JUNE 2011 SSA GLOBE PAGE 9 Surviving and Thriving Japan’s self storage industry is poised for growth as the nation recovers. By Mark Wright e monthly senior management team meeting at Quraz— one of Japan’s largest self storage companies—was winding to a close as the clock pushed 3:00 PM on Friday, March 11, 2011. Stephen Spohn, president and representative director, was chatting with a few of his colleagues in the company’s second floor conference room. en the shaking started. “Earthquakes are usually over by the time you realize it’s actually an earthquake,” recalls Spohn. “Well, this one didn’t stop and it kept getting stronger. We were all bit amused at first. After about 30 seconds it wasn’t so amusing. “One of our directors ran out of the office—like I’ve never seen anyone run—to his wife and newborn son who were 2km away at home. A few of us made our way out of the exterior stair- well and down to ground level. Imagine trying to negotiate a stairwell after five martinis. at’s what it felt like with all the shaking. “We’re still only about one minute into it. Several of us made it outside but didn’t really know what to do. No place felt safe, neither inside nor outside. Lots of buildings were creaking. Trees were swaying. Buildings 10 to 12 floors See Japan, p. 10
Transcript
J u N e 2 0 1 1 s s A G L O B e PA G e 9
Surviving and thrivingJapan’s self storage industry is poised for growth as the nation recovers.
By Mark Wright
The monthly senior management team meeting at Quraz—one of Japan’s largest self storage companies—was winding to a close as the clock pushed 3:00 PM on Friday, March 11, 2011. Stephen Spohn, president and representative director, was chatting with a few of his colleagues in the company’s second floor conference room.
Then the shaking started.
“Earthquakes are usually over by the time you realize it’s actually an earthquake,” recalls Spohn. “Well, this one didn’t stop and it kept getting stronger. We were all bit amused at first. After about 30 seconds it wasn’t so amusing.
“One of our directors ran out of the office—like I’ve never seen anyone run—to his wife and newborn son who were 2km away at home. A few of us made our way out of the exterior stair-well and down to ground level. Imagine trying to negotiate a stairwell after five martinis. That’s what it felt like with all the shaking.
“We’re still only about one minute into it. Several of us made it outside but didn’t really know what to do. No place felt safe, neither inside nor outside. Lots of buildings were creaking. Trees were swaying. Buildings 10 to 12 floors
See Japan, p. 10
PA G e 1 0 s s A G L O B e J u N e 2 0 1 1
Japan, from page 9
high were literally swaying back and forth. The ground beneath our feet was shaking and rolling at the same time. It was all very disori-enting and surreal. One of my colleagues still claims he saw waves rolling in the pavement!
“It all stopped after three to four minutes. Our operations team immediately called out to our shops, which were all open at the time. The elevators at all of our 23 shops in Greater Tokyo had been disabled—along with nearly every elevator in Greater Tokyo in nearly every building. All of our employees, customers and buildings were soon accounted for.
“The rest of the afternoon was still a bit chaotic: more big aftershocks, lots of customers calling our call centers asking about our operations. Trains were shut down, so millions of people were walking the streets at night trying to get home—again, surreal. Many of our staff lived too far away to walk, so they stayed the night at the office or at the homes of employees who lived nearby.
Extensive blackouts—instituted by Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to ration power needed for essential
facilities, like hospitals—temporarily made self storage buildings no-go zones. Tenants access storage buildings with an electronic pass card and take an electric elevator up to their unit. Fortunately, Quraz can control access to all its facilities remotely. The worst of the blackouts were over after about two weeks, says Spohn.
Japan’s Storage Landscape
Self storage in Japan commonly translates as “rental storage” or “trunk room.” The supply of space is roughly divided into two types: indoor (similar to the U.S. model) and containers (typically refurbished metal shipping containers like those stacked on ocean-going freighters). Most facilities of either type have no onsite manager.
Japan also has two self storage industry associations—the Japan Self Storage Association (JSSA) and the Rental Space Association (RSA). Many JSSA-member companies offer container storage, while RSA-member companies exclu-sively offer indoor storage. Both groups are in their infancy.
Nao Ikenaga, who works for Arealink Co., Ltd., and is a representative of the JSSA, says she knows of no facilities that collapsed due to the earthquake. No one can be sure, however, exactly how many storage facilities—especially the container type—were in the tsunami’s path.
“One self storage facility (container) slipped from the tsunami, but the facility was not broken,” says Ikenaga.
“And almost all the wooden houses were collapsed around the container. The area which was damaged by the tsunami is rural lowland coastline, so there were few self storage facilities.”
Ikenaga was working on the seventh floor of Arealink’s headquarters at Chiyoda-ku Tokyo when the earth moved.
“We couldn’t keep standing because of the quake,” she recalls. “The cabinets were almost falling down.
“We tried to stay in the office, but we had to leave the building because of the second big quake. We went to the Tokyo Dome area for safety.
“All traffic stopped in the Tokyo area. People went home by walking. Some of them bought bicycles. I waited seven hours for the recovery of subways.
“Many foods were gone in the moment with the panic buying. The first goods which we couldn’t get were toilet paper, tissue paper and instant foods. And next were flashlights and portable gas stoves.
As the SSA Globe goes to press, the American Red Cross reports:
“Many companies are supporting those affected by the recent earthquake in Japan and tsunami throughout the Pacific. Their support along with the support of their customers and community will enable the Red Cross to provide shelter, food, emotional support and other assistance to victims of these disasters.”
“At present, the Japanese Red Cross Society is not requesting any form of international assistance in regards to donated goods and/or services. If this changes we will reach out to companies to secure the needed items and/or services. We are not accepting products and/or service donations from individuals.”
On April 11, the “American Red Cross announced plans to make an additional commitment of $40 million to the Japanese Red Cross, which would bring its total contributions to $100 million. As funds currently pledged to the American Red Cross are received, additional contributions to the Japa-nese Red Cross will be made.”
For more information on offering financial assis-tance to aid the many victims who remain injured, hungry or homeless as a result of this tragedy, visit www.redcross.org.
Tatsuya Saji, president/CEO of Trade Winds International Group and a representative of the RSA, isn’t surprised by the lack of quake-related damage. “Japan has one of the most strict building codes for both earthquakes and typhoons,” he says.
“The Japanese know you cannot live without facing earth-quakes,” observes Saji. “We are right on top of the fault. Japanese know how to deal with it and somewhat expect it will happen. But a tsunami happens only once every 40 to 70 years, so this was quite a shock.”
Saji says he was in Osaka when the quake hit.
“I was in a business meeting, but the news spread around our office very fast. We watched TV almost all night, but the real shocking videos and pictures didn’t arrive until the morning.
“Every regular show on every TV network, including cable channels, was canceled. Both FM and AM radio stations didn’t even play music for a long time. There were not even TV commercials for a long time. (I normally felt them annoying but actually missed them.)
“Just live news was on TV and we watched it all day and all night. We all felt like time had stopped for a few days.”
In addition to disrupting business, Saji recalled how the electrical blackouts made his home city of Tokyo—normally full of brightly-lit color and nightlife—look so dark and sad.
“I never experienced (World War II),” says Saji, “but it’s almost like that. It doesn’t look like the Tokyo I’m used to. Even convenience stores—no signs were lit any longer.”
Reaching Out
Japan’s young storage industry isn’t quite in a position to respond to disaster victims in a unified manner, but both Ikenaga and Saji note that some of the major self storage companies have offered free space to victims who need temporary storage.
“We’ve been wrestling with how to help,” says Spohn. “We’re donating 10 percent of the first month’s revenue of new sign-ups to the Red Cross for April and May. The Red
