- The following is content from the press release -
(Head office: Yodogawa-ku, Osaka; Representative Director: Shin Makinaga; hereinafter "the Company"), an Osaka-based IT startup, has added a function to its "HoiCa" service, which streamlines office work at daycare centers and kindergartens, to notify the status of children who have left their cars at preschool in order to prevent accidents. The new function is designed to prevent accidents involving children being left in the car.
■Outline
Product Name〕HoiCa
Price〕Small-scale nursery school ¥500/month｜Others ¥1,500/month
Target Facilities] Nursery schools, kindergartens, certified childcare centers, small-scale nursery schools, etc. throughout Japan
Functions] Management of arrival and departure from preschool, distribution of notices, management of parent contact information, etc.
Detailshttps://lp.hoica-app.com/
Conditions of Use] Tablet terminal or PC running Windows OS + IC card reader
■New features added this time
⇒ Notify both parents and daycare facilities of the status of their children's attendance at the school.Double-checking prevents oversights.
⇒ Both bus commuting and parental transportation are available.Thoroughly prevent leaving the car unattended.
⇒ Parents + α can register more than one person to be notified, such as grandparents.Preventing "unnoticed" communication.
■Background on the Addition of Functions
The deaths of children left on buses in Nakama City, Fukuoka Prefecture, in 2021 and in Makinohara City, Shizuoka Prefecture, in 2022, have led to the pursuit of responsibility for nursery schools, but they have also brought to light the issue of chronic labor shortages in childcare facilities. This month, another death occurred in Kishiwada City, Osaka Prefecture, when a child was left in a car while being picked up by a parent. The installation of buzzers in private cars has attracted attention, but I felt that a system is needed to prevent dangerous situations before they occur, rather than after they happen.
Governor Yoshimura of Osaka Prefecture asked us, "Can't we use digital technology to achieve safety while reducing the workload of childcare workers? The government should do it." In response to this suggestion, we added a function to our HoiCa childcare system to notify the status of children's attendance at preschool.
■30% of drivers "left their children behind and left their cars
Source: Results of "Survey on Children Left in Cars" leading to heat stroke accidents in 2022 / Sanyo Trading Co.
According to a survey by Sanyo Trading (Tokyo), which handles in-vehicle sensors, about 30% of the 2,652 drivers who drive with children in the car said that they have left their children behind in the car.
More than half of the drivers in their 20s and 30s responded that they would like to have a system to prevent their children from being left unattended in their cars, while more than 40% responded "if it were free of charge," indicating that installing such a system in private cars is a hurdle that places a heavy burden on parents.
■HoiCa is the industry's lowest-cost childcare business support service!
There are more than 30 childcare business support services that we are aware of, but HoiCa's unique features areindustry's lowest priceMonthly fee for the
Development costs were reduced by interviewing on-site childcare workers and carefully selecting the functions that are truly necessary. This enabled us to provide services at a reasonable price. Even if we develop a good system, it will not be as powerful as it could be if it is not introduced. We hope that our system will provide an opportunity for childcare facilities that have not yet introduced a system due to cost bottlenecks to start using ICT.
■Company Profile
Trade name: HappyLifeCreators Inc.
Representative: Shin Makinaga, Representative Director
Address: Shin-Osaka Nichidai Building 701, 3-18-9 Nishinakajima, Yodogawa-ku, Osaka 532-0011, Japan
Establishment : May 10, 2019
Business : Contracted and in-house development of web systems and applications
Capital ： 3,000,000 yen
U R L : https://www.happylifecreators.com/
Reference materials
■"Reduction of clerical and miscellaneous work" is also high on the list of things that childcare workers want their workplaces to improve.
Source: "Tokyo Metropolitan Government Survey Report on Childcare Workers" (March 2014), Bureau of Social Welfare and Public Health, Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
According to a survey by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare, "reduction of clerical and miscellaneous work" ranked next to "improvement of salary and bonuses" and "increase in the number of staff" in the list of desired improvements to the workplace for childcare workers, at 34.9%, indicating that the enormous amount of clerical work is a burden on childcare workers.
■Lack of leeway creates "inadvertent" accidents.
Source: Results of "Survey on Children Left in Cars" leading to heat stroke accidents in 2022 / Sanyo Trading Co.
A survey conducted by Sanyo Trading (Tokyo) found that 70% of all respondents thought that the reason why children are left in the car is because "parents are not aware of the situation. On the other hand, about 30% of the respondents thought it was because "there are few people who can watch the children while they run errands," suggesting that many parents do not have enough time to spare due to the increase in dual-income households and one-parent childcare. In order to prevent "inadvertent" childcare, which cannot be managed by mindfulness alone, support not only from parents and childcare facilities, but also from digital technology and the local community is essential.
