Supporting women's health problems with technology Femtech August 5 4:29

In Japan, attention is being focused on a product called "Femtech" that uses technology to support women's health problems such as menstruation, pregnancy, childbirth, and menopause. A store that sells these products opens in Tokyo, and many women come to see their high interest.

Products and services that use technology to solve problems and problems related to women's health are called "femtech" in English, meaning "women" and "technology."

A store selling these "Femtech" products opened last week in Tokyo.

The concept of this store is "Future daily necessities store".

In the store, sanitary underwear that does not require a napkin, training equipment to eliminate urine leakage that many people suffer from postpartum and menopause, and cream that can care for delicate zones are lined up.

Female customers visited the store from the first day of opening, as they could actually pick it up and experience it.

In a fashion building popular with young people, a store that collects femtech products has been opened for a limited time. It was nice to touch, but it was nice to touch it. The design was cute and it felt like I was looking at clothes."

Ami Sugimoto, who sells femtech products, said, “By having a product, I think that it will be an opportunity to think about my physical troubles and talk with parents and children. What was taboo until now is commonplace. I want you to become a society that you have left."

What is "Femtech"?

Femtech is a coined word in English that means female, which means a woman, and technology, which means a technology.

It was born from the idea of ​​improving the quality of life by using technology to improve the health problems that arise from the biological functions of women.

The market has been around for about 10 years, but around 2016, a female entrepreneur from Denmark began actively using the word "femtech" to raise investment in a physiological day prediction application developed by himself. It is said that it has spread.

“Femtech” has various products and services developed to solve the problems of women's life stages, and its fields are diverse.

The major categories are
▽ menstruation,
▽ pregnancy/childbirth,
▽ sexual life,
▽ menopause,
▽ breast cancer/ovarian cancer, and other early detection of diseases in women.

Until now, most fields were taboo, but there are many concerns about women's health, and more and more social entrepreneurs are trying to solve them using technology.

In recent years, it has been pointed out that the term "femtech" has come to include the meaning of "solving issues that have been taboo".

Market is expanding rapidly

“Femtech” related services and products are mainly developed by venture companies, and the number and investment amount of Femtech companies around the world continue to grow.

According to "Fermata", which sells overseas femtech products mainly in Japan, the number of femtech companies was about 50 in the world three years ago, but in March this year it was 318. The number has increased more than 6 times in 3 years.

According to an American research company, the global investment in the femtech market was 23 million dollars in 2008, about 2.4 billion yen in Japanese yen, but in 2018 it was 392 million dollars. , The Japanese yen increased to 41.5 billion yen, increasing 17 times in 10 years.

And there are some estimates that the market scale will reach 5 trillion yen in 5 years.

Against the background of the rapid expansion of the market, British venture investor Sasha Astafieva has changed the environment surrounding women at work and in society due to the "#MeToo" campaign, which accuses of sexual violence and sexual harassment. As a result, people's consciousness changed and "I realized that there was a market there because I was able to talk about women's health and sex, which had been taboo until then."

Up until now, medical research and development has been conducted mainly for men, but there are gender differences between men and women, and we have noticed that women's health has been left behind. The problem was that he also noticed that there was a long-term demand for each life stage.

It was said that some companies were temporarily struggling to raise funds due to the spread of the new coronavirus infection, but the market as a whole is still expanding. Perhaps it was the same for women's health issues."

Increased interest in the world but also many issues

Femtech is attracting worldwide attention, with its products being introduced at the world's largest technology trade show, "CES".

For example, it introduces devices that you can wear on your body while you are sleeping to know when you are more likely to become pregnant, and machines that help you massage your breasts to help breastfeed.

While investment is expanding in Europe and the United States, including Japan, in response to the growing interest and demand for femtech products, the issues related to women's health behind the development of femtech products are being tabooed and medical devices There are many institutional issues to register as, and the reality is that we have not progressed.

British investor Asta Fieba pointed out that there are cultural and institutional challenges in the manufacture and sale of femtech products, saying, "Half of the population is women, and women's health concerns. Will never become a taboo, and the market will grow further by noticing that it's a niche issue, but having a potentially large number of consumers.”