MISSION ROMANTIC Co.,Ltd.

MISSION ROMANTIC Co., Ltd. is a Japanese company founded on February 27, 2019, by Moeno Morimoto, who currently serves as CEO. The company's creation stems from Morimoto's personal experiences with dating app fatigue and a desire to foster more meaningful, or "romantic," connections. Her background includes a law degree from Chuo University, a year of study at Goldsmiths, University of London, and four years as a planner at Dentsu Inc., followed by positions at My Little Box and FABRIC TOKYO. This experience in planning and direct-to-consumer business informed her entrepreneurial journey, which she began as a parallel career while still employed.

The company's flagship service is "Chapters bookstore," an online, subscription-based bookstore that integrates a matching service. The business model targets single men and women in their 20s and 30s who are looking for genuine connections. Revenue is generated through monthly subscriptions. Each month, the service presents four paperback books selected by current bookstore staff around a specific theme, taking into account seasonal and trend factors. Subscribers choose one book to receive. A key feature of the service is that titles and author information are concealed to encourage discovery.

After reading the book, subscribers can participate in video chats with other users who selected the same book that month, facilitating conversations and potential connections based on a shared literary experience. This service, for which the company has obtained a business patent, aims to create serendipitous encounters, likened to "hands meeting over a bookshelf." The platform has also expanded to include in-person events to further encourage community interaction. Since its grand opening in June 2021, Chapters bookstore has grown, attracting over 4,000 members in its first year and a half. The company has received investment from Tohan Corporation, a major Japanese book distributor, to support its growth.

Keywords: online bookstore, subscription service, matching service, book club, community platform, direct-to-consumer, Japanese startup, Moeno Morimoto, Chapters bookstore, social connection, literary matchmaking, video chat, book subscription, curated books, relationship service, patent, Tohan Corporation, online dating, reader community, event-based networking