ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President & COO; hereinafter "ITOCHU") announced today that it, Mercuria Holdings Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Chiyoda-ku, Tokyo; Toshihiro Toyoshima, President; hereinafter "MHD") and En Growth Fund*1 have jointly invested in Capital Ship Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Taku Kato, Representative Director), the holding company of Smart Technologies & Resources Inc. (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Taku Kato, Representative Director; hereinafter "Smart Technologies"), a leading domestic provider of duty-free systems.
In recent years, Japan's inbound tourism market has been expanding rapidly. The number of foreign visitors to Japan reached a record high of approximately 42.7 million in 2025, and their domestic consumption also hit an all-time high of around ¥9.5 trillion.*2 A major revision of the duty-free system is scheduled to be implemented in November 2026. Under the new refund method, travelers will pay the tax-inclusive price when purchasing goods and receive a consumption tax refund after obtaining approval from customs upon departure. This change is creating a need to develop new infrastructure that supports these tax refund operations.
Smart Technologies develops and provides services including the SmartDetax service, which uses AI to help duty-free retailers improve operational efficiency, and the JPrefund tax refund and refund-support service that enables duty-free retailers to return the equivalent of the consumption tax to eligible customers. Currently, Smart Technologies services are used by more than 2,500 retailers. Ahead of the scheduled November 2026 system change, Smart Technologies developed a refund system compatible with the new system, and some participating retailers have already begun providing services using the refund method.
In January 2026, ITOCHU entered into a business alliance agreement with Smart Technologies.*3 Since then, the companies have pursued joint efforts to develop participating retailers and support their operations in collaboration with BELLSYSTEM24, Inc., an equity-method affiliate of ITOCHU that provides business process outsourcing (BPO) services.*4
Through this investment, the ITOCHU Group and MHD Group will draw on their respective customer bases, sales networks, and expertise in the payment and finance domains to further strengthen the business platform of Smart Technologies. Additionally, the groups will leverage traveler purchase data and customer touchpoints obtained through duty-free shopping and tax refund services to create new business opportunities in the expanding inbound tourism market, including in the areas of data marketing and sales promotion support.