ITOCHU Corporation (headquartered in Minato-ku, Tokyo; Keita Ishii, President & COO; hereinafter "ITOCHU") announced that it has commenced an employment mediation service for dentistry. The service mediates between dental offices and dental professionals on a mobile app to create new job opportunities.

The ratio of job offers for dental hygienists in Japan is said to be more than 20.^*1 Dental clinics are facing major issues with staff shortages and the increase in recruitment costs. In Japan, approximately 280,000^*2 people possess national qualifications as dental hygienists, but only about 130,000^*3 dental hygienists are actually working in the dental field. This means that about 150,000 national qualification holders are not in the dental industry or working as dental hygienists. Therefore, the dental industry needs to encourage support for reinstatement and new working styles.

The service is based on the concept of "reforming how dental professionals work and supporting their return to work" and matches the "desired working hours" of dental professionals with the "desired working hours" of dental clinics. When dental professionals set their desired working hours in one-hour increments on the app, the app will find a dental office available and allow the job seekers to apply immediately.

To roll out the service, ITOCHU will conduct a joint promotion with Club Media, Ltd. (headquartered in Hakusan, Ishikawa; President & CEO: Kiyoto Shimizu; hereinafter "Club Media"). Club Media is a wholly owned subsidiary of Ci Medical Co., Ltd. (headquartered in Hakusan, Ishikawa; President & CEO: Kiyoto Shimizu) which handles one of the largest mail-order business for dental clinics in Japan. Club Media operates a dental recruiting website and a media business for medical institutions. By linking this dental recruiting website with Itochu’s new business, Itochu hopes to facilitate the mutual introduction of dental offices and dental professionals, increasing the members of both the new service and Club Media's dental recruiting service.

ITOCHU aims to achieve the business transformation by incorporating market needs into products, which is the basic policy for its medium-term management plan. Its vision is to promote the expansion of membership regarding dental clinics and professionals by adding functions and advertising effective ways of using the service to encourage its active use. Over the medium to long terms, ITOCHU plans to introduce the service to other industries that are also in shortage of technical staffs by cooperating with group and partner companies, aspiring to contribute to the provision of sustainable workstyles.

【References】
▶AppStore (iOS): https://apps.apple.com/jp/app/id1519589023 (Japanese)
▶GooglePlay (Android): https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=jp.hanavi_app.hanavi (Japanese)
▶About the service: https://lp.hanavi-app.jp/index.html (Japanese)
▶For inquiries about the service: contact@hanavi-app.jp