Mitsubishi Estate Simon installs Hyogo Prefecture's first app-locked dog bay at Kobe Sanda Premium Outlets

Mitsubishi Estate Simon Co., Ltd. said it installed a WanPod (ワンポッド) smart dog house -- a short-term, app-locked waiting bay for dogs -- in front of the FOOD GALLERY food court at Kobe Sanda Premium Outlets (神戸三田プレミアム・アウトレット) in Kobe, Hyogo Prefecture, on September 29, the first such unit in the prefecture, according to the company's October 30 announcement.

The unit was developed by homebuilder Asahi Kasei Homes (旭化成ホームズ) together with veterinarians and other specialists, and is meant to let dog owners run mall errands without leaving a dog in a car or tied up outside, while keeping it monitored, the company said. It fits small and medium-sized dogs, costs ¥30 a minute up to a 90-minute maximum, and is unlocked with a QR code issued through a dedicated smartphone app once a credit card is registered; owners can check in on their dog by phone during the visit.

Inside, the WanPod carries heating and cooling, a monitoring camera, an electronic lock, a temperature-and-humidity sensor, calming background music, an inner safety gate, interior lighting and an emergency release dial, according to Mitsubishi Estate Simon.

Kobe Sanda Premium Outlets, which the operator describes as the largest outlet centre in western Japan with about 210 stores, already runs other pet amenities -- leash hooks, waste-disposal boxes and terrace seating by FOOD GALLERY and along its indoor street -- and says roughly 110 of its stores allow pets inside, under each store's own rules. Pet owners can dine with their dogs on the terraces at Starbucks, Eggs'n Things, Delifrance and FOOD GALLERY, and Hawaiian restaurant Kua'aina sells a no-added-salt dog treat it calls the Wan Burger (ワンバーガー, taking its name from wan, the Japanese rendering of a dog's bark).

The unit itself is a small outlay -- one dog house, billed by the minute -- but it marks a People-and-Presentation move landlords are increasingly willing to make: retooling physical mall space around pet owners specifically, rather than leaving dogs at the car park. For an outlet centre that competes on how long visitors stay rather than any single tenant, a monitored dog bay is a cheap way to keep an owner, and their spending, inside the gates a little longer. Whether Mitsubishi Estate Simon extends the format to its other Premium Outlets centres is not addressed in this release.