TLL's Management Innovation Plan Approved by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government: AI Tools for Real Estate Businesses, and 20 Extra Points for Highly Skilled Foreign Professionals
Chen Tan (licensed real estate broker, 宅地建物取引士)Founder
14 min read
On 26 January 2026, TLL LLC received approval from the Governor of Tokyo for its Management Innovation Plan (keiei kakushin keikaku) under Article 14(1) of the Act on Enhancement of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises. The approved plan is titled "Development and provision of an AI-driven business support system for real estate companies".
TLL buys, renovates and resells income property and manages assets itself, and it built the valuation and analysis tools it uses into its own real estate data platform, Urbalytics. This plan takes those in-house tools and turns them into a service for the real estate companies that do sourcing, valuation and sales every day.
Key points
- On 26 January 2026, TLL LLC's Management Innovation Plan was approved by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government (approval no. 7 Sanrōshōshi No. 1908, under Article 14(1) of the Act on Enhancement of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises).
- The plan covers developing and providing an AI business support system for real estate companies, over four years from January 2025 to December 2028.
- An approved Management Innovation Plan counts as an innovation support measure under the Ministry of Justice notice, so foreign employees of TLL, a small and medium-sized enterprise, qualify for 20 extra points (10 + 10 for an SME) under the Highly Skilled Professional points system.
What is a Management Innovation Plan?
A Management Innovation Plan is a plan in which a small or medium-sized enterprise takes on a "new business activity", such as developing a new product or service, to substantially improve its business. Under the Act on Enhancement of Small and Medium-sized Enterprises, a prefectural governor or another authority reviews and approves it.
Plans run for three to five years and must set numeric targets: value added (or value added per employee) growing by at least 3% a year on average, and total payroll by at least 1.5% a year (source: Small and Medium Enterprise Agency, Management Innovation Plan guidebook, in Japanese). TLL's plan runs four years, so the bar is at least 12% growth in value added and 6% in total payroll over the period.
Approval opens the door to applying for support such as loans from government-affiliated lenders and special credit guarantee terms, and it also affects the points of TLL's foreign employees (next section). Approval does not guarantee access to any of these measures, each of which is reviewed separately, and it is not an endorsement by the Tokyo Metropolitan Government of the quality of TLL's services.
20 extra points for foreign employees under the Highly Skilled Professional system
With this approval, a foreign employee of TLL applying for the "Highly Skilled Professional" residence status qualifies for 20 extra points in total.
The Highly Skilled Professional points system scores education, work experience, annual income, age and other factors, and grants the residence status and preferential treatment, such as eased permanent residency requirements, to foreign nationals scoring 70 points or more. One of the bonus items is "working at an organisation receiving an innovation support measure (as designated by the Minister of Justice)", worth 10 points, with a further 10 points if the organisation is a small or medium-sized enterprise (source: Immigration Services Agency of Japan, how the points are assessed, in Japanese).
The qualifying support measures are listed in the annex to Ministry of Justice Notice No. 578 of 2014, and approval of a Management Innovation Plan under Article 14(1) of the Act is one of them. TLL is a small and medium-sized enterprise, so the two items add up to 20 points.
| Points item | Points |
|---|---|
| Working at an organisation receiving an innovation support measure (approved Management Innovation Plan) | 10 |
| Additional points when that organisation is an SME | 10 |
| Total | 20 |
Sources: Immigration Services Agency of Japan, Highly Skilled Professional points table; Ministry of Justice notice, list of innovation support measures (last amended 31 March 2026). As of October 2026.
For example, someone scoring 55 points on education, experience and income reaches 75 with these 20 points, above the 70-point threshold. With 70 points or more, the residence period required before applying for permanent residency is shortened to three years, and with 80 points or more to one year.
The Immigration Services Agency calculates the points and decides on any bonus for each application. Applicants submit documents showing TLL's approval, such as a copy of the approval letter. TLL also hires foreign nationals; see our careers page (in Japanese).
What are we building?
A cloud service that hands to AI the manual work real estate companies do every day, the tasks that take time and whose quality varies from person to person. The plan covers four areas.
Sourcing
Automatically collect and update listings from websites and databases, and pick out the ones that match a company's criteria. Checking tender information and survey documents, and organising contracts and entering them into the system, are also in scope.
Valuation and sales
Estimate rents and sale prices from past transactions and market data, and have AI draft valuation and sales reports. This includes organising sales activity records and suggesting which deals and clients to prioritise.
Risk management
Collect government data, market transaction data and weather information, detect changes in regulations and disaster risk, and send alerts. We are also building a score that rates the risk of each investment target.
Site inspections
What on-site staff enter on a smartphone is shared immediately, and AI writes the inspection report.
Why build it for real estate companies?
At real estate companies, sourcing and valuation teams spend much of their time reading property documents, checking market prices and writing internal reports. TLL does the same work every day, and its own buy-and-resell business has been where Urbalytics' valuation and analysis features were refined.
Until now Urbalytics has mainly served individuals considering buying or investing in property. Real estate companies increasingly ask us to automate the sourcing and sales work itself, and we have not yet had a proper service for them. This plan is meant to fill that gap.
Next steps
We will first use the system in TLL's own sourcing and resale operations and measure its accuracy and the time it saves. Once the issues found there are fixed, we plan to offer it to real estate companies.
Development is done by our in-house team, with security measures including encrypted connections, access control, data stored in Japanese data centres, and vulnerability testing. We will announce the launch date and details in this News section once they are set.
Our history is summarised in the company history, and our asset management service is described on the asset management page.
Frequently asked questions
Q. What changes with an approved Management Innovation Plan?
TLL can apply for support measures such as low-interest loans from government-affiliated lenders and special credit guarantee terms, and its foreign employees qualify for bonus points under the Highly Skilled Professional system. Approval does not guarantee access to support measures or the quality of TLL's services.
Q. How many Highly Skilled Professional points would I gain by joining TLL?
10 points for working at an organisation with an approved Management Innovation Plan, plus 10 because TLL is an SME, for 20 in total. The Immigration Services Agency decides on the bonus when you apply.
Q. Who will use the service?
Real estate companies that handle sourcing, valuation and sales. We will test it in our own business first and then offer it to other companies.
Q. When will it be available?
The plan runs until December 2028. We will announce the launch date here once it is set.
Q. Will services for individual property owners change?
No. Valuation, asset management, and minpaku and ryokan operation management continue as before.
About this article
- Author
- Chen Tan（Founder）Qualifications: Real Estate Transaction Specialist, Building Management Specialist, US Certified Buyer's Agent
A serial entrepreneur spanning real estate investment, fund formation, and digital strategy. At McKinsey & Company, he led organizational restructuring, DX, and new business strategy projects for financial institutions and real estate developers across Japan and Greater China. At Amazon Japan, he served as the design lead for large-scale e-commerce products. Since founding TLL, he has overseen the full cycle from acquisition, repositioning, and operation of income-producing properties to fund formation, while building a data-driven investment decision model.
View profile → - Publisher
- TLL合同会社宅地建物取引業 東京都知事(1)第108202号住宅宿泊管理業 国土交通大臣(01)第F03424号
Data in this article cite their source and as-of date. Market conditions and regulations change, so check the latest information and consult a professional before deciding. Translated from the Japanese original.
