Trend

The diversification of work styles, including fully remote and hybrid work, has recently brought “vacation home subscriptions” into the spotlight. Driven by demand from users seeking workation experiences that combine work and leisure, as well as those considering relocation to regional areas, the market for these flat-fee vacation home subscriptions is steadily expanding.

The New Normal of Multi-Location Living, Enabled by Vacation Home Subscriptions

A “Vacation Home Subscription” is a service that provides access to vacation homes across Japan for a fixed monthly or annual fee. Compared to ownership, it reduces the costs of purchasing property and ongoing maintenance, making it easier to choose homes that suit individual lifestyles. It works particularly well with workation, enabling users to work in nature-rich settings and enjoy local culture and cuisine after hours or on weekends. Through repeated short stays, users can experience regional life and everyday routines beyond typical tourism.

The service also allows firsthand exposure to local infrastructure, such as healthcare and education, helping ease concerns and cultural gaps related to relocation. As a result, it is increasingly seen as a practical platform for “trial relocation.”

Breathing New Life into Underutilized Real Estate: The Vacation Home Subscription Model

In rural areas facing population decline and aging, many properties—such as unused vacation homes, residences, recreational facilities, and schools—remain underutilized. These assets often generate only maintenance costs, placing a burden on both owners and local communities. The vacation home subscription model repositions such properties as shared resources. By allowing users to rotate through stays, it creates value that is difficult to achieve through individual ownership, making real estate operations more viable.

Moreover, the steady flow of users helps stimulate local economies, fostering sustainable relationships through activities such as dining at local restaurants and participating in community events. Idle real estate thus has the potential to evolve into “hubs that generate human flow.”

Transforming Lifestyles and Land Use

The expansion of vacation home subscriptions has the potential to transform not only individual lifestyles but also the real estate market and regional development. Future growth may include collaborations with local governments and businesses, as well as services tailored to different lengths of stay. By linking multi-location living, workation, rural relocation, and the revitalization of underutilized real estate, vacation home subscriptions address societal challenges from both living and land-use perspectives, positioning them for growing attention.

GARDE’s real estate services are built on three core pillars: property leasing and sales brokerage, office leasing, and corporate real estate (CRE) consulting.
Furthermore, in collaboration with regional revitalization initiatives, we actively work to utilize idle assets, including rural land use and the renovation of hotels and residential properties.
＞GARDE Service Overview

What Does “Imperfect by Design” Mean?

In recent years, it has rapidly emerged as a key concept not only within the design industry but also across broader creative practices. Literally meaning “imperfection through design,” it refers to a philosophy that seeks to evoke empathy, warmth, and trust by intentionally preserving elements such as roughness, noise, and irregularity—an “analog sensibility”—rather than striving for perfection.
It can be seen as design’s counterpart to the retro movement, exemplified by the revival of vintage record players. The renewed popularity of film cameras and Polaroids reflects the same cultural undercurrent and suggests that this shift is more than a passing trend, but rather a lasting phenomenon.

In an era saturated with impeccably polished digital content generated by AI and algorithms, the deliberate incorporation of human-like analog qualities—uneven textures and emotionally resonant “roughness”—may eventually be replicated as AI continues to advance. Even so, such simulations would remain fundamentally different in emotional depth and authenticity from works intentionally shaped by human sensibility.
Therefore, the uniquely human ability to conceive, edit, and refine ideas—cultivated through lived experience and sustained practice—becomes increasingly essential. In a time when AI enables nearly anyone to produce work at a certain technical standard, it is these distinctly human capacities that create truly original value.

What Is “Imperfect by Design” Offered by the Design Consulting Firm GARDE?

Similarly, in design fields such as interior design, this approach has long been articulated through concepts such as “aesthetic sensibility” and “texture.” Particularly in luxury brands as well as high-end hotels and restaurants, it has been regarded as an essential method for achieving not only functionality and safety, but also comfort and refinement. It is also a fundamental technique for creating spaces with “emotional value”—a core principle underlying the design and consulting services provided by GARDE.
This perspective does not reject AI. On the contrary, by fully leveraging its capabilities and ultimately integrating human insight and craftsmanship, it becomes possible to deliver greater value than ever before.

In spaces that embody emotional value:
①People experience a sense of comfort, pride, and an indescribable charm.
②Activities such as buying, living, dining, or dressing within the space fulfill deeper desires for prosperity, belonging, and recognition.
③Affection, loyalty, and respect toward brands or facilities are cultivated.

These intangible assets are difficult to measure through short-term KPIs. Yet over time, their cumulative effects—greater word-of-mouth advocacy, increased recommendations, trust from decision-makers and local communities, brand-specific purchasing, and higher repeat rates—translate into tangible assets that directly contribute to corporate growth.
Under the principle of “Imperfect by Design,” genuine emotional value emerges from intentional imperfection only when it is supported by meticulously conceived and highly sophisticated design. This is likely one of the few areas in which human creativity and sensibility continue to surpass AI.

GARDE Design Magazine provides project portfolio, trends in architecture, design, and art, and event information.
The project portfolio and the latest information on GARDE are now available on our official website.
>Click here to visit our project portfolio.
>Click here for the latest information on GARDE

What is Net Positive?

Net Positive is a concept that seeks to create a state in which the positive impacts of a company’s or organization’s activities on society and the environment outweigh their negative effects. Going beyond simply reducing environmental impact (“sustainable”) or offsetting harm (“carbon neutral”), it is defined by the ambition to actively improve society through business activities.

The concept was articulated by figures such as Paul Polman, former CEO of Unilever, and has emerged in recent years as a key business trend—evolving from ESG management and CSV (Creating Shared Value).

Traditional corporate activities have primarily focused on legal compliance, reducing environmental impact, and fulfilling social responsibilities. In contrast, Net Positive calls for proactive value creation:
・Environment: Going beyond CO₂ reduction to actively contribute to natural regeneration
・Society: Going beyond job creation to enhance the quality of life and well-being of communities and individuals
・Economy: Going beyond corporate profits to increase the value of industries and society as a whole

Why Companies Are Now Expected to Be Net Positive

As social challenges such as climate change, resource depletion, and widening inequality intensify, simply “reducing negative impacts” is no longer sufficient in a landscape where many organizations are already pursuing initiatives like the SDGs. In this context, net positive can be understood as a management principle that enables companies to achieve competitiveness, trust, and sustainable growth simultaneously.

By shifting from “harm reduction–focused management” to “management that maximizes positive impact,” and by positioning business activities themselves as drivers of social and environmental progress, organizations can earn long-term societal support and sustain growth.

What are GARDE’s “Emotional Management Assets” as a design consulting firm?

As a premise, business value and assets are strongly influenced by the emotions and feelings embedded in what companies and organizations offer.

In today’s business environment, where corporate value is no longer determined solely by financial metrics or functional advantages, emotional values—such as trust, empathy, pride, and affection—held by customers, communities, and society are believed to influence stock prices, long-term brand strength, and management sustainability.

The spaces, designs, and consulting services provided by GARDE function as powerful branding assets that generate emotional value. Because people spend their lives within various spaces, these environments are not merely physical locations; they profoundly influence human emotions, behaviors, and values.

In spaces imbued with emotional value:
① People experience comfort, pride, and an intangible sense of charm
② A sense of abundance, belonging, and recognition is fulfilled through activities such as purchasing, living, dining, or dressing
③ Affection, trust, and respect toward brands or facilities are cultivated
These intangible assets are difficult to quantify through short-term KPIs. However, over time, they compound into tangible business outcomes—such as increased word-of-mouth and recommendations, trust from decision-makers and local communities, brand-driven purchasing behavior, and higher repeat rates—ultimately contributing to corporate growth.

GARDE’s strength lies in creating value aligned with contemporary needs—beyond mere construction or development—through its integrated business services. Through design consulting, corporate matching, development, art, and real estate, GARDE enables the intentional creation and management of clients’ emotional assets, delivering a net positive emotional experience.

GARDE Design Magazine provides project portfolio, trends in architecture, design, and art, and event information.
The project portfolio and the latest information on GARDE are now available on our official website.
>Click here to visit our project portfolio.
>Click here for the latest information on GARDE

What Is “Offshoring”? A business strategy that emerged in the 1980s.

Offshoring refers to the practice of relocating a company’s services, operations, or production bases overseas. It is primarily pursued to reduce costs and enhance business efficiency by leveraging differences in business environments across countries, such as exchange rates and tax systems.
A related concept is outsourcing, which broadly refers to delegating operations to external parties, whether domestic or international. Offshoring specifically denotes the overseas-oriented form of outsourcing.
This article provides a brief overview of offshoring, its evolution, the opportunities it presents, and its impact on GARDE’s business.

Offshore development began in the 1980s, primarily in China, and expanded to other ASEAN countries around 2010.

From the 1980s through the early 1990s, the yen’s unprecedented strength led to a global perception of Japan as a country synonymous with high quality—but also high cost. During this period, Japanese products such as automobiles and electronics significantly increased their value-added content and strengthened their global branding.
Manufacturing offshoring was concentrated primarily in other Asian countries, with China’s rapid development from the 1980s standing out in particular. This trend later expanded to India and ASEAN countries such as Vietnam, becoming an essential global strategy for manufacturing.
In recent years, however, this dynamic has shifted dramatically as the yen has depreciated at an accelerated pace. The former perception has evolved into a new value proposition: Japan is now seen as offering high quality at reasonable prices. The sharp rise in inbound tourism provides clear evidence of this transformation.

New Market Environment: Risks and Growth Opportunities Driven by Tariffs, Trade Wars, and Climate Action

Furthermore, changes in the market environment stemming from U.S.-origin tariffs have compounded existing challenges. These include climate change initiatives, ongoing conflicts in the Middle East and Russia, and shifts in national energy policies, all of which are creating new obstacles to the export and distribution of goods.

In response, GARDE leverages one of its core strengths—its global network—to export creativity rather than physical products. With its Tokyo headquarters as a hub and offices around the world, GARDE delivers design, ideas, and consulting services with minimal exposure to tariffs and transportation costs.
Similarly, as part of Japan’s broader revitalization strategy, highly portable digital content—such as NFT art, online games, and anime—represents a significant growth opportunity. These industries are less constrained by geopolitical risks and trade barriers, positioning them as key drivers in the evolving global market.

GARDE Design Magazine provides project portfolio, trends in architecture, design, and art, and event information.
The project portfolio and the latest information on GARDE are now available on our official website.
>Click here to visit our project portfolio.
>Click here for the latest information on GARDE