Our Founding

Right out of university, I joined the sales team of a real estate developer and met a young couple looking to buy their first home. They were excited about the condominiums we were selling and completed the paperwork to buy right away. In the end, though, I had to disappoint them with the news that they weren't able to secure a mortgage. The look on their faces drove me to help them find a new home - even if our company couldn't provide one. So, I put together a collection of properties from other developers and showed it to the couple. That, of course, didn't go over well with my manager, but it was helpful for the couple.

A while later, the couple came in to the office with beaming smiles and said, "Mr. Inoue, thank you for putting yourself in our shoes and searching so hard for a place for us. Thanks to your hard work, we were able to find the perfect home!" Ever since I witnessed the happiness of that couple finding a home to call their own, I've wanted to do my best to do the same for others. Back then, even for someone within the real estate industry, it was a struggle to find information on residential properties. I can't imagine how hard it must have been for consumers to look at the limited information available to them to make once-in-a-lifetime decisions. That experience served as the launching point for my desire to create a system in which all real estate information was open and available. That's what inspired me to form my own company and to build the foundations for LIFULL.

INOUE Takashi
Representative Director, Chairperson