“Real Voices”

The roots of Emimen go back to 2010 when I launched the company. I wanted to get into the nursing home business because I saw it as an extension of my family’s real estate business. In contrast to the residential market, which was tapering off due to the falling birthrate and aging population, I could see that the nursing care sector would grow. So, the intention was to shift the focus of our business from residential property to nursing homes for the elderly. But when I joined a training course at a nursing home to get a care worker’s qualification, so I could learn more about the industry, I realized that I had some mistaken perceptions. Nursing care is a soft business. Essentially, it’s about what kind of staff you get to provide what kind of services. At the same time, however, I was very moved by how much I was needed, despite only being a trainee. “Thank you, we want you to come in again tomorrow,” I was told. By the end of my training, I was determined to get into the nursing care business.
That’s why I focused on a matching service to connect nursing homes with people looking for nursing homes. This kind of matching was normal in the real estate business, but no professionals were offering a similar service in the nursing care field. That’s how I hit on the idea.
Many people, then and still now, say that the cost of moving into a nursing home is high, or that there are long waiting lists, but this is a misunderstanding. This is only true for special nursing homes (for elderly people requiring special care). Other nursing homes, such as assisted living facilities and residential fee-based nursing homes, are keen to attract more residents. This information gap presented a business opportunity. On top of this, I thought that we could help to solve certain social problems that arise when people give up on moving into nursing homes, such as family separations caused by the heavy burden of nursing family members, and elderly people dying alone. I even thought that we could save some lives.
We started to work on a full scale in the nursing care business in 2012, and we’re still going strong today.

There were already some competitors offering matching actually, but I felt that it was my mission to promote this service. I was confident that we could roll out a nationwide service faster and in the right way than anyone to help solve the social issues. It was in around 2016 that I started to think of taking the company public to scale the business. In 2018 I met Mr. Kato, the investment professional from MUCAP’s Osaka office, for the first time.
One thing I told him was that we put more importance on the number of contracts we signed than on sales. This seemed obvious to me. For example, what’s the difference between a contract with a wealthy customer and a contract who is not wealthy. A contract is a contract. I think that the non-wealthy customer is more likely to lack information or support from their surroundings. On top of that, they tend to feel the hardship more than wealthy customers, therefore they are also more likely to feel satisfied when the problem is solved. This is what I want to evaluate, but it’s not a metric that is linked to sales.
Mr. Kato seemed to appreciate this attitude and approach, so that’s how our relationship with MUCAP started. He has accompanied us the whole time, from the first investment in 2018 to our public listing in October 2023.

In October 2023, we went public with an “impact IPO.” An “impact IPO” is an IPO that aims to achieve both social impact and financial growth. Personally, my thinking has not wavered at all since I got started in the nursing care business. The fact that we can help both elderly people and their families gives our work social value. Considering how fast the country is aging, the need is huge. Our business has therefore made an impact from the beginning. I feel that what we have been doing diligently since around 2019 as part of our business approach fits the definition of an impact IPO.
Looking ahead, in addition to our nursing home referral services we plan to upgrade our platform website, “Care Prime Community.” This side of our business offers information services for improving the quality of nursing homes for the elderly.
Making use of the network of 9,250 nursing homes (as of October 31, 2023) that we have built up through our nursing home support business, the new platform has grown to 5,335 registered nursing homes in the six months or so since we launched it. It’s not a dream to think we can turn nursing care into an export industry, by creating the environment to deliver information about outstanding products and other useful information to nursing homes. And when good new products are developed, we can supply them to the rest of the world.
With this aim for the future, we intend to continue working as hard as we can on our business, maintaining our sense of mission, without forgetting our original enthusiasm or gratitude for everyone who helped us.