About Mercari R4D Lab
Mercari R4D Lab is a research and development network run by Mercari’s research and development organization, R4D. Our goal is to create a world in which all forms of value are circulated by solving social issues through co-innovation—collaboration that transcends the boundaries of fields and organizations across industry, academia, and government. Since our establishment in July 2025, we have been driving projects end-to-end, from identifying issues to implementing solutions in the real world.
Solving Social Issues Through Co-Innovation
Under our mission to pioneer the path toward undiscovered value, R4D has pursued research and development toward creating a world in which all forms of value are circulated. In particular, we believe that solving complex social issues requires a co-innovation approach in which diverse participants collaborate across positions and sectors—from identifying issues to realizing the world that research ultimately seeks to create.
A Hub That Accelerates Co-Innovation
Mercari R4D Lab functions as a hub that accelerates such co-innovation. By collaborating with diverse partners across industry, academia, and government, and promoting interdisciplinary research toward the shared goal of creating a world in which all forms of value are circulated, we will continue to strengthen our role as a community hub connecting companies and academics and expand collaboration with external partners more than ever before.
Co-innovation Projects
Below are examples of co-innovation projects that R4D has pursued to date.
Mercari R4D Research Alliance Laboratory
On July 1, 2025, Osaka University and Mercari, Inc. established the Mercari R4D Research Alliance Laboratory, a collaborative research institute between Mercari R4D Lab and the Osaka University Research Center on Ethical, Legal and Social Issues (ELSI Center).
The laboratory’s goal is to pave the way toward achieving Mercari’s mission of circulating all forms of value by leveraging knowledge in the humanities and social sciences. It also uses Mercari as a fieldwork environment to carry out research into various topics related to corporate activities, turn the knowledge gained into academic output, and share that output with society at large.
Value Exchange Engineering: Joint research with the University of Tokyo's Research Institute for an Inclusive Society through Engineering
In December 2019, the University of Tokyo Research Institute for an Inclusive Society through Engineering (RIISE) and Mercari, Inc. established the collaborative research division Value Exchange Engineering. It conducts research on wide-ranging technologies surrounding value exchange with the aim of achieving a society in which people around the world can experience a fair and smooth exchange of value, and is unconstrained by the bounds of existing academic frameworks.
Quantum Internet Task Force (QITF)
In 2021, R4D co-founded the Quantum Internet Task Force (QITF) as an industry-academia collaboration consortium. QITF brings together researchers and developers from across Japan to advance research and development in the field of the quantum internet, with the goal of realizing and standardizing the quantum internet and making meaningful contribution to society.
Talent Exchange
R4D works to provide systems that enable more flexible participation across corporate and academic sectors in order to foster a more active innovation ecosystem.
Acceptance of JSPS Postdoctoral Fellows and Other Researchers
On July 25, 2023, R4D was registered as an institution participating in the Japan Society for the Promotion of Science (JSPS)’s Employment Support Program for Young Researchers to Improve Research Environments. As a participating institution, R4D aims to strengthen the exchange of talent and knowledge across industry, academia, and government by accepting outstanding young researchers from a wide range of fields, fostering a more active innovation ecosystem.
Cross-Appointment
Ever since its founding, R4D has actively advocated for a new workstyle for researchers—one that enables flexible talent mobility between industry and academia—by employing researchers at Mercari while allowing them to retain affiliation with their university. In August 2023, R4D demonstrated this commitment by signing a cross-appointment agreement with the University of Osaka Research Center on Ethical, Legal and Social Issues, enabling researchers to gain practical knowledge in a corporate environment while still working at a university. Going forward, we will continue to expand this exchange of talent between industry and academia, exploring better workstyle models for researchers.
Mercari R4D PhD Support Program
In 2022, R4D introduced the Mercari R4D PhD Support Program, a system that provides financial assistance for tuition and secures time for research to support Mercari employees who wish to pursue doctorate programs in fields that may contribute to business development and solving social issues.
Under this program, we offer full coverage for tuition fees during the term of enrollment and allow employees to choose their work days from 0–5 days a week, enabling them to balance research and work and design their research activities in the way best suited to them individually. R4D also provides support necessary for research activities, including assistance with procedures for using confidential information in research.
Provision of Mercari Datasets
Mercari possesses a significant amount of data related to the secondhand C2C market, including listing information, photos, comments, and more from transactions on the Mercari marketplace app with 22.26 million monthly users (as of February 2023). R4D has decided to provide these real-world datasets for academic research purposes while giving proper consideration to privacy in compliance with the Act on the Protection of Personal Information in collaboration with the National Institute of Informatics (NII), part of the Inter-University Research Institute Corporation Research Organization of Information and Systems. Our hope is for this data to encourage collaboration between industry and academia, give rise to new research communities, and contribute to talent development.
Mercari Datasets Overview
Timeframe:
January to December 2020 (planned to be updated periodically)
Content:
- Listing data publicly available on the app (listing status, listing title, item description, selling price, category, item condition, size, brand, shipping cost, shipping method, shipping origin, shipping time, number of likes, number of comments, listing date, update date)
- Comment data publicly available on item pages
- Image data publicly available on item pages (thumbnail images for all eligible items and one week’s worth of original images)
Note: Comment data is limited to user comments posted before purchase that are publicly viewable by anyone on the app. No personally identifiable information or non-public information is included.
Usage and Application Process
Use of Mercari datasets are limited to academic research purposes only. The datasets are provided only to universities and public research institutions that have been approved through an application and review process by the National Institute of Informatics (NII)’s Informatics Research Data Repository (IDR).
Please refer to the following page for details on how to apply:
https://www.nii.ac.jp/dsc/idr/mercari/