The "BabyTech® Awards 2023" gathered products and services that support child-rearing with technology. The grand prize winner was...?

On November 21, 2023, the BabyTech® Awards 2023 Ceremony was held at the Tokyo Industrial Trade Center Hamamatsucho. This year marked the 5th year of the BabyTech® Awards, and the number of award categories increased, making this year's event even more lively than in the previous years. In this article, we introduce the scene at the awards ceremony, details of the award-winning services, and comments from the winners!

Making "baby tech" more accessible and commonplace

BabyTech is a coined word that combines the words "baby" and "technology," and it expresses our wish to "support all people involved in childcare with technology," said Tetsuya Nagata, President of Papasmile Inc. Speaking at the opening ceremony about what BabyTech aims to achieve is Tetsuya Nagata, President of Papasmile Inc.

When child-rearing is done mainly by humans, there are some areas that cannot be done by humans, such as holes and areas that are out of reach. We believe that by taking on these areas with technologies such as ICT, IOT, home appliances, AI, and robots, we can reduce the burden on parents, mothers, and those involved in child-rearing, leading to ideal child-rearing and a relaxed mindset, as well as smiles and a sense of comfort for those involved in child-rearing.

Through the BabyTech® Awards, I would like to see BabyTech penetrate society and become not just a solution, but the norm in everyday life. Beyond that, I believe there will be a future where children grow up healthy and adults can be involved in childcare in a positive way.

The next speaker was Kenji Ajishi, President of Akachan Honpo Co. He shared his experience of dealing with children and their parents at more than 120 stores nationwide as a maternity, baby, and children's goods specialty store.

In our daily work, we have been close to many people who are raising children. We realize that there are many challenges in each phase of pregnancy, childbirth, and child rearing. We are convinced that BabyTech is a revolutionary product that can support fathers and mothers in raising their children. We hope that many people will take this opportunity to experience BabyTech and feel familiar with it!

Includes the joyful voices of the award winners and the appeal of each service!

The opening ceremony ended with a resounding round of applause. This was the beginning of today's main event, the BabyTech® Awards 2023 Grand Prize Award Ceremony.

The BabyTech® Awards 2023, in which selections are made by category, are divided into divisions by category; for 2023, in addition to last year's, three new categories have been added based on social needs and current issues: "safety devices to assist in preventing pick-up buses from being left behind" and "career support" and "male maternity leave support (*)". Let's take a look at the products and services that won the Grand Prize in each category, with comments of delight! (*) This time, there were only Excellence Awards and no Grand Awards.

A service that supports school lunches at daycare centers. The service covers menu planning, meal kit delivery, and nutrition education content, making a significant contribution to children's health and nutrition education.

Thank you for the Grand Prize! I am in the business of DX (Digital Transformation) and streamlining the lunch services of daycare centers with the idea of making children and all those involved with children happy. We hope that by creating nutritionally balanced menus and delivering meal kits, nursery school teachers will have more time and space to share the joy of eating with children. From now on, we hope to return the data we have accumulated through baby's fun! to moms and dads, so thank you in advance!"

mamaniere is an app for moms who tend to put off taking care of themselves after childbirth, based on the concept of "an app for moms by moms. Thanks to the participation of postpartum mothers and fathers, as well as 75 companies, we were able to release the app in July 2023. I would like to take this opportunity to express my gratitude to the companies that sponsored the app even before it took shape, and to the people and members who gave their backs to this unprecedented initiative within the company. Thank you so much."

Toy subscription that recommends and rents toys tailored to each child based on 1 million user reviews.

Our company's concept is to 'increase happy parent-child time. It has been eight years since we released "Toysub! has been released eight years ago. Currently, 40,000 to 50,000 people use our service, and we have accumulated a wealth of data. We hope to use this data on children and toys to send them the most appropriate toys, thereby increasing the amount of happy time parents and children spend together. We hope to use this award as an opportunity to make connections with many people and break through the blockage of the declining birthrate and aging population. Thank you for your continued support!"

We have been developing products in the home medical field, such as Baby Smile, an electric nasal aspirator, under our philosophy of "Healthcare for Baby". Thank you very much for selecting our body movement sensor for the Grand Prize! We will continue to promote the field of baby tech so that more children can receive proper care from an early age.

We are engaged in the business of digital science, video production, and promotional support. When we were thinking about how we could contribute to society using the technological skills we have cultivated, we heard about the sad incident in 2022 where a child was left behind on a bus and died of heat stroke, and we immediately started working on Sustina Motion. We hope to continue contributing to the childcare industry in the future."

This DentalLight is smaller than your little finger and very easy to carry around. It was originally developed as an item to protect oral health for people in their thirties and older, but when we thought about what we could do to support child-rearing through our connections with the government, we decided to apply for the award because we thought it could be used for children as well. We hope to use this award as an opportunity to continue to protect the health of the whole body, starting with the health of the mouth, which is the gateway to the body.

Grand Prize Winner in the Commemorative, Record and Memory category (Shinya Fukuda, Representative Director, CreativePocket Corporation)

Punitto Ote Memory

Capture the "grasping reflex" of a baby's hand as a memory. Unlike handprints and footprints stamped with ink, this kit uses a resin that feels almost like human skin, allowing you to leave a three-dimensional handprint and footprint as a record of your baby or child's growth.

We are a start-up company, currently in our fourth fiscal year. Thank you very much for giving us this wonderful award among various companies! We often hear about leaving a baby's handprint in ink or plaster, but with "Punitto Ote Memory," we were able to create a feeling similar to the grasping reflex of a baby squeezing back his or her hand. Please come visit us at our booth and experience the feeling of being squeezed!"

Thank you very much for this wonderful award! Originally, our company was engaged in a recruiting service that matched childcare workers with daycare centers, and when we learned of the harsh work environment for childcare workers, we decided to create a service that would do something about it. We hope to continue to provide a service that is good for all three parties: it will help boost the management of daycare centers, make daycare workers more motivated, and provide peace of mind for parents and caregivers.

My name is Inada of mog Inc. mog is an acronym for "mom, work, and good luck," and I started the company with the desire to help women work and achieve self-fulfillment after childbirth.

The grand prize winner, "Career Support Service for Working Mothers Centered on Mama Volunteer," allows mothers on maternity leave to volunteer at NPOs and startups, and we believe that it will not blank out their careers during their absence, but rather make them a plus. We hope to continue creating good families and companies through making working mothers smile."

Winner of the Grand Prize in the General Category for Parent Support Services (Shogo Minami, Representative Director, PairChill, Inc.)

The talk app "Pair Chill" connects single parents in similar situations and allows them to talk to each other.

A talk app where single parents from all over Japan can casually chat and discuss parenting, work, finances, household chores, etc. with other single parents in diverse circumstances.

Pair Chill is an app specifically for single parents. We hope that by connecting with other single parents of the same generation as ourselves, we can share a variety of things, from menu planning to child-rearing advice. In the future, we are working hard to add a function like ChatGPT that allows single parents to access necessary information by entering a single line of text. We look forward to your continued support."

Grand Prize in the category of Home Appliances for Child Care and Housework (Ms. Mari Yoshida, Chief, Sharp Corporation)

Hellcio Hotcook.

This automatic cooking pot responds to the need for easy preparation of delicious homemade food at home while saving on household chores. It automatically controls "stirring" and "heat control," which until now could only be done by standing over the pot. It also has a recipe download function and a recommendation function.

Thank you very much for the wonderful award! The appeal of the Hellucio Hot Cook is that you just put in the ingredients and seasonings, and the machine automatically prepares the food by stirring and adjusting the heat level. This means that moms and dads can spend much less time in the kitchen cooking, and more time with their children.

By September 2023, we will have a total of 600,000 units in use by many people, and we hope to make this item even easier to use in the future!"

Akachan Honpo Award (Tomohito Nakamura, General Manager, Consumer Marketing Department, Business Division, Buffalo Inc.)

Digital photo album "Omoidebako"

A digital photo album that stores photos and videos taken with a digital camera or smartphone and allows anyone to easily review them on a TV.

Buffalo Inc. is a computer peripherals company that has been in business for 48 years. Many people may have an image of Buffalo not having much to do with babies. Omoide Bako," which received a special award this time, is a product born from our desire to contribute to the world by utilizing our communication and data storage technologies. We are very happy to have been found and recognized. We will continue to create products that are useful to the world.

Special Award (Papermama Community Award) (Brian Lin, CEO, Yunyun Technology Co.)

CuboAi Baby Nemeny Mamoru Set

A set of baby sleep-watching camera and sensor pad with more than 20 diverse functions. Detects and notifies when the baby's face is covered, when the baby cannot turn over, and so on. This year, more than five new functions have been added, including a coughing detection function and enhanced detection accuracy.

Thank you very much for the special award. We have been working to revolutionize the conventional concept of baby monitors based on the idea that the safety and security of all babies should be protected. CuboAi does not just take images and photos, but also watches over and supports parents on their journey of child-rearing.

Our newest product, the Baby Sensor Pad, incorporates advanced motion sensor technology, and we are confident that the CuboAi Baby Napping Monitoring Set, which comes with the CuboAi Plus Smart Baby Monitor, will provide unprecedented peace of mind and comfort. We are confident that it will provide unprecedented peace of mind and comfort."

The booths where visitors could actually experience BabyTech's products and services were also very popular!

In addition to the awards ceremony, there was also a booth where visitors could actually experience the award-winning services, which was also very crowded. This was also a very busy event!

Presentations by the grand prize winners were also given in a friendly atmosphere. The enthusiasm of the presenters from each company was evident.

All the speakers answered questions from participants and users with smiles. Some of them even responded to the question, "I use it like this," with "That's great! I use it like this! The opportunity to interact with users is one of the unique attractions of the awards.

Here are the services that won the grand prize!

Among the many entries, the following services were awarded the grand prize.