icuco® touch&care Implemented in All 63 Nurseries with Infant Classes Operated by Sakurasaku Mirai

icuco Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Toyohashi City, Aichi Prefecture; CEO: Yoichi Yanase; hereafter 'the Company') is pleased to announce that the 'icuco® touch&care' nap monitoring sensor will be installed in all 63 nursery schools operated by Sakurasaku Mirai (HP: https://www.sakura-39.jp ; hereafter 'Sakurasaku Mirai') that include classes for infants.

Based on the vision of 'resolving parenting anxieties through visualization and creating exciting experiences for families,' our Company aims to reduce anxieties and burdens for everyone involved in childcare, striving to build an environment where children are looked after by society as a whole. Through this implementation, we hope that by combining technology with human supervision, we can support the safety of children and provide reassurance to childcare workers.

Sakurasaku Mirai decided to introduce 'icuco® touch&care' across all 63 centers with infant classes to realize a childcare environment where staff can focus on the children with greater peace of mind, while maintaining human-based observation.

■ Realities of Childcare: 'Anxieties That Never Disappear, Even With 5-Minute Checks'

In childcare, staff conduct 'nap checks' during nap time. This involves checking the children's breathing by bringing hands near their mouth and nose, checking their body temperature, and verifying their facial expressions and sleeping postures to ensure children are resting comfortably. In infant classes, where the risk of Sudden Infant Death Syndrome (SIDS) is high, these checks are conducted every 5 minutes. Staff not only 'observe' multiple children but also physically touch each child to confirm their status, roll them onto their backs if they are lying on their stomachs, and record observations. These 5 minutes pass in a flash, making nap time quite busy. Even with regular checks, the anxiety of 'what if something happens in between?' never fades. During the beginning of the new academic year, extra caution is needed, and the Children and Families Agency has issued warnings regarding the importance of attentive monitoring for newly enrolled children. As infant classes care for children as young as two months old, childcare workers often feel the constant pressure of 'not missing any abnormalities,' fearing that 'even if I check every 5 minutes, it’s frightening to think of what could happen during that interval.' Sakurasaku Mirai focused on this psychological burden and chose to implement 'icuco® touch&care.' By combining technology with human observation, icuco aims to increase safety and assist in creating a more secure childcare environment.

■ Ensuring Safety Through the Fusion of Technology and Analog Practices

With the 'icuco® touch&care' sensor, staff can use the application to automatically record sleeping postures (automatically generating nap check charts) and detect tummy-sleeping or body movements. This not only reduces the burden of manual recording but also improves the accuracy of monitoring. Additionally, as the sensor can detect rises in skin surface temperature during fever, staff have noted its reassurance in cases of children with a history of febrile seizures.

Testimony from centers that piloted the sensor:
- 'The sense of security is completely different.'
- 'I used to worry when children were sleeping too quietly, but that anxiety has been alleviated.'
- 'In infant classes with varying sleep patterns, it was difficult to take records while holding children, but automation has been a great help.'

Sakurasaku Mirai positions the nap sensor not as a replacement for conventional checks, but as a supplementary tool. The most important aspect is the eyes, hands, and experience-based intuition of the staff. However, the tension and anxiety accompanying supervision are a significant psychological burden. To mitigate this, Sakurasaku Mirai utilizes technology to supplement part of the childcare operations, aiming for further improvements in safety and childcare quality.

■ Comments from Shuhei Morita, President and CEO of Sakurasaku Mirai

To protect our children from SIDS during nap time and to reduce the workload of our childcare staff, Sakurasaku Mirai has introduced nap sensors for all children in infant classes.