FOCUS Enhancing Our Non-Financial Capital

Sparking innovation through
the synergy of non-financial capital
to improve three values

Sparking innovation through the synergy of non-financial capital to improve three values

Intellectual capital, which is our expertise and intellectual property (IP); social capital through co-creation within the Group and with our customers and partners; and human capital, based on our learning culture.
The Benesse Group is working to further enhance this accumulated non-financial capital through a variety of initiatives.
By sparking frequent innovation through the synergy of each type of capital and continuing to create new products and services, we are working to enhance three values: social value, customer value, and economic value.

Evolution of Mirai Seed

Evolving digital products and services through the training of DX personnel

Benesse Corporation offers Mirai Seed, tablet learning support software, to elementary and junior high schools nationwide. Since 2020, the user base for this Mirai Seed software has greatly increased due to school closures caused by COVID-19 and the GIGA School Program being pushed forward. We therefore established fan sites to provide detailed information to teachers in charge of ICT at the schools where the software was introduced, and online seminars were held to strengthen points of contact. Leveraging the diverse opinions of teachers in each region, we are expanding our services by improving the UI/UX that is easy to use in daily classes and revising it to accommodate individualized and optimal learning using AI, while enhancing our efforts to recruit, retain and train DX personnel who are responsible for the development of functions and operation of services.
As a result of these initiatives, Mirai Seed was a winner in the 39th Information Technology Awards (customer/business function category) in 2021, which are held by the Japan Institute of Information Technology. We developed Mirai Seed to be usable in various situations for instruction and learning, based on our accumulated knowledge and expertise from the Benesse Group’s sustained efforts to support school education in the field, and Mirai Seed was recognized for its contribution to DX in the field of education, including support for student learning and academic affairs.

Mirai Seed
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Expanding and popularization of Udemy Business

Further growing our customer base through expansion of corporate-targeted services

The Benesse Group is working to enhance social capital by offering new products and services for universities and working adults.
Udemy, one of those services, is an online platform service for video learning that brings together people who want to teach and people who want to learn from all over the world, and Benesse Corporation is aiming to popularize the service as Udemy’s exclusive business partner in Japan. We also developed a corporate-targeted service, Udemy Business, to enable users to view approximately 7,300 Japanese and English seminars—which have been carefully curated for a Japanese audience from the material available on Udemy—on a subscription basis. As of June 30, 2022, Udemy Business has been adopted by more than 800 companies in Japan, including 50% of the companies chosen for the Nikkei 225. Since fiscal 2021, the program has also been used in Mie Prefecture to improve the IT knowledge and skills of administrative staff, thereby contributing to the human resource development of companies and local governments.
Udemy is also used by employees of our Group, and it is not merely helping to enhance companies which have introduced Udemy Business, but contributing to the improvement of the Group’s human capital, as well. Going forward, by evolving Udemy, we will make progress with growing the Group’s customer base and developing the skills of employees.

Udemy Business

Udemy Business
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Development of Majikami AI

Improving residents’ quality of life (QOL) through the fusion of people and technology

With the aim of improving QOL for residents of elderly homes nationwide, Benesse Style Care has been making progress on the development of Majikami AI, in conjunction with the DX Promotion Department of Benesse Holdings. Majikami is the common name for an internal qualification system for a nursing care expert with a high level of expertise and practical skills, and a total of over 190 staff members have been certified as Majikami up to this point. Majikami AI is being developed with the insights and behavior of Majikami serving as instructional data. By turning the intangible expertise of highly specialized staff into instructional data, we quantify the factors that lead to improved QOL for residents. Through the fusion of people and technology, our goal is to enable any staff member to provide high-quality care that is close to the care provided by Majikami.
Benesse Style Care opened Granda Yotsuya in March 2022 as the first edition of the Benesse sensing home, with 55 more elderly home locations planned for conversion to sensing homes by fiscal 2023. Multiple sensors, including "sleep sensors" and "excretory activity sensors," will be installed in the rooms in these homes, and the information collected by the sensors will be aggregated to make the physical condition of the residents visible. Using this data and Majikami expertise, we plan to develop AI solutions which will make service quality that places the highest priority on QOL into a reality.
With regard to the Benesse Group’s use of AI in the nursing care field, we intend to continue enhancing this initiative going forward as one of the Group’s key DX measures, which will not only improve operational efficiency at nursing care facilities, but will also enhance the quality of nursing care by developing human resources to address the critical social issue of a shortage of nursing care personnel, and also lead to the revitalization of the industry as a whole.

Use of Majikami AI

Use of Majikami AI
Yukari Miyashita
Yukari Miyashita
Data Scientist,
Data Solutions Department
Benesse Holdings

The process of developing solutions that will further advance Benesse nursing care is both challenging and rewarding, as we have to make them requirements so that frontline nursing care providers will be able to comprehend and actually use the solutions. We have promoted the review of requirements and development of solutions in tandem while listening to the thought process of Ms. Edamatsu, a Majikami active in the field. In the future, I would like us to continue to create synergy between people and technology by continuously reflecting human insights in the system and enhancing functions to support better judgment by each on-site staff member.

Yuko Edamatsu
Yuko Edamatsu
Nursing Care Professional (Majikami),
Expert Development Department
Benesse Style Care

The advantage of Benesse’s nursing care personnel is that in order to make our business principle of showing "deep respect for the person’s individuality" into a reality, we are systematically learning about ways to grasp the individuality of each resident, as well as a framework to realize that approach for showing them that deep respect.
Furthermore, going forward, not only will we be able to get insights about matters like changes to residents’ physical condition by leveraging information gathered by sensors and Majikami AI, but we will also enable each resident to express their individuality to a greater extent.

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Benesse Educational Research and Development Institute (BERD)

Increasing the speed and quality of research findings, and passing on those findings to society, the educational field, and our own business:
Better learning through digital technology

The Benesse Educational Research and Development Institute (BERD) is an in-house think tank, which was created in 2013 by integrating several research divisions of the Benesse Group. With a large number of human resources as the foundation for its research activities, BERD takes a comprehensive view of the childcare and education environment and conducts multifaceted surveys and research in the field of education which target a wide range of people, from infants and toddlers to university students, adults, parents, and teachers.
As the environment surrounding business has changed at a dizzying pace, research themes are becoming more complex and interdisciplinary with each passing day. In order to respond in a flexible way to the speed of business changes, we have reformed BERD to switch from its traditional research function divided by field to a research function divided by issue, and are evolving the institute’s research on the topics of human development, growth, and learning outcomes. As part of this effort, we newly established the Education Innovation Center within BERD in April 2022. The center will work to disseminate information to society and within the Group on the theme of "better learning through the use of digital technology," in addition to strengthening functions to support DX in the education business domain.
Specifically, we hold monthly information strategy promotion meetings—attended by those in charge of the Shinkenzemi business and School & Teacher Support Business, as well as those in charge of branding and public relations—to share knowledge, cutting-edge domestic and international case studies, and research results which are related to digital-based learning, mainly in the elementary through high school domains. In addition to conducting case studies and empirical research with elementary and junior high schools and high schools across Japan, we hold events such as the Benesse STEAM Festival, where junior and high school students and working adults interact with each other based on inquiry-based learning. We also conducted the Project to Maximize Student Insights and Learning, a weekly online dialogue with teachers across Japan. The latest information obtained through these collaborations with outside parties is also shared with business division personnel and others to enhance employee’s expertise and communication skills.

Benesse Educational Research and Development Institute (BERD)
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Strengthening partnerships through DIF

Establishing an investment facility to accelerate open innovation

The Benesse Group is accelerating the development of businesses that will lead to the resolution of social issues by promoting open innovation and enhancing cooperation with its business partners.
As part of this initiative, we established the Digital Innovation Fund (DIF), an investment facility, in November 2021. Through the DIF, we will strengthen our partnerships with venture startup businesses that possess revolutionary technologies in fields such as education, daily living and nursing care, and aim for co-creation of various projects, service updates, and new value. The total ceiling on investments is five billion yen over five years.

Aiming for the sustainable development of the Group, in conjunction with partners who have promising technologies

We have established the following three requirements for the selection of investment and partnership partners by DIF.

  • Partners who have potential for synergy with Benesse Group businesses in areas such as education, daily living, and nursing care
  • Partners with plans and development capabilities for DX-related services promoted by Benesse
  • Companies with innovative technologies and markets in fields related to Benesse, or partners with the potential to develop such technologies and markets

In conjunction with DIF activities, the Digital Innovation Partners (DIP) division, which handles the promotion of DX strategy at the Benesse Group, is constantly on "disruption watch." While being on disruption watch is generally understood as identifying and monitoring future threat players (disruptors) and their technology areas, the Benesse Group does not limit its activities to that aspect, and engages in monitoring to search for promising partners who have potential for synergy with Benesse Group businesses. By creating partnerships with companies with whom we can share our guiding principle of "creating new products and services that respond to customer needs, as well as new businesses that contribute to solving social problems," we are aiming for sustainable growth for those partner companies and for the Group. Since its establishment, the DIF has already invested in several partners, and will continue to contribute to further business growth.

Enhancing partnerships through DIF

Enhancing partnerships through DIF

Disruption watch

Disruption watch

Investee companies (as of July 2022)

Investee companies (as of July 2022)
Investee companies (as of July 2022)
Hiroshi Mizukami
Hiroshi Mizukami
General Manager of DX Consulting Department,
Digital Innovation Partners
Benesse Holdings

Since the digital shift consulting and disruption response that DIP is moving forward with are conducted for each business division, we also deal with business division issues at the same time.
For example, in digital shift consulting, as the situation becomes clearer as we enter each business division, we are working on DX promotion tailored to their business phase.
For dealing with DX issues at each business division, I think we can resolve issues not simply by developing everything in-house in a self-sufficient manner, but also through co-creation with external parties. There are currently several precedents, and going forward, I would like to further promote DX through DIF activities while having organic connections with external partners that possess more advanced expertise.
Benesse is a company that supports people’s growth, so I hope that the employees who are involved with DIF will grow as well, not just our customers. I would like to create a system and culture where everyone involved in the project can grow. I believe doing this will have a positive impact on the company, and I expect that it will become an initiative worthy of the Benesse name.

Jumpei Nakamura
Jumpei Nakamura
Manager of Digital Innovation Section, DX Consulting Department,
Digital Innovation Partners
Assistant Fund Manager of Digital Innovation Fund
Benesse Holdings

We understand that collaboration with startups that have skills and ideas not possessed by Benesse will enable us to have a wider variety of opportunities for speedily offering new value. We are considering a wide range of possibilities, not only in the areas of education, nursing care, and daily living, but also in new areas if they are in line with our corporate philosophy of "well-being."
In terms of the circumstances for our activities up to this point, we have been monitoring the trends of digital players in the fields of education, nursing care, and daily living as part of our disruption watch, and DIF aims to be positioned as a catalyst for innovation as part of those specific measures.
In 2021, we selected and made a list of approximately 1,900 companies from around the world with the potential to achieve digital disruption in each business. At present, while using that list for reference, we are continuing to meet with startups that may be potential candidates for collaboration in terms of business synergy and net investment, and are also in discussions with business divisions. My focus is on the areas of NFT/tokens, the blockchain, and the metaverse in relation to Web 3.0. I am pursuing these activities because I believe that if we are able to make them a reality, they have the potential to make significant contributions to the co-creation of new businesses and the expansion of business areas.

Naoki Sugita
Naoki Sugita
Deputy Manager in Charge of Investment and Procurement of Finance Department, Finance and Accounting
Assistant Fund Manager of Digital Innovation Fund
Benesse Holdings

At DIF, we provide financing from the holding company Benesse Holdings itself, and we are creating mechanisms to rapidly scale up business collaboration by encouraging cooperation with each operating company. Our Group has had past experience with things such as minority investments, and has a track record of several investee companies going public. I believe that in the future, we will be able to take advantage of that experience in these DIF activities.
We have already invested in four companies and engaged in cooperation with them as DIF, and in each case, we have made the investment with a strong awareness of the relationship being mutually advantageous for both parties. While it is a prerequisite for investment that there will be financial benefits and expected synergy for our Group, we believe that accelerating growth by providing support—not only financially, but also in terms of business to the partner companies in which we invest—will ultimately lead to mutual benefits for both parties.
In this way, we will leverage our investments to pursue mutually advantageous relationships with partner companies and achieve sustainable growth for our Group.

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Last updated : 2022/09/30