Japan’s ongoing birthrate decline and aging population is expected to worsen the labor shortage. This major issue coupled with changes in the industrial structure has made it essential to harness a diverse pool of talent, specifically promoting the activity of women in the workforce.
Although the number of working women in Japan exceeds 27 million, more than half are in non-regular employment. If women’s regular employment ratio rises to the level of men’s (83%), it may boost Japan’s GDP by more than 10%. Under these circumstances, Japan, as one of its growth strategies, is promoting measures to support women’s return to the workforce and re-employment and to prevent women from leaving the workforce to take care of the elderly, with the goal of realizing a society where women can thrive. Furthermore, the current Kishida Cabinet has positioned the realization of women’s economic independence at the core of its “new form capitalism” initiatives, requiring the disclosure of wage differences between men and women, revising policies that hinder women’s employment, and granting subsidies to support childbirth and childrearing. As such, there is growing government support to improve the social status of working women and to help them remain in the workforce without giving up their careers.
Our mission is to support working women through the highest standard of Edu-care and elderly care services. To fulfill this mission, our group consists of Poppins Holdings and six other companies—consolidated subsidiaries (Poppins Educare Inc., Poppins FamilyCare Inc., Poppins Professional Inc., PoppinsSitter Co., Ltd., Wish Inc.) and a non-consolidated subsidiary (Poppins U.S.A. Incorporated). Together they work to solve the social challenges working women face. Our lineup of business operations include a family care service business (nanny services, babysitter services, elderly care and household chores support), Edu-care business (nursery and after-school facility operation) and other service businesses (education, training and survey business, Personnel dispatch & placement, and day-service facility for the elderly).
1) Family Care Services Business
We provide home-based childcare services focused on nannies and babysitters, home-based care services for the elderly and household chores support services.
① Childcare Service: Nanny Service (Poppins FamilyCare Inc.)
This business dispatches and places nannies. This business line is aligned with our desire to support working women and was launched when we first established our Group. In the UK, obtaining a national qualification is required to become a nanny. The duties of a childcare professional encompasses everything from basic care including the changing of diapers, nursing, and taking children to and from school, as well as teaching, disciplining, and raising children on behalf of the parents.
In particular, nannies who have graduated from the internationally renowned Norland College in the UK are called “Norlanders.” This world-renowned college has cultivated nannies that have been selected to provide services to the British Royal Family. We have partnered with Norland College since 1987 to enhance our specialization in training nannies withthe highest standard in all areas including knowledge, culture, skills and personality.
Poppins Nanny Service strives to be able to respond to all same-day orders 24 hours a day, 365 days a year to meet the needs of our customers.
② Childcare Service: Babysitter Service (PoppinsSitter Co., Ltd.)
Poppins Sitter Service is the only online babysitter service that is a member of the All Japan Childcare Services Association.* Cabinet Office babysitter coupons can be applied to either babysitter services or nanny services. In addition, Poppins Sitter service is also recognized as being eligible for babysitting subsidies from 31 local governments including Minato and Shibuya wards in the Tokyo metropolitan area. The number of membership registration has increased substantially, supported in part by the government’s policies.
*The online babysitter service allows customers to personally select their babysitters online. In May 2018, Poppins Sitter switched to a format in which the operator enters into contract directly between the customer and the babysitter. Through this format, the company aims to provide services more safely and with greater peace of mind. Furthermore, this format is not a matching site subject to the Guidelines Pertaining to Matching Sites for Childcare Services prepared by the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare. Under the matching site, the babysitter submits an unlicensed child care facility notification to the local government. Instead, Poppins Sitter facilitates a contract between the babysitter and the operator. This format allows the operator to submit a notification to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government as an unlicensed child care facility and the operating status is regularly reported to the Tokyo Metropolitan Government.
③ Elderly Care Service (Poppins FamilyCare Inc.)
We provide nursing care insurance services and VIP care services that are not covered by the long-term care insurance- under our home-based elderly care business that started in 1996. Efforts are primarily focused on membership-based VIP care services.
We register and train personnel with various skill sets including elderly psychology, hospitality, cooking and secretarial services, in addition to qualified nursing care providers and nurses. They then provide services that meet the needs of our customers who desire a home-based care service that is not covered by long-term care insurance. In addition, we offer a nursing care consulting service for corporations.
In our family elderly care business, we strive continuously to improve the quality of our services based on the ISO 9001 initiative. For example, we give thorough education and training based on our own in-house standards for recruitment and hiring of care staff drawn from home-based care expertise accumulated over many years in our nanny service business. Furthermore, we work to enhance the capabilities of our coordinators who select personnel compatible with the characteristics and circumstances of everyclient and family. In the event of a complaint, we take thorough corrective and preventive measures.
④ Household Chores Support (Poppins FamilyCare Inc.)
We believe that childcare support and elderly care support alone are not enough to promote the advancement of women in society. Therefore, we also provide household chores support services to offer a more complete lineup of support services for working women.
Foreign support personnel also provide Poppins Household Chores Support Service to help us provide household chores services that are tailored to our customers to meet the diverse housework needs of families.
2）Edu-care Business: Operation of Childcare and After-School Childcare Facilities (Poppins Educare Inc. and Wish, Inc.)
Our Edu-care* business operations are divided into two categories: authorized nursery business and unauthorized nursery business. Under this format, we continue to expand facility services to meet an array of needs.
A key characteristic of our Edu-care business is its ability to meet the diverse needs of parents. This is fulfilled through offering and operating a full line of facilities across formats – from childcare facilities to after-school facilities- in major regional cities including Sapporo, Sendai and Fukuoka, in addition to the three major metropolitan areas of Tokyo, Osaka and Nagoya.
*Edu-care is a portmanteau of education and childcare coined by Poppins and represents the company’s Educational Philosophy. The company has consistently practiced Edu-care since its establishment. This approach is based on the thinking that education and childcare are vital in early childhood (based on various research pointing to the remarkable brain development of children under age one).
The operation scheme for each facility service:
3）Professional Business: (Poppins Professional Inc.)
① Education, Training and Survey (Poppins Professional Inc.)
We provide training in Japan, training overseas, and survey and research business services using the early childhood education expertise we have cultivated and our close-knit network with cutting-edge overseas educational institutions and other organizations.
● Training in Japan
We have systematizedsystemized the expertise in nanny services and early childhood education we have cultivated over many years with the aim of improving the childcare environment. We develop personnel with education and training, seminars, and e-leaning for various purposes and occupations – from the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and local governments to corporations, organizations and individuals.
Notably, we were ahead of the curve when the COVID-19 pandemic hit and have been providing the Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare and local governments with hybrid training (combining group training and e-learning). We will continue to build on this foundation moving forward. Specific training services provided include nursery teacher career advancement training, childcare support personnel training, return-to-work support training for non-working nursery school teachers, home-based childcare provider training, courses for local residents, parent classes and other programs.
Our training courses have been designated certified programs by the two major government-subsidized projects—babysitter usage support projects of the Cabinet Office and Tokyo Metropolitan Government. As a result, Poppins nannies and babysitters, after completing in-house training, can work as certified babysitters. In addition to providing reliable nanny and babysitter services, we aim to improve the quality of personnel in the babysitter industry as a whole, which is projected to see increased demand as we advance through external sales of our training programs.
● Overseas Training
We provide overseas training services for those involved in early childhood education and those aiming to become instructors. Participants can learn early childhood education with our unique global network that includes Harvard University and Stanford University in the US and Norland College in the UK.
Early childhood education training at Stanford
The Dean of the Department of Education at Stanford University lectures in the early childhood education training we have conducted at the university since 2006. In addition, in the Department of Psychology we visit the Bing Nursery School university-affiliated childcare facility, which boasts 40 years as an educational and research institution. We also hold workshops with local childcare providers and visit childcare facilities in offices in companies around San Francisco (Silicon Valley).
Early childhood education training in Boston (Near Harvard University)
Since 2007, we have been holding early childhood education training near Harvard University with teachers of university-related facilities giving lectures on brain science, early childhood developmental psychology and the Reggio Emilia approach. In addition, we visit, observe and receive explanations about facilities that incorporate special educational policies and cutting-edge technology such as iris recognition. These include a nursery school and children’s hospital that Harvard University is directly involved in managing and operating. This makes it possible to experience cutting-edge infant education enabling university and vocational school teachers, nursery schools, kindergarten principals, class leaders and other to participate in these visits as research tours to heighten the quality of their area expertise.
Study abroad at Norland College in the UK
Norland College is a university in the UK established in 1892 as a training school for nannies that goes on to work for the royal families and upper class families in Europe. Participants in this two-week, study abroad program learn completely new childcare techniques to acquire a variety of knowledge for nannying.,. This includes techniques to develop the independence and self-esteem of children adopted by the institution’s founder, Ms. Emily Ward, emotion coaching to enhance children’s resilience, their emotional intelligence quotient (EQ) and the development of the brain in infancy. Nannies, nursery teachers and kindergarten teachers aspire to advance their careers as early childhood education professionals through this learning.
We also invite teachers from Norland College to Japan every year to give nanny training.
● Survey and research
We launched Poppins International Institute for Child Sciences (PIICS) inside Poppins Corporation to further develop our Group’s unique childcare theory. The institute conducts even deeper Edu-care research with a global perspective.
PIICS combines nursery school contents and practices with research obtained through partnerships with Harvard University, Stanford University, Tokyo University, Ochanomizu University, and other educational institutions and researchers in Japan and overseas. This research was published as Edu-care from Age Zero to be used as a guideline fornursery teachers. In addition, by developing the Poppins Approach and Intelligence 8, the institute is characterized by childcare with a focus on education.
In addition, PIICS accepts contracts from the national and local governments to conduct research and consulting. Examples of this include a nursery teacher re-employment support project (Ministry of Health, Labor and Welfare), a service industry productivity improvement survey project (Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry), and a survey and research project on childcare support policies (Ministry of Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology).
4）Other
① Personnel dispatch & placement (Wish, Inc.)
This company refers jobseekers to childcare operators and other organizations across Japan in addition to our Group. It also provides career change support for those who wish to change jobs and recruitment activity support for childcare operators and others.
② Day Service for the Elderly Facility Operation Business
● Poppins Ashiya Salon: Residence-based day service (Poppins FamilyCare Inc.)
We operate a day care service facility covered by long-term care insurance in Ashiya, Hyogo Prefecture, western Japan.
● Community exchange centers and communication centers (Wish, Inc.)
Local governments have entrusted Wish Inc. with the management of three community exchange centers and one communication center for the elderly.
③ Overseas Facilities (Poppins U.S.A., Incorporated)
We operate a childcare facility (kids room) approved by the State of Hawaii in the Sheraton Waikiki Hotel.
In 2008, we became the first Japanese company to acquire a childcare facility license in the State of Hawaii. Since then, we have been recognized for our achievements in providing safe and high-quality services safely for parents visiting Hawaii with their children. In 2014, the governor of Hawaii designated October 1 as Poppins Keiki Waikiki Day.
④ New business
● Preconception Care (Poppins FamilyCare Inc.)
Many working women struggle with infertility, with some data indicating that one in 5.5 couples receive infertility treatments or tests and one in 14 children are born from in-vitro fertilization. As more women get married later, and the birthrate continues to decline, we aim to realize a society where women can give birth when they want. In addition to providing childrearing support after childbirth, we will help expecting mothers resolve their various issues and concerns.
● Petcare service (PoppinsSitter Co., Ltd.)
Comprehensive support for childcare, housework, nursing care, and pet care as well. A reliable pet-sitting service provided in cooperation with veterinarians and trainers. We will support the health and well-being of pets as members of the family.
