The Atarashift Blog
Insights for working in Japan
Guides, interviews, and honest advice for international talent building a career in Japan.
The Atarashift Blog
Guides, interviews, and honest advice for international talent building a career in Japan.
IDOM CaaS Technology, the Gulliver spin-off behind NOREL, is now hiring on Atarashift. Four roles open in Tokyo, plus an interview with its Chief Strategy Officer.
We're happy to introduce IDOM CaaS Technology (株式会社IDOM CaaS Technology) as the newest hiring partner on Atarashift. The company was spun off in April 2020 from IDOM Inc., which operates Gulliver, a used-car buying and selling business.
IDOM CaaS Technology (ICT in its own press releases) runs NOREL, a car lease and rental brand. Its company profile describes the business as car subscriptions (leasing and rental), installment sales, and systems for corporate clients. The profile names an in-house AI for predicting residual value and its own credit screening system as the basis for that business.
Four roles are open on Atarashift now: Product Manager, Front-End Engineer, Server-Side Engineer (Java), and Senior Data Scientist. We also spoke with Kento Nakatsugawa, the company's Chief Strategy Officer, about the team, the "CAIO candidate" role, and what working there looks like.
CaaS is short for Car as a Service. In a message on the company site, president Naoki Yamahata writes that car prices rise year after year. The message adds that existing car loans and residual-value plans bind drivers to long contracts and complex conditions.
Its services, as described on the company site and in its press releases:
As of December 1, 2025, NOREL had provided 50,000 vehicles in total, with 140,000 cumulative applicants and 400,000 LINE friends. In July 2025, the company announced that revenue had passed ¥5 billion within five years of its founding.
The company lists 225 employees, including fixed-term staff, as of April 1, 2026. Its head office is in Jinnan, Shibuya. It also lists rental locations in Chitose (Hokkaido), Saitama, Yokohama, Himeji, and Urasoe and Naha (Okinawa).
Its major shareholders include IDOM, Aioi Nissay Dowa Insurance, SBI Shinsei Bank, Mitsubishi UFJ Trust and Banking, and Mitsubishi Auto Lease. It announced an alliance with Mitsubishi Auto Lease in March 2025, and a "Yamada × NOREL" service with Yamada Holdings in November 2025.
The company describes two in-house technologies.
Residual value tech (残価TECH). The company says its link with Gulliver gives it the big data to predict the future residual value of every vehicle. It uses those predictions to show drivers the best time to sell or switch cars. The IDOM group has bought, sold, and distributed cars across Japan for more than 30 years.
Credit tech (与信TECH). This is a driver trust score the company developed itself. The company says it uses the score to provide cars regardless of past credit. As drivers build trust, the company passes the benefit back to them, which it describes as "the more you drive, the more you gain." Its credit-building model (与信育成モデル) started in November 2021.
The Sr. Data Scientist listing describes the models behind this work. They include car pricing models, and models that calculate credit scores and driving scores from demographic, payment, and IoT driving data.
President Naoki Yamahata sums up the goal on the company site. In our translation: "We are working to bring the uncertainty of residual value × credit under control, through technology and on-the-ground operations."
ICT's careers page publishes these numbers:
The recruiting message on that page reads "Car life, and your career, one step ahead."
We asked Kento Nakatsugawa, Chief Strategy Officer at IDOM CaaS Technology, a few questions for anyone considering these roles. The answers were given in Japanese, and the translations are ours.
What does the development organization look like today?
"Our development organization is just under 30 people, including contractors. Broadly, it splits into a Product Management team, a Developer team, and an AI/Analytics team. We work in Scrum, and we put a lot of value on trying things quickly and learning fast."
The Sr. Data Scientist listing is titled "CAIO candidate." What would that path look like in practice?
"At our company, our ability to develop AI and machine learning ties directly to the value of the business. We're not looking for someone who just carries out tasks. We want someone with machine learning expertise who can also take part in running the company. Age and experience don't matter, and you don't need to take that on in the very short term. We're looking for people who want to make society better through machine learning and AI, and to connect that work directly to the business."
What would a new hire in these roles work on in their first few months?
"It depends on the role, but first you'll join our development projects alongside other team members. We're also building out an AI-powered onboarding program in-house. So think of the first stretch as time to understand the business. We'll support you in building relationships that make it easy to work with the business side, and in getting hands-on experience of the actual work."
Do you currently have team members who are not Japanese nationals?
"We have team members from many different backgrounds. Our engineers include members from India and Bangladesh, and one of our product managers is French. Our data engineer is a Korean team member."
What does hybrid work look like? How many days a week are people in the office?
"Our system lets you work remotely two days a week. We also set one day a week when everyone comes into the office together. We use it as a chance to actively share information and talk with each other."
For someone choosing between ICT and a bigger tech company, what's the pitch?
"I think the appeal is that this is an environment where you gain the skills and experience that matter most in the AI era. There are two reasons.
"The first is that you can become a leader in business × tech that has a real, offline side to it. Through cars, an offline business, we're working to rebuild the infrastructure that supports people's daily lives. Generative AI will quickly commoditize businesses limited to SaaS or online. Our business involves many stakeholders and layers of offline operations that are, in a sense, a hassle.
"Leading the work of bringing technology into that space is hard. But that is exactly what makes it a barrier to entry other companies can't cross, and it adds to your market value as a professional. By the way, what gets us through that hassle is the good nature of our people, and that's one of our strengths too.
"The second is a culture where you can take on challenges. Our management philosophy uses the phrase 'trust capital management' (信頼資本経営). It means trusting customers and employees, and taking on future risk. Soon after I joined, I was put in charge of fundraising, which I had never done before. I heard later that if it had failed, the company might have run out of money (laughs).
"We respect people's drive to take on challenges as much as we can. As a company, we accept the risk and bet on that person's growth, and that mindset runs deep here. For these two reasons, I'm confident this is a place where you can build the experience the AI era will keep needing, very quickly."
IDOM CaaS Technology has four roles live on Atarashift. All four are in Tokyo, hybrid, and full-time (seishain) with fixed hours.
| Role | Salary | Japanese |
|---|---|---|
| Product Manager | ¥6.0M to ¥10.0M | Business |
| Front-End Engineer | ¥4.0M to ¥10.0M | Business |
| Server-Side Engineer (Java) | ¥4.0M to ¥10.0M | Business |
| CAIO Candidate: Sr. Data Scientist | ¥6.0M to ¥12.0M | Business |
The Product Manager listing covers goal setting, roadmaps, and organization design. It also includes KPI design and monitoring for each project, stakeholder communication, and progress and resource management. The role drives initiatives forward together with the development team.
The Front-End Engineer listing covers designing, developing, and testing front-end applications. The listed environment includes Java, PHP, Ruby, JavaScript, SQL, and Python, with MySQL and Oracle.
The Server-Side Engineer listing covers specifying, designing, building, and maintaining server-side features for web services. The listing says the company would like this hire to take on roles such as tech lead in the future, depending on their interests.
The Sr. Data Scientist listing covers data analysis, machine learning infrastructure, and machine learning models in three areas:
The listing's requirements:
Related guides: what JLPT level you need for a job in Japan, how to transfer your work visa when you change jobs, Japan work visa sponsorship companies, and how paid leave works at Japanese companies.
Is IDOM CaaS Technology hiring through Atarashift?
Yes. They're now one of our hiring partners, with four roles open in Tokyo: Product Manager, Front-End Engineer, Server-Side Engineer (Java), and Sr. Data Scientist.
Is IDOM CaaS Technology part of Gulliver?
It's a spin-off of IDOM Inc., which operates Gulliver and is listed on the Prime Market of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (code 7599). IDOM is listed among IDOM CaaS Technology's major shareholders.
Does IDOM CaaS Technology have international employees?
Yes. Its engineers include members from India and Bangladesh, one of its product managers is French, and its data engineer is Korean.
Can I work remotely?
The roles are hybrid. Employees can work remotely two days a week, and the whole team comes into the office together one day a week.
Does IDOM CaaS Technology sponsor visas?
All four current listings show visa sponsorship as not available.
What Japanese level do I need?
All four listings ask for business-level Japanese.
What tech stack do the engineering roles use?
The Front-End and Server-Side Engineer listings name Java, PHP, Ruby, JavaScript, SQL, and Python, with MySQL and Oracle. The Server-Side role asks for 3+ years of Java with Spring Framework or Play Framework.
Where is the company based?
Its head office is in Jinnan, Shibuya. The careers page puts it a 7-minute walk from the Hachiko exit of JR Shibuya Station.
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