Market Overview

The domestic childcare and infant education market in FY2021 generated 4,683,300 million yen, a rise by 1.7% on a YoY basis.

The entire market has maintained the expansion supported by the steadfast growth of the nursery school market which has various measures taken including generous subsidies from the administrations aiming to solve the problem of many children on nursery school waiting lists. This nursery school market has grown because of higher demand for childcare that led to increase in the number of users as well as the facilities, but the growth rate has been slowing down due to decrease in births, smaller numbers of children being in progress, and declining numbers of children in waiting lists for nursery schools.

For the categories other than nursery schools, many are about to see normalization in class operations and sales activities, without any disturbance in business activities such as temporary closure, self-restraint or limited business activities like what have taken place in FY2020. Though customer attraction and acquiring of memberships are still affected by the COVID infection statuses, the influence has become limited.

Noteworthy Topics

Gifted Education Market

The gifted education market consists of infant examination education market and intellectual-training-oriented education market. The concerns over delay in learning and decline in academic performance stemming from temporary school closure during the corona crisis have raised the interest in children’s future education and paths, which, together with superiority in private schools for the efforts toward transition to and utilization of online classes having drawn attention, and shifting to online observed for school information sessions (enrollment briefings), enrollment sessions for cram schools as well as examination sessions, have increased the examination applicants to private primary schools, expanding the infant examination education market.

Meanwhile, the intellectual-training-oriented education market has been able to continue operating the classes and implementing business activities without negative influences such as long-term or temporary school closure. In addition, encouraged by the normalization of class operations, new customer enrollment has increased to have made the market steady.

Although the business activities in 2022 has continued being amid the corona crisis, the market is expected to grow steadily due to the robust demand for examination preparations by those who intend to apply for private primary-school examinations as well as the demand for ability development and intellect improvement from the early childhood.

Future Outlook

Supported by the steadfast demand for childcare and for ability development as well as fostering in early childhood settings, the domestic childcare and infant education market is expected to grow stably, but the acceleration in smaller numbers of children may lead to transition in market trends hereafter.

In such a situation, companies that have entered the market have become imperative to transform the business strategy from that depending on quantitative expansion such as raising the numbers of members and facilities into the business that does not rely on mass expansion, i.e. service development with high added values that meets user demand as well as social demand.

Research Outline