Caster Co., Ltd. Representative Director Shota Nakagawa

We will never stop working remotely.

Representative Director of Caster Co., Ltd.　Shota Nakagawa(Shota Nakagawa)

■ Profile
He worked in sales at SoldOut Inc., then in business planning at E-Guardian Inc., where he encountered crowdsourcing. Frustrated by the underdeveloped environment for online workers in the Japanese market, he decided to start his own business at the age of 28. He founded Caster Inc. in September 2014.

Caster Co., Ltd. operates a fully remote organization with the mission of "making remote work the norm." When the company was founded in 2014, remote work was not yet widespread, so why did they start the company? We spoke with Shota Nakagawa about the significance of remote work and its future.

■ What motivated you to learn about the Internet?

I didn't start a business while I was a student. I originally came to Tokyo to pursue music, but I was living in Shimokitazawa at the time, so I worked at a second-hand clothing store during my second year of university. An acquaintance, the owner of the store, was closing down, and I got in touch to rent the space and open a second-hand clothing store. I opened the store using the money I'd saved from a previous part-time job as a telemarketer. I was very fulfilled, riding my motorcycle in the middle of the night to buy goods and deciding the store layout. However, the products were cheap, and the store was too big to fill with products. Then, I met someone selling silver jewelry online. He was in his 30s at the time, and he started selling silver jewelry worth about 1.5 million yen each, and sold them out in just a few minutes. It was quite frustrating. I realized I wasn't making the most of the internet, so I decided to study it. So, I started by working for an IT company.

■ Questions about working style

When I got a job in the IT industry, I was in charge of outsourcing, and at the time, crowdsourcing was gaining attention as a new way of working. Remote work itself had been explored around the world for some time, but in reality, it was only used by people working for large companies for temporary periods such as childbirth, child-rearing, or elderly care, as part of their employee benefits. It was in this environment that crowdsourcing began to take off as a way of working.
However, crowdsourcing has the problem of many jobs with prices that are too low. Crowdworkers get work on a contract basis, but since labor laws do not apply to contracts for work, there is no minimum wage. It was common for jobs to pay as little as 100 yen per hour.
Of course, it's impossible to attract good people at such a low price. With workers constantly changing, it's impossible to create a good working environment. Seeing this situation, I decided to start my own remote work company, which was the trigger for starting my own business. There was a high demand for remote work from the perspective of workers, and at the same time, there was a labor shortage in the IT field from the perspective of employers. Based on the idea that a balance between supply and demand could be achieved, I decided to pursue a human resources business centered on remote work.

■ Don't stop working remotely

Caster will be expanding its business to Germany and Dubai from 2022 onwards. These regions have similar social and working environments to Japan, and we chose them as our first overseas bases, judging that we could utilize the know-how and schemes we have cultivated to date. Although the environments are similar, we also aimed to verify the applicability of our business in different countries. In the future, we plan to further expand globally, starting with European countries. By providing the business support that only Caster, which has been building remote work for the past 10 years, can provide, we hope to expand our business so that remote work will become more widespread not only in Japan but around the world.
Some companies are abolishing remote work, but Caster will continue to do so in the future. This is our belief, and we believe that providing a remote work environment will enhance our competitive advantage as a company.

■Matching supply and demand

Many companies began remote work during the COVID-19 pandemic, but this was only temporary. You might think that communicating remotely is difficult, but that's simply because we're not used to it. For example, facial expressions and gestures can be understood even remotely. Some people find it difficult to read the other person's feelings, but the same is true in real life. Even when you're face-to-face, it's impossible to fully understand the other person's feelings. Remote work is not something special; it's simply a virtual version of what is done in real life.
In fact, our company is fully remote-based, and we haven't had any problems at all. Demand for remote work is high among employees, with a hiring ratio of 100 to 1. Our employees range in age from their 20s to 50s, with approximately 90% female and 70% living in rural areas. In Japan, wages tend to be lower the further you get from the city, and the wage gap between men and women is significant. While clerical work is popular among women, most of these jobs are located in Tokyo. Living in rural areas, there's often nothing nearby and the only option is farm work, forcing many to work remotely. While women are often undervalued in Japan, Caster strives to provide opportunities for them after assessing their abilities.

■Message to university students

　Young people today have a great advantage. With the labor shortage worsening, we are approaching an era in which you can take the lead in any profession. Unless the industry itself is declining, you can take on any job you like. It would be a waste to worry about what will happen in the future or whether you will fail. I hope that you will not be afraid of risks, but will seize any opportunity that comes your way.

Interview with Sophia University sophomore, Himari Shirasaka, published November 30, 2023 on Student Newspaper Online