (est. 2007)

YAMATO LOGISTICS (HONG KONG) LIMITED (est. 1982 as
YAMATO TRANSPORT (HONG KONG) LIMITED)

Yamato Autoworks Hokushinetsu Co., Ltd. (est. 2006)

Other

Yamato Autoworks Shikoku Co., Ltd. (est. 2008)

TAIWAN YAMATO INTERNATIONAL LOGISTICS INC. (est.
1984 as Yamato Transport Taiwan Ltd.)

Yamato Autoworks Okinawa Co., Ltd. (est. 2004 as
Okinawa Catworks Co., Ltd.)YAMATO TRANSPORT U.S.A., INC. (est. 1980)
YAMATO TRANSPORT MEXICO S.A.DE C.V. (est. 2015)

Box Charter Co., Ltd. (est. 2002 as Kanagawa Green Liner
Co., Ltd.)
Yamato Box Charter Co., Ltd. (est. 2001 as Saitama Green
Liner Co., Ltd.)
Yamato Multi Charter Co., Ltd. (100% stake in Kyoto
Kamotsu Jidosha Unyu K.K. acquired in 1959)

Overseas

YAMATO TRANSPORT EUROPE B.V. (est. 1986 as Yamato
Transport (Nederland) B.V.)

RelatedThe Pension Fund of Yamato Group (est. 1966 as Yamato
Organizations Unyu Kosei Nenkin Kikin)
Yamato Group Health Insurance Society (est. 1958 as
Yamato Unyu Kenko Hoken Kumiai)

Kobe Yamato Transport Co., Ltd. (100% stake in Taiyo
Jidosha Unso K.K. acquired in 1964)

Yamato Welfare Foundation (est. 1993)

Yamato Management Service Co., Ltd. (est. 2004)

Yamato Self-Support Center (est. 2005)

Swan Co., Ltd. (est. 1998)

Yamato Group Research Institute (est. 2016)

YAMATO ASIA PTE. LTD. (est. 2014)
YAMATO TRANSPORT (S) PTE. LTD. (est. 1983 in Singapore)*Parentheses indicate the year of establishment, or the year the entity came under Yamato Holdings control.

048

YAMATO UNYU (THAILAND) CO., LTD. (est. 1990)