Get to know Hokkaido
Care Manager Association
The Hokkaido Care Manager Association is a professional association for care managers coordinating elderly care services across Hokkaido, Japan. It operates within Japan’s Long-Term Care Insurance system, a national context of approximately 185,000 care managers and 38,000 care management offices.
Japan is heading toward its peak-aging year of 2040. By then, the working-age population will shrink by 12 million while those aged 65+ will grow by 3 million (1 in 3 will be elderly); national care expenditure is projected to rise by 80% (from ¥14.3T to ¥25.8T). Hokkaido is roughly 20 years ahead of the national curve, already reaching the national average of an aging rate of 33% (as of 2025), projected to rise to 43% by 2040 – a deeply serious situation.
In this context, improving the efficiency of caregiving operations is essential. There is a growing need to reduce the time spent on documentation and paperwork through digitalization, and to increase the time caregivers can spend directly supporting those in their care. However, small-scale care facilities often lack the information, funding, and bandwidth to move forward with digitalization – a very real and persistent challenge.
Challenges
Targeted solutions for
Severe workforce shortage with low productivity
A single care manager already supports the lives of around 40 users, while drowning in paper-based work (mail, fax and stacks of forms). Public care fees are fixed and not rising, wages are roughly ¥1M below the all-industry average, and 75% of qualified care managers stay out of the field, making the shortage structural rather than cyclical.
Digitalization barriers at small care offices
Most care management offices are small with a weak financial base, staff skew older and are uncomfortable with new systems, and offices are spread thinly across Hokkaido’s vast geography – so consolidation and large-scale IT investments are not realistic. Existing vendor offerings miss the mark: custom-built is too expensive, off-the-shelf doesn’t fit the workflow.
Hokkaido-specific operational difficulty
The region covers 1/4 of Japan’s total land area, spanning east to west a distance comparable to Tokyo–Okayama (≈660 km), long snowy winters that disrupt transport and home visits, and an aging curve roughly 20 years ahead of the rest of Japan. Care managers also operate in an ambiguous scope – caught between national policy, user expectations and provider demands – which generates friction, complaints and burnout, none of which are addressed by simply automating individual tasks.
solutions
Our tools for success
Together with SmartOSC and NTT DATA HOKKAIDO as technology partners, the Hokkaido Care Manager Association co-designed a wide-area digital support network for care managers as a Proof of Concept (PoC).
A co-created platform, built with the field
Rather than pure waterfall or agile, the project used an upstream, field-led approach where the association, care offices and expert guidance from NTT DATA Hokkaido shaped requirements together with the vendor – closing the gap between ‘too expensive custom builds’ and ‘ready-made tools that don’t fit.’ It draws a clear line between human work (consultations, home visits, care design, provider coordination) and AI work (regulations, record-keeping, billing, statistical reporting), directly attacking the paperwork that drives burnout.
Designed for Hokkaido and scalable to the nation
Built to be ‘instantly useful to anyone’ (zero initial investment, no manuals, low learning curve), the platform is delivered as a shared, wide-area network across Hokkaido’s 179 municipalities, snowy winters and 660+ km distances – so even small, isolated offices get the same capability as larger ones. Because Hokkaido is 20 years ahead of the national aging curve, it doubles as a real-world testbed: delivery runs from Proof of Business to full Hokkaido rollout, then packaging the model for other challenged regions nationwide.
AI-on-LINE assistant
SmartOSC delivers an AI integration into LINE – the messaging app care managers already use daily – so questions about regulations, procedures and operations can be answered in the same conversation surface, with no new app to learn.
- Answers with manual-snippet evidence. Beyond text replies, the AI chat returns an image clip of the exact manual section that supports the answer, so care managers can verify authenticity and cross-check the source manual themselves rather than trusting a black-box response.
- Voice input → structured report output. In addition to chat, care managers can speak into the assistant and the AI returns the result formatted to a specified report template – converting field notes and verbal updates directly into compliant documentation, and cutting the paperwork time that drives burnout.
- Reception from the field: When having staff at care facilities try the tools, we received the following encouraging feedback:
“I could use it intuitively right away, without any explanation.”
“The key points are well captured – it produces surprisingly practical records.”
“There are questions I’d hesitate to ask colleagues when everyone seems busy, but I can easily ask the AI.”
In rural areas especially, there are many caregivers who work entirely alone, with no one nearby to consult. We believe this app offers not only operational efficiency, but also a sense of reassurance and connection – the feeling of always being supported.
STRATEGY
Success mentality
“Beyond individual efficiency, we hope to grow this into a “platform for connection” – a space where care managers and care workers across a region can share knowledge and support one another as a community.
By combining the real-world needs of frontline caregivers with SmartOSC’s technical expertise, we look forward to continuing this journey together as a trusted partner -hone capable of adapting flexibly to the social changes that lie ahead as we approach 2040.”
“I can’t do my rounds (work) without this anymore.”
“The number of cases per person increased sharply, but amazingly, I completed all my work with two whole days to spare.”
“If we use it effectively, I really think 44 cases is achievable!!”
“Coming this far, I’m once again convinced that ICT tools and AI are truly essential!! I’d like to continue nurturing ‘Shimaenaga’ going forward!!”
Betsukai Town Care Support Team
success
We deliver impactful results
By taking on the back-office workload and connecting care offices into a shared, wide-area network, the platform is expected to deliver impact across workforce capacity, service quality, and policy resilience – with Hokkaido as the leading edge for nationwide deployment.
More time for people-facing care
Offloading regulation lookup, record-keeping, billing and statistical reporting frees care managers to spend time with users and families – directly addressing the shortage in which one manager supports ~40 people.
Access for the offices that need it most
With no initial investment, no manuals and an interface tuned for older users, even financially weak and geographically isolated offices can adopt the platform – something neither costly custom builds nor generic off-the-shelf tools achieved. By connecting these offices into a shared, wide-area network, the platform cuts the operational penalty of distance, snow and small-municipality complexity, helping the region absorb a 43%-by-2040 aging rate without a collapse in care availability (care refugees).
A replicable model for the rest of Japan
The upstream/co-creation approach lets the association drive digitalization with vendors rather than as a passive buyer – breaking the long-standing ‘custom is too expensive, ready-made doesn’t fit’ deadlock. And because Hokkaido is ~20 years ahead of the national aging curve, a working deployment becomes a packaged blueprint for other challenged regions – turning a local response into national infrastructure for the 2040 demographic transition.
