Net Protections: Advancing Autonomy in Japan’s Financial Sector
In Japan’s tightly structured corporate world, Net Protections continues to defy expectations. Known for helping establishthe country’s Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) market, the company is now equally recognized for pioneering a fully self-managed organizational model. What began over a decade ago as a cultural experiment has, by 2025, evolved into a deeply embedded system. Autonomy, customer proximity, and shared governance are no longer ambitions. They are business as usual.
This blog post is part of 80+ case studies of progressive organizations we created for the ZeroDX awards 2025. These organizations embody the principles of RenDanHeYi in their work structures:
Zero Distance to customer: Decision what to build is based on insights from the marketplace
Autonomy: Small teams with full decision-making autonomy enable speed in execution
Shared Rewards: Everyone in the micro-enterprise participates in its financial success.
By 2025, the company has matured into a structure where even the most senior roles are carried out withouthierarchical distinction. The CEO works alongside teams as a peer, reflecting a deep organizational commitment to flattening power structures. With no elite departments in place, each Ecosystem Micro-Community (EMC), the autonomous building blocks of the organization, holds authority over its own decisions and outcomes.
These EMCs operate with independence while staying aligned through shared OKRs, regular cross-EMCcoordination, and open access to financial data. In the language of the RenDanHeYi (RDHY) model, Net Protections exemplifies a mature system of distributed autonomy combined with strategic coherence. It has become a benchmarkmany aspiring RDHY practitioners look to for inspiration and guidance.
This approach has delivered tangible results. In the B2B segment, EMCs initiated the launch of NP Finance, a new service focused on SME financing, and modified payment terms for larger clients to better match their needs. Meanwhile, B2C teams introduced a new product, atone Plus, designed to offer consumers a more flexible installmentoption. Both decisions were made directly within EMCs based on continuous contact with market feedback.
Rather than responding to top-down mandates, EMCs shape these offerings by interpreting customer behavior, support requests, and review trends. Their decisions contributed to an increase in Google ratings in 2024, signaling improved customer satisfaction.
To further support EMC effectiveness, Net Protections brought in mid-career professionals with expertise in compliance, finance, legal affairs, and policy. These specialists are not centralized into traditional departments.Instead, they are embedded directly into EMCs. Their onboarding is supported by Catalysts, roles that emphasize emotional support and communication rather than control. This helps ensure that cultural alignment remains intact as capacity scales.
Internal mobility across EMCs has also increased. Some employees voluntarily moved from B2C to B2B operations to support major clients such as Recruit Group. These transitions emerged from shared goals and member initiativerather than formal reassignment, mirroring RDHY’s emphasis on dynamic contracting within organizations.
The company’s longstanding support systems have continued to reinforce this environment. Fami-Tsuku, its internalmentoring program, remains active in helping new graduates integrate. So do the Working Groups, which allowmembers to explore areas of personal interest for up to 20 percent of their work time. One group formed in 2024 to explore generative AI applications remains a vibrant hub for experimentation well into 2025.
Compensation and performance management also follow principles aligned with RDHY. Salaries are based on peer-reviewed competency assessments, and bonuses are linked to EMC outcomes. Salary bands are transparent, and advancement is determined through collective evaluations by cross-functional committees.
Each EMC manages its own finances and evaluations, with company-wide visibility ensured through dashboards andquarterly reviews. By the end of fiscal year 2024, Net Protections had returned to profitability. This result was directly associated with the increased maturity and performance of its EMC system.
This 2025 snapshot is the outcome of more than ten years of steady transformation. The company’s cultural shift began in 2013, when all employees took part in rewriting its mission statement. That process led to the adoption of“Create New Standards” as a unifying principle and initiated the departure of employees who did not align with the newdirection. In 2018, the company took a decisive step by removing managerial roles and establishing the Catalyst system. Over time, full authority was handed to EMCs.
Today, Net Protections has solidified three key pillars of the RDHY model: zero distance to users, full autonomy at the micro-enterprise level, and shared rewards linked to business outcomes. What sets this case apart is not only the structure but also the continuity and coherence of its implementation.
In a national context where leadership is still often associated with seniority and formal authority, Net Protections demonstrates that decentralized, peer-based governance can deliver both cultural cohesion and business success.
Net Protections is not exploring the potential of self-management. It is proving that it works.
