【illumista Inc.】Preventing Excel Manual Management and Operational Collapse. The Hybrid Solution of "WorkinG" Parental Leave SaaS & Business Process Outsourcing (BPO)
Pressure to Meet the 85% Government Target: HR Overwhelmed and Teams Exhausted
Hello, everyone. My name is Nobuyuki Togashi, and I am the Representative Director of illumista Inc. Today, I would like to introduce "WorkinG," our parental leave support system for corporations, along with our online outsourcing (BPO) business that compensates for staffing shortages due to parental leave. We are a seed-stage startup launched this year, and we are currently working toward a funding round early next year.
Currently, Japanese society is facing a serious demographic crisis, and the pressure from the government, society, and individuals to promote parental leave is stronger than ever.
From a political standpoint, labor law reforms occur almost every year, forcing companies to mandate and promote male parental leave. From an individual perspective, about 70% of current university students, regardless of gender, hope to take parental leave in the future. Consequently, the male parental leave rate in Japan has risen to approximately 40%.
Furthermore, the government has set a target to raise the male parental leave rate to 85% by 2030, at which point taking "90 days of leave" is expected to become the norm. In corporate labor management, handling parental leave has become an unavoidable, high-priority challenge.
However, in the midst of this shift, corporate HR departments are facing extremely severe issues.
First is the "dramatic increase in administrative work." Tasks such as identifying eligible employees, managing the leave process flow, coordinating schedules, and calculating estimated benefits have multiplied. Surprisingly, these parental leave schedules and task management functions are not integrated into major existing attendance or payroll SaaS platforms. As a result, almost 100% of companies, from large enterprises to SMEs, still rely on manual management using Excel or handwritten lists.
Second is the "burden of internal guidance and handling inquiries." HR personnel must manually create information materials that accurately reflect the latest legal updates, and perform individual calculations and explanations of leave periods and benefits for each employee. This leads to a massive volume of inquiries flooding HR departments.
Third is the "collapse of local teams." When a member leaves for a long period, the burden on colleagues and teams increases dramatically, leading to decreased productivity and secondary turnover risks. Simply using a system to streamline paperwork cannot fill these operational gaps.
Reducing HR Workload by 65% with the AIQ Plan: Complete Departure from Excel Management
We offer the only solution that simultaneously solves both the administrative burden on HR and the staffing shortages on the ground: "WorkinG."
WorkinG systematizes parental leave schedule and task management—areas not covered by existing SaaS platforms—and achieves a complete departure from manual Excel tracking.
As a core feature, it is equipped with the AI-driven "AIQ Plan." By simply inputting an employee's expected due date and preferences, the AI automatically generates the optimal parental leave schedule and simulates the amount of benefits they will receive during the leave. Additionally, the system automatically updates company policy and guidance documents to reflect annual legal changes, eliminating the need for HR to update materials manually.
As a result, simulations with our client companies show that WorkinG can reduce parental leave-related HR administrative workloads by approximately 65%. For example, automating tasks that took two HR staff members one hour every day saves approximately 1.36 million yen annually in direct costs. Free from tedious paperwork, HR professionals can focus on more strategic tasks, such as improving employee satisfaction and retention.
Detecting Pregnancy Reports at the Earliest Stage to Fill Team Gaps via Online BPO
Our greatest differentiator and a strength that competitors cannot replicate is our hybrid model, which combines SaaS with online Business Process Outsourcing (BPO).
Another significant value brought by our SaaS is that we can detect crucial life event data—who is taking leave, when, for how long, and in which department—at an ultra-early stage, far ahead of recruiters, dispatch agencies, or general BPO providers.
Usually, when an employee takes leave, HR has no choice but to ask the local team to cover the gap. However, since the teams are already stretched thin, this request often leads to exhaustion and secondary turnover.
We utilize the WorkinG system to capture staffing gaps at the earliest opportunity. Based on the specific tasks of the departing employee, our dedicated online BPO team steps in to perform those duties remotely for the duration of the leave. This seamless solution supports local teams, prevents burnout, and maintains overall workplace productivity.
Looking at the competitive landscape, labor attorneys and HR consultants design policies but do not handle daily operations. Meanwhile, standard HR SaaS platforms streamline paperwork but do not provide operational backup. We are the only provider offering a unified "parental leave SaaS & outsourcing" service, carving out a unique position that supports both HR and local teams.
Client companies that have already implemented our service highly appreciate the system for its administrative efficiency, as well as the automated notification features that guide employees through required steps at the perfect time, leading to higher employee satisfaction.
Expanding from Parental Leave to Caregiving, Mental Health, and Fertility Support: Aiming for a 10 Trillion Yen Life Event Platform
We plan to rapidly expand this powerful "SaaS + BPO" model to other critical life event areas.
Our next target is "caregiving leave," a major issue faced by many working professionals. We will also apply our system and BPO solutions to mental health leave, fertility treatments, and menstrual leave—any corporate scenario where employee absence creates a staffing gap.
Furthermore, by capturing life event data right when a child is born, we can eventually evolve into a "life stage platform" that directly connects families with the 10 trillion yen child-related market, offering targeted services in advertising, finance, and insurance.
We focus heavily on alliances rather than trying to grow entirely on our own. We are advancing API integrations with major HR and accounting SaaS platforms like SmartHR and Money Forward. We are also expanding our reach rapidly through OEM partnerships with labor attorney offices and staffing agencies.
I previously worked at Samurai Incubate, a seed-stage VC, before founding this company. Our team includes top-tier Japanese HR experts as advisors and prominent investors like East Ventures.
We are resolving Japan's largest pain point: a declining birthrate and labor shortage. We invite investors and companies interested in implementing our solution to join us in building a workplace infrastructure where everyone can thrive. Thank you very much.
Discussion and Feedback
Commentator (Mr. Ito): Thank you, Mr. Togashi. When we were younger, parental leave was seen as something only for women, but today, male parental leave is becoming standard, and I can feel the massive shift in corporate awareness.
Moreover, as employees have children later in life, having key mid-career professionals suddenly leave for six months or a year is a critical issue for SMEs and startups. The demand is undoubtedly huge. Could you tell us about your unique strengths and competitive advantages in focusing 100% on the seemingly narrow vertical of "parental leave"?
Mr. Togashi: Thank you for the question. While some companies offer parental leave tracking as a minor add-on feature to stress checks or e-learning systems, they cannot keep up with the rapid, complex legal updates and detailed workflow designs required in practice.
Because we focus 100% on parental leave and employee absence, we have designed every detail of the system to align with actual HR workflows, complete with automatic legal updates.
Our greatest advantage is that we operate an online BPO team to handle actual operations—something typical software-only SaaS companies avoid. Software alone cannot solve the physical labor shortage. By capturing leave data early and providing immediate operational backup, we resolve both the administrative burden and the team's staffing gap. This hybrid approach is our unique edge.
Mr. Ito: I see. You are bridging the gap between HR policies, software efficiency, and actual labor replacement—an area that labor attorneys and standard SaaS companies have left fragmented.
This model seems highly applicable to other areas of HR. What fields do you plan to expand into next, and what is your vision for your exit strategy and alliances?
Mr. Togashi: Indeed. The core pain point—sudden employee absence leaving a team stranded—exists in many other lifecycle events.
We will first expand into "caregiving leave," which is becoming a massive social issue, followed by mental health leave, fertility treatments, and menstrual leave. These are areas where new government guidelines are introduced regularly, but companies struggle to implement them.
Regarding our exit strategy and scale, we do not intend to grow entirely in isolation. In the US, we see active M&A activity, such as employee benefit platforms acquiring leave management systems. In Japan, we plan to expand our user base through API integrations with major platforms like SmartHR, and by partnering with labor attorneys and staffing agencies who can package and sell our BPO services. We believe collaborating with existing players is the fastest way to win the market.
Mr. Ito: So, you act as a hub between SaaS platforms, scaling rapidly through partnerships. It is a wonderful business that supports both people and productivity amid Japan's labor shortage. I have high expectations for your journey.
Mr. Togashi: Thank you very much. We will continue to execute and drive the business forward.