Uber’s Quest to Crack Japan Leads Through a Rural Hot-Springs Town

Uber’s Quest to Crack Japan Leads Through a Rural Hot-Springs Town

On a dreary morning in December, Uber’s boss, Dara Khosrowshahi, stood outside the faded concrete municipal offices of Kaga, a small hot-springs town in western Japan, and hailed a car. Since Uber entered Japan in 2014, the country, one of the world’s largest taxi markets, has remained a fortress. Japanese officials have fiercely guarded the taxi industry with regulations that restricted Uber’s app to hailing only licensed cabs. Recently, howeve…