KAGA, Ishikawa Pref. ¨C On a dreary morning in December, Uber¡¯s boss, Dara Khosrowshahi, stood outside the faded concrete municipal offices of Kaga, a small hot-spring town in Ishikawa Prefecture, and hailed a car.
Since Uber entered Japan in 2014, the country, one of the world¡¯s largest taxi markets, has remained a fortress. Japanese officials have fiercely guarded the taxi industry with regulations that restricted Uber¡¯s app to hailing only licensed cabs. Recently, however, demographic pressures have begun to force the government to change.
Japan¡¯s rural heartland is hollowing out as the country¡¯s population declines, leaving the pool of public drivers dry and many of the remaining elderly residents without transportation. Kaga is among a handful of provincial areas where legislators have permitted the peer-to-peer ride-share operation that defined Uber¡¯s global rise.
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