Student Ideas Become Products Every Year – Unifast's April Dream: Creating Student-Initiated Hit Products with a 'Don't End in Class' System, Towards New Value Creation through Industry-Academia Collaboration

Our company endorses April Dream, an initiative to make April 1st a day for sharing dreams. This press release represents the dream of "Unifast Co., Ltd."

Our dream is to create a system where students' ideas are brought to life as products every year.

In university classes and seminars, many appealing product ideas are generated daily, but most of them end with assignment submission and rarely reach society. Through an industry-academia collaboration project with Tamagawa University, Unifast has commercialized student projects for two consecutive years. We will further develop this initiative to establish a system that delivers "ideas that don't end in class" to the world as products every year.

■ Initiatives to transform student ideas into "products"

Through an industry-academia collaboration project with the Faculty of Arts at Tamagawa University, our company is working to elevate student projects into actual products. Our development staff and designers provide feedback from a practical perspective, considering materials, structure, mass productivity, and cost, to help students' free ideas become "marketable products." The greatest feature of this project is that it is not merely an idea contest, but a "project premised on commercialization."

■ Actual products born from student projects

In 2025, we commercialized the "Manpuku Animal Pouch Keychain," which originated from the first project. This product, which realizes the unique idea of an animal's belly expanding through material and structural design, is an example of the fusion of student creativity and corporate technology. We were able to bring the sensibility of "kawaii" (cute) to the world in the form of a practical product.

■ Development of "Oshiben Box" scheduled for commercialization in 2026

Currently, we are developing the "Oshiben Box" for commercialization in 2026. This project combines "Oshi-katsu" (fan activities) with a lunch box, proposing a new lifestyle that incorporates one's "oshi" (favorite idol/character) into daily meals. Leveraging students' unique perspectives, such as combining it with acrylic stands and visual appeal, the product is designed with practicality, safety, and mass productivity in mind.

■ Aiming for "student-initiated hit products"

Unifast aims not just for commercialization, but for a system where hit products are born from student projects. We want to realize a society where phrases like "This product was thought up by a student!" spread naturally. Student ideas connect with corporate manufacturing to create new value for society. Our challenge is to continuously foster this cycle every year.

Unifast will expand its product development through industry-academia collaboration as an ongoing initiative. Leveraging the know-how cultivated through collaboration with Tamagawa University, we aim to partner with multiple universities and faculties in the future.

What we want to achieve is a society where "student ideas becoming products" is not special, but commonplace. Every year, student-initiated products are born from universities across the country and line store shelves. We believe that when this sight becomes commonplace, the future of manufacturing will change significantly. Our challenge at Unifast is to return student creativity to society, fostering next-generation talent and creating new value simultaneously.

About Unifast Co., Ltd.

We are a creative manufacturer that consistently shapes original goods, primarily bags, pouches, stuffed animals, and molded products, from planning to production.

With "UNIQUE × FAST" as our keyword, we continue to challenge ourselves to create products that generate new value.

From 2024, we are strengthening new graduate recruitment with more than 5 new hires annually, and in 2025, we were certified as a "10 Billion Yen Declaration Company" by the Small and Medium Enterprise Agency. We are now entering our next growth phase.

Company Name: Unifast Co., Ltd.

Representative: Atsushi Hashimoto, President and CEO

Location: Ryogoku City Core 12F, 2-10-14 Ryogoku, Sumida-ku, Tokyo

Establishment Date: February 13, 1981

Capital: 98 million JPY

URL: https://www.unifast.co.jp/

Business Activities:

1: "Integrated OEM Service" from planning to delivery of original goods and merchandise for companies.

2: Development of idea products related to SDGs/ESG and in-house brand items.

3: SP operations related to corporate promotion support and in-store sales promotion.