- When you need to run an urgent errand or relax, you can use the daycare center's temporary childcare service.
- With mitete, you can simplify the process of searching for a temporary childcare center, filling out paperwork, and conducting interviews.
- Creating a comfortable environment for parents will ultimately lead to the healthy growth of their children.
Temporary childcare" is a service that allows you to take care of your child for a day or a few hours when you have to work suddenly, when you are sick, or to refresh yourself for the first time in a while. At first glance, this system may seem convenient for busy mothers and fathers, but many of them may not be able to take advantage of it even if they want to, because it often takes time to prepare in advance, including finding a daycare center that offers temporary childcare, filling out paperwork, and interviewing the parents.
The childcare platform "mitete" introduced here is a convenient system that allows anyone to make reservations for temporary childcare and preschool visits without such hassles. Yurie Iwakata (honorifics omitted), manager of the mitete division of Connect Corporation, which operates the service, told us about mitete, which won the Excellence Award in the "Safety Measures and Monitoring Category" of the BabyTech® Award Japan 2021, which recognizes outstanding services and items that support childcare, We interviewed Ms. Yurie Iwakata, manager of the mitete division of Connect Corporation, about the service concept, the development process, and future business development.
(We spoke to...)
Connect Inc.
Manager, MITETE Division
Ms. Yurie Iwakata
Find a nursery school with easy operation on your smartphone.
Editorial:Thank you very much for your time today. First of all, please tell us about the concept of "mitete".
Iwakata:MITETE is a matching service that connects parents who wish to use daycare centers with those that are available. We developed this service with the hope that parents would be able to easily use temporary childcare services to "watch" their children when they have urgent business or when they want to take a break from childcare to freshen up for a while.
Editorial:Thank you very much, could you please tell me how to use mitete?
Iwakata:Open the mitete website with your mobile phone and search by current location or address, and temporary childcare facilities in the specified area will be displayed on the map (* Clicking the "View in List" button in the upper right corner will switch to a list view with photos). Then, send a reservation request for the desired date and time to the daycare facility of interest, and the facility will reply to you.
Editorial:It is very simple and easy to use!
Iwakata:Yes, we believe that the major appeal of mitete is that inquiries about temporary childcare services, which used to be time-consuming, can now be completed with a single click. We have received comments from parents such as, "We were able to find a daycare center that could accommodate our child on short notice," and "This is a convenient service that allows us to smoothly complete the procedures for temporary childcare in our neighborhood.
Editorial:I also found it convenient to know at a glance the availability of interviews and the eligible ages for temporary childcare at each daycare center.
Iwakata:There are three types of interviews with daycare centers: "no interview required," which does not require a pre-interview and can be used as-is once an acceptance letter is received; "mitete interview," which can be used after a single on line parent-child interview with a mitete staff member is completed; and "daycare interview," which requires a pre-interview at the daycare center before the child can be placed, and once an acceptance letter is received, a meeting date with the daycare center must be arranged. Once a response is received, a day-care center interview must be arranged with the day-care center to determine the date of the interview. We hope that parents will be able to choose the one that best suits their situation.
Editorial:When I think of temporary childcare, I have an image that pre-registration is very difficult.
Iwakata:In the conventional pre-registration process for temporary childcare, parents were required to find a nearby center that accepted temporary childcare, fill out a form in each center's format, and go for an interview. With mitete, however, there is no need to complete any paperwork, and the process is completed by registering the child and guardian information online. Interviews are also required only when the child is placed at the required preschool. Depending on the preschool's interview style, interviews can be held on line or at the daycare center.
Editorial:What kind of conversations will take place during the interviews?
Iwakata:This is an image of compiling the information needed to take care of a child into a medical record. Specifically, we will carefully summarize aspects of the child's life, such as allergies, progress in weaning and vaccinations, and things to keep in mind when the child is napping.
Editorial:You have a system that makes it easy to use temporary childcare services with a single smartphone. I get the impression that the system is easy to use not only for the parents but also for those involved with the daycare center.
Iwakata:We have also received comments from childcare workers that reservations can be easily confirmed online, that they spend less time answering phone calls and conducting interviews, and that they are able to ask for more information about the interview in advance, which is very helpful.
Editorial:For busy childcare workers, this service reduces the amount of time spent on paperwork and interviews, allowing them to concentrate on their primary job, which is to face the children! Even new kindergartens that have just started offering temporary childcare services are likely to get reservations right away if they register with mitete.
Iwakata:Yes, mitete is a free service for both parents and preschools, and we hope that more people will continue to use it.
Pursuing a simple, easy-to-use system for both parents and preschools
Editorial:Can you talk about the development process of MITETE from here?
Iwakata:We started this service about 5 years ago. At the time, there were no vacancies at daycare centers due to the waiting list problem, and parents were calling door to door to look for vacancies, so we started this project to see what we could do. Later, as a reaction to the waiting list problem, daycare centers began to have vacancies, and requests for temporary placement increased, and we settled on our current form.
Editorial:So the service was designed for both parents and preschools.
Iwakata:Our mitete business manager used to work in a daycare center, and we sought a system that is easy for everyone to use, even from such a professional perspective.
Also, in the development process, we had a demonstration experiment in Fukuoka City in 2018 to study what kind of system is truly easy for nursery schools and parents to adopt.
Editorial:What were the important points in the development process?
Iwakata:The question is, "How simple and easy-to-use should the system be? We have designed the screen and system in such a way that anyone can use it without any trouble by removing complexity, for example, displaying nearby nursery schools on a map with a single click. At the same time, we are also pursuing "how to reduce the man-hours required by the day-care centers".
Editorial:Well, thank you very much. In the "BabyTech® Award Japan 2021," the judges commented that the content was "highly needed content that did not seem to exist," and that the application was "a great eye-opener in eliminating the hassle and anxiety of parents regarding temporary childcare. Could you tell us how you came to apply for the "BabyTech® Award Japan 2021"?
Iwakata:I applied for the award with the hope that many people would become aware of our services and that we would be able to alleviate the burden of childcare. After receiving the Excellence Award, I feel that the number of preschools that want to join has increased.
Aiming for a society where "temporary childcare services are readily available anywhere in Japan
Editorial:Thank you very much. Finally, can you tell us about the future development of your services?
Iwakata:The service is currently available at approximately 350 preschools in Tokyo, Kanagawa, and Chiba prefectures, Miyagi prefecture in the Tohoku region, and parts of Kyushu, including Fukuoka, Kumamoto, and Saga prefectures.
In the future, we would like to expand the coverage area so that more parents and childcare facilities can use the service. We believe that the possibilities for temporary childcare will further expand if the service can be used not only in the neighborhood, but also on outings and trips.
Editorial:It is very convenient to have temporary childcare services available in various locations throughout Japan! Temporary childcare used to have a negative image, but I feel uncomfortable in a society that says, "Because I am a parent, I have to take care of my child all the time. Sometimes it is nice to be able to leave your child in the care of a professional to run important errands or to refresh yourself.
Iwakata:Yes, we do. We, too, do not believe that children's happiness = parents staying close and taking care of them all the time. We believe that if the parents are having a hard time or suffering, the children will be unhappy as a result. We think it is fine for parents to casually use the temporary childcare service even if they have no special needs, or to leave their children with us and relax as a couple when they go on a trip. We would be very happy if, through temporary childcare, busy parents could feel that they can cherish their own happiness.
Editorial:You are right. Thank you very much for your time today.
After the interview
What impressed me when I talked with mitete was the company's approach that "there is no such thing as 'normal' in child-rearing," which lies behind the attractive service content. I believe that there are still many parents who suffer from such stereotypes. I believe that if more mothers and fathers use mitete to refresh themselves, do what they want to do, and shine, it will lead to a society with more choices and more ways of life.
mitete" Official Website
https://mitete.jp/
(ENDS)
Interviewing and writing:Misako Tateoka
From an IT company, she switched careers to the editing and publishing industry. Currently, I work as a freelance editor and writer, editing and writing in a wide range of fields such as travel, gourmet, and social.
What is important is "to convey valuable information to readers in an interesting and easy-to-understand manner.
He has been involved in the production of numerous magazines, including TRANSIT, FRaU, and Metro Minute.
BabyTech is always stimulated by all the services and products that I wish I had when I was a child! I am always inspired by the things I encounter at BabyTech. My hobbies are traveling, cooking, and aikido.
