![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.innovation-osaka.jp\/oih2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/01\/\u5199\u771f_2.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nKURASERU is a groundbreaking system that solves the problems lying across medical and nursing care all at once, by turning individually held information into a database that both sides share. \u201cWhat we aim for is \u2018creating a world where everyone can live where they want to live.\u2019 KURASERU is an information platform that properly connects medical care, nursing care, and the people who live with them to achieve that.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Entering the world of medical and nursing care to compete in a big market with a promising future<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
Kawahara\u2019s starting point goes back to the teenage years. Watching a father who ran a company, Kawahara decided to start a business too someday. \u201cIf I was going to do it, I wanted to compete in a big market with a promising future. That is why I set my sights on the medical and nursing care industry,\u201d Kawahara recalls. To find business opportunities, Kawahara first interviewed care workers, but was told, \u201cNo one will take you seriously if you don\u2019t know the field.\u201d Resolved, Kawahara knocked on the door of a care facility the very next day and jumped into the industry, starting as a care worker, serving as a facility leader, and then becoming a social worker at a medical institution.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In 2016, Kawahara also started a home-visit nursing care company, building up all kinds of experience, knowledge, and personal networks in medical and nursing care. Through this, Kawahara became convinced of a real business opportunity. \u201cPrecisely because I threw myself into the field and knew the \u2018reality,\u2019 I could see the big problem of the information gap. And I thought that solving the problem at its root, rather than a service that takes measures in response to the demands of people and society, would have a bigger social impact and could generate more revenue,\u201d says Kawahara.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At that point, the outline of KURASERU, a care facility matching service using IT, was already in Kawahara\u2019s head. Kawahara reached out to a friend, Rui Hirayama (now Director, COO, and CTO), who had been active in the IT industry since university, and founded KURASERU, Inc. in October 2017. A big challenge connected to Japan\u2019s future had begun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Raising funds and taking on demonstration trials, and building the next business opportunity on the results<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
A major feature of KURASERU is that it is a B2B system. Its users are medical institutions and care facilities. For medical institutions, all registered care facility information and availability can be seen at a glance, so they can propose the best facility for discharged patients. For care facilities, there is no need to do sales blindly to raise occupancy, and when accepting patients from hospitals, they can communicate smoothly with the medical social worker in charge. It is a system that lets both sides cut the enormous time and effort they have spent until now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThere have been websites introducing facilities to consumers, but when it comes to actually moving in, the patient\u2019s health condition, medical history, medications, and treatment needed for daily life must be properly conveyed, and deciding on a suitable facility requires the judgment of doctors, care managers, and others. What matters is a tool that lets medical institutions and care facilities properly cooperate.\u201d However, the early KURASERU was a web system, and Kawahara realized it was not being used much in the field.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThe social workers and care managers who actually use it are always on the move, and some hospitals, clinics, and facilities do not have PC environments. To make it fit their work better, we needed to develop a native app that could be used on portable devices. So I decided to raise funds first.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cooperation with the government is also key in medical and nursing care. In December 2017, Kawahara was selected for \u201cKOBE Global Startup Gateway,\u201d and in June 2018 for the OIH Seed Acceleration Program (5th cohort)<\/a>, building trust as a company. The company then raised 180 million yen and won the opportunity to run demonstration trials at medical institutions in Kobe.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cWe distributed tablets free of charge to nine hospitals and first created an environment where they could use it as much as possible. The aim was to make it an essential tool in their daily work and then move to the next stage,\u201d says Kawahara. Partly as a result, the number of registered patients grew from 800 to more than 4,000, and KURASERU made a big leap as a business.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Kawahara\u2019s challenge to solve problems in medical and nursing care will continue. \u201cBuilding on our success in Kobe, we want to expand \u2018a world where everyone can live where they want to live\u2019 to Osaka next, and then all of Japan,\u201d Kawahara says, eager about the outlook. Kawahara\u2019s vision casts a ray of light on Japan\u2019s increasingly serious aging society and care problems. The new social system coming from Kobe will surely change Japan\u2019s future for the better.<\/p>\n\n\n\n![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.innovation-osaka.jp\/oih2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/\u5199\u771f_5.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\nFrom Kobe to all of Japan: all for people\u2019s healthy, better lives<\/h2>\n\n\n\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.innovation-osaka.jp\/oih2026\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/02\/\u5199\u771f_6.jpg\")
<\/figure>\n\n\n\n