Amazon and a major Japanese real estate management company have agreed to cooperate in facilitating deliveries to building residents and reducing driver workloads.
Amazon Japan and Mitsui Fudosan Residential Lease made the announcement at a joint news conference on Thursday.
Using Amazon's system, delivery workers are allowed to unlock residential building entrance doors by scanning QR codes on package slips with their smartphones through an app.
Mitsui Fudosan manages more than 2,900 condominiums across Japan.
The company expects the system to bring more convenient delivery services to residents and reduce work hours of delivery staff.
A director of Amazon Logistics in Japan, Awanish Narain Singh, noted that self-locking doors have prevented delivery workers from entering buildings and leaving packages for people who are not at home, resulting in increased workloads. He said introducing the system has been very meaningful as reattempts to deliver to buildings where the system works have been reduced by more than 80 percent.
Major Japanese logistics firm Yamato Transport has already introduced a similar system in parts of the greater Tokyo area. Japan Post is expected to follow suit as the number of parcels delivered continues to rise due to increased online shopping.
Japan's transport ministry says nearly five billion parcels were delivered in fiscal 2021, which started in April of that year. The figure was up 23 percent from five years before.
The number of delivery attempts remains high. A ministry survey last year found that 11.8 percent of parcels could not be delivered on first attempts.