IBJ is a leading company in the marriage-hunting industry, whose mission is to solve the problem of the declining birthrate. The number of members registered in the Institution Bridal of Japan (IBJ Arranged Marriage System), which is Japan's largest network developed and operated by the company, is about 60,000. Its characteristics or strengths are the robust position supported by the business model of "Systems × Human Resources," the outstanding member base for enhancing the rate of successful business, the careful follow-up system for affiliated marriage agencies, and so on. With the aim of "producing 3% of the marriages in Japan" and "achieving sales of 30 billion yen and an operating income of 5 billion yen" in 2022, the company will strengthen its existing business, and create new markets for seniors, international marriage, etc.
1-1 Corporate history
Shigeru Ishizaka (the current president and representative director of IBJ Inc.), who had been concerned about the combination of the obvious trend of declining birthrate and the lack of measures to counter this trend, believed that in Japan there would be no real point offering the platforms for simple meeting up unless the couples ended up marrying, and developed and managed the marriage-hunting websites early and with a great success.
Intrigued by his success, Yahoo Japan Corporation bought the Bridal Net stocks in 2003 but Ishizaka, who was also convinced that offering real-life opportunities helped by real humans was indispensable to generate married couples as opposed to the online-only services, carried out MBO with the current management team in 2006 to become independent from the Yahoo Japan Corporation Group and established IBJ Inc. to expand the Marriage-Hunting Business more dynamically.
The company already had a base and the know-how for attracting customers online. At the same time as expanding its Marriage-Hunting Business online, the company opened the directly-run lounges in Ginza and Shinjuku in 2007, where the counselors were available to offer support, as the starting point of its Marriage Consulting Agencies Business.
As Ishizaka anticipated, the company managed to generate more married couples than its competitors due to the human support offered at the point of matching. This encouraged the company to further build up the network of marriage agencies.
Back then, there were more than 3,000 marriage agencies throughout Japan, but they were still mostly using telephones, mails and fax for communication with the members and setting up appointments for marriage meeting. Ishizaka saw this as a significant obstacle as it was costing an unnecessary amount of time and effort as well as causing mistakes to the operation of the agencies. So he built a system to hugely improve the agencies'administration capacities by adopting IT and proposed this system to the key matchmakers throughout the country.
At first there was no understanding for this system and the company had a difficult time, so it offered this system as a platform to attract new members. This worked out and the marriage agencies were able to attract new customers every month constantly, making this platform an essential tool for them. The company then offered the use of the system to them again: this time, its advantage of significantly improving the administration capacities was appreciated and the number of member agencies started to grow nationally.
Alongside the growing number of member agencies as well as the members, its marriage-hunting website "Bridal Net" became the largest social marriage-hunting media in Japan and the company experienced a rapid expansion, enabling it to be listed on JASDAQ (standard) of the Osaka Securities Exchange in 2012.
In 2014, it changed the markets to the 2nd Section of Tokyo Stock Exchange and then moved onto the 1st Section of Tokyo Stock Exchange in 2015.
1-2 Management philosophy
The company's management philosophy is "to treasure a connection with all stakeholders" and its credo (code of conduct) reflects its desire as a company "to provide services that garner top customer satisfaction."

Additionally, the company’s brand statement is “an interpersonal encounter is arranged only by a human,” which it tries to use in tandem with its management philosophy.
1-3 Market environment
<Situation Surrounding Unmarried People>
* Rising percentage of unmarried people. The percentage of those unmarried people who do not have a partner is on the rise too.
According to the research carried out by the Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, the percentage of unmarried people (aged 25-34) continues to rise.

According to the "15th Basic Survey on Childbirth Trend (National Survey on Marriage and Childbirth) in 2015", among the unmarried people aged 18-34, the percentage of those without a partner is also rising year after year.
*Marrying intentions of the unmarried: "intention to get married" still at a high level
On the other hand, of the unmarried people aged 18-34, 85.7% of males and 89.3% of females say they want to get married, meaning the percentage of the unmarried who want to eventually get married is still high.

While the percentage of those unmarried people who said they did "not intend to get married ever" has risen in both the males and females, the percentage of those who also said they may change their mind towards "intending to get married eventually" in the future was males and females at 44.1% and 49.8% respectively, meaning half of the demographic currently not intending to get married can also potentially shift towards marrying in the future.
*Reasons for remaining single: "can't find an appropriate partner after 25"
When asked why they would remain single, those young unmarried aged 18-24 listed many reasons for not having positive motives such as being "too young" and "not yet feeling necessity." However, among those aged 25-34, the percentage of those who say they "can't meet an appropriate partner" has risen, meaning the needs for meeting and chances to meet someone are significant.

From the above data, it becomes clear that, although the percentage of the unmarried people as well as the unmarried people without a partner are on the rise, it does not mean that they are not interested in marriage, but rather they do not have the chances to meet the potential match.
However, while there are clear market needs, it has also become clear from the user surveys that simply offering such opportunities (matching) is not enough to generate actual marriages, and it is essential that they be supported by the matchmaking support of the marriage agencies.

In such a market environment, the company is leading the marriage-hunting market with its strengths such as the largest members'network in Japan and dedicated support from its full-time counselors.
1-4 Business segments
There are two reported segments: "Marriage-Hunting Business" (operation of marriage-hunting sites, and planning and hosting marriage-hunting events) and "Life Design Business" (aimed at expanding the business domain utilizing the member base constructed through the Marriage-Hunting Business). Each segment in turn comprises multiple businesses.
(1) Marriage-Hunting Business
The company supports marriage-hunting through the following businesses.
①Community Business
The company owns "Bridal Net" ? the largest marriage-hunting service website in Japan with 17 years of track records.
Its monthly fee is 3,000 yen for both sexes. Compared to the general marriage-hunting apps and matching services, it tends to attract the members who are more serious about marriage and naturally it is more likely that more serious encounters are generated.
The number of successful message exchanges per month is in excess of 58,000 and about 20,000 couples are formed every month.

From the term ending December 2018, the company started a new marriage-hunting support service with the dedicated staff members called "marriage concierge."
The marriage concierges provide fine-tuned supports to the members that can only be given by humans even though the services are provided online ? another of the company's strengths ? such as how to write the profiles, and how to arrange the first date.
Its earnings model is (monthly chargeable members x monthly fees: 3,000 yen).
②Event Business
The company organizes numerous events to which the members can attend with marriage-hunting in mind. The website "PARTY☆PARTY" is used to attract customers and the events are held at the company's 44 (as of the end of March 2018) own lounges both directly-owned and franchisees nationwide, and the events held outdoors are planned from time to time.
Every month, about 4,000 parties are organized and about 60,000 members attend.

Additionally, the fact that these parties are run by a company listed on the First Section of Tokyo Stock Exchange makes the attendees feel more secure.
Its earnings model is (event attendance fee 4,000 yen [average] x the number of attendees).
③Marriage Consulting Agencies Business
The company offers marriage-hunting support to its members at the "Marriage-Hunting Lounges IBJ Members," the 13 marriage counseling lounges located around the country. The number of their members is approximately 60,000, making the company the industry leader. This number includes the registrants of the roughly 1,700 marriage agencies affiliated with the Institution Bridal of Japan (IBJ Marriage Arranging System), run by the company and also the largest of its kind in Japan.
The largest member base in the industry as well as the strict joining assessment policy enable the company to offer higher quality meeting experiences to its members and the matching is carried out using its cutting-edge search system.
Additionally, the service is characterized by the hands-on support given by the dedicated professional counselors to make marriage a reality.
The counselors are also there to discover the members'charms such as personality and character that the members themselves may not be aware of, and they recommend potential matches to the members utilizing their experiences. By creating the encounters with a human touch and not just relying on the systems, the company is able to enhance the possibility of generating more marriages.
An IBJ members'marriage formation is defined as the "engagement = the members decide to marry each other."
Many major marriage agencies define the point at which the members start a relationship with marriage in mind as 'marriage formation.' But the reason why the members use marriage agencies is because they are looking to get married, and the company is also keen to contribute to solving the problem of lowering birthrate in Japan as its social responsibility: this is why the company defines the point of engagement as marriage formation.
For these reasons, the counselors offer themselves tirelessly to assist the members even to the initial meeting with each other's parents so that the marriage formation is reached securely.
As a result, the number of members who reached marriage formation in the term ended December 2017 was 1,269, up 18.4% year on year, and the percentage of marriage formation was 51.5% (actual results from the main courses within the half year period between July and December 2017) achieving an extremely high success rate amongst the competitors, even though the company's definition of marriage formation is set more narrowly.
It is quite normal that the members and counselors become fairly close given such a personal support relationship. This helps the councilors introduce the members to the post-wedding services offered as part of the company's Life Design Business such as honeymoon and insurances.
Its earning model is the annual fee (approximately 180,000 - 240,000 yen per year) x the number of members. At the point of marriage formation, a marriage formation fee 200,000 yen is chargeable separately.
④Corporate Business
As well as supplying its systems to roughly 1,700 marriage agencies (individual & corporate) affiliated with the Institution Bridal of Japan (IBJ Marriage Arranging System), the largest network of its kind in Japan as mentioned above, the company also offers support in setting up new businesses and recruits for new affiliate members.
In its Mid-term Management Plan, IBJ is aiming to produce 3% of all marriage formation in Japan from its own services. To achieve this, gaining new affiliated marriage agencies and training the existing affiliate agencies are indispensable, and the company is increasing the sales personnel as well as supplying the business methods to help the agencies to succeed.
Its earning model is (affiliate fee 1,500,000 yen for newly affiliated marriage agency + system usage fee 20,000 yen x the number of affiliated marriage agencies) (in case of corporate affiliates, an affiliate fee starting from 3,000,000 yen is payable).
(2) Life Design Business
The company offers diverse services that arise from marriage-hunting, to the member base built up through its Marriage-Hunting Business.
①Wedding Business
Wind & Sun Inc., a subsidiary since 2016, publishes "WIND AND SUN," the wedding information magazine with 25 years of history and also operates a website, both of which offer advertisement services to the wedding-related corporations.
Using its website "Wedding Navi" and through the wedding salons, the company funnels the customers to its tie-up wedding parlors.
②Travel Business
KAMOME CORPORATION, a subsidiary since 2016, designs honeymoons and overseas package holidays, and also sells the tours to major tour agencies and arranging custom made holidays.
Additionally in 2017, IBJ Life Design Support Corporation was set up together with Sony Life Insurance Co., Ltd to offer support at various stages of ones'life, from marriage-hunting, newly wed to child raising.
1-5 Characteristics and strengths
(1) Solid position supported by the "Systems × Human Resources" business model
The Institution Bridal of Japan (IBJ Marriage Arranging System) operated by the company boasts over 1,700 affiliate marriage agencies and about 60,000 members, making it the largest of its kind in Japan. On top of this, the customer attraction capability and the service level of the company's marriage-hunting websites and matchmaking parties make the company the undisputed industry leader and it occupies an extremely firm position in the marriage-hunting industry.
What brought about this position is the company's business model that combines the strengths of the systems and human resources.
The highly skilled team of in-house engineers develops and operates the company's unique systems.
Because of this, the company is able to make rapid improvements to its UI (user interface) such as the screen visibility and operability, reacting to the customer needs accurately, and UX (user experiences) such as improved matching accuracy by the effective utilization of customer database. This helps boost the satisfaction rates among the members as well as the affiliate agencies.
As the company's brand statement says, the company believes that "an interpersonal encounter is arranged only by a human" when it comes to its marriage formation policies. This is why the company uses its own training program to train its own counselors who eventually will become indispensable in assisting each member personally and lead them to marriage formation.
The company's overwhelming position built around this "Systems × Human Resources" business model is acting as a very high entry barrier to a potential new comer.
(2) Overwhelming member base that helps businesses succeed = customer asset
With the 60,000 IBJ Marriage Arranging System members, 60,000 monthly marriage-hunting party attendees and 28,000 monthly matchmaking meeting attendees, the company's customer base is always hovering above 100,000 members.
The company is poised to take advantage of this "living member base" to expand numerous new businesses including the Life Design Business. Because it is operational nonstop, the company believes that the key is to raise the success rate to set itself apart significantly from the competitors.
This nonstop-operation member base and its volume will never be shown on the balance sheets, but nevertheless form part of the company's significant customer asset.
(3) Follow-up System for the Member Agencies
The company prides itself in being able to offer fine-tuned marriage-hunting support to its members via its counselors. Likewise, the company gives a strong support to its affiliate marriage agencies to help them succeed with their business operations.
Since 2007, the company has been trying and testing the numerous methods at its own directly-run lounges at various phases of matchmaking to marriage formation, such as customer attraction, person-to-person sales operations (member recruiting) and orientations for the new members. The most effective of these methods were put together and are being offered to the affiliated marriage agencies. Because this is not a manual but a collection of successful methods, the agencies are able to take the direct shortcuts towards succeeding in their marriage agencies businesses.

The company did not set a target ROE, but its ROE is high, because of high profit rate.
1-7 Shareholder return
The dividend amount has been raised for 5 consecutive terms till the term ended Dec. 2017, and payout ratio is over 30%.
In addition, the company set the following shareholder benefit program, to present complimentary cards and tickets according the number of shares held and the shareholding period.

