- A choice of about 100 picture books and other books from well-known publishers, all of which have read-aloud audio.
- They can enjoy dubbing some of the lines in the picture book themselves.
- Various innovations for 'bedtime stories' to support parents.
Miimi, introduced here, is a picture book reading app where a professional narrator reads the story to you. Not only is there an unlimited selection of about 100 picture books from famous publishers, but you can also dub the lines yourself. The app won the Akachan Honpo Award in the BabyTech® Award Japan 2021. The BabyTech.jp editorial team interviewed Natsuko Enomoto of Tokyo Gas and Ryota Kato of Otobank (titles omitted), the developers of Miimi, to find out more about the app, how it was developed and what the future holds.
We spoke with...
Tokyo Gas Corporation, Living Solutions Engineering Department,
Natsuko Enomoto.
Otobank Corporation, Audiobook Division
Ryota Kato
The publisher's high-quality picture books became apps, creating a range of possibilities.
Editor: Thank you very much for your time today. Can you quickly give us an overview of Miimi and its features?
Enomoto: ' Miimi' is a storytelling app that lets you enjoy the world of picture books by ear and voice.The app was released in 2019 and is now in its third year. The target audience is children of picture book age, with pre-school children in particular being the volume zone. The subscription model is 500 yen per month, but all functions can be enjoyed for free for the first month after registration. The number of downloads has exceeded 100,000 in total as of 2022/01. There are three main features: the first is that it distributes many picture book titles from well-known publishers that are sold in bookshops. The second is that all of these titles can be enjoyed with storytelling audio. The third is that you can not only listen to the storytelling, but also play along by dubbing some of the lines, just like karaoke.
Editor: It's amazing that not only original picture books, but also works that are actually sold in bookshops can be enjoyed on a smartphone!
Enomoto: There are several picture book reading apps and YouTube picture book reading channels, but I think that having picture book titles from well-known publishers is a major feature of Miimi. We have selected such works because we want to expose children to high-quality works as much as possible during their pre-school years, which is an important period in child-rearing. The picture book dubbing function was also developed with the idea that children will not only listen passively, but will also be able to actively engage with the story.
