FLN Offers Education Voucher System for Municipalities in Two Forms: "Free OSS" and "SaaS with 1% of Funding Source"

Future Link Network Co., Ltd. (Headquarters: Funabashi City, Chiba Prefecture, President: Takeharu Ishii, hereinafter FLN), which has a vision of regional revitalization, is pleased to announce that it has made the source code of "StaEx," an education voucher and study coupon system jointly developed with Itami City, Hyogo Prefecture, available free of charge from July 1st, in order to promote the "Support for Learning and Experience Business (Education Voucher Policy)" nationwide.

This allows municipalities to choose their implementation method based on their budget and system, choosing between the free OSS (Open Source Software) that they can build and operate themselves, or the SaaS (Software as a Service) where the system usage fee is only 1% of the funding source.

Special Site: https://www.study-and-experience.jp/

GitHub: https://github.com/FutureLinkNetwork/oss-study-and-experience

You can start an education voucher program regardless of budget size, either by operating it yourself without system usage fees (OSS), or by launching it quickly for just 1% of the funding source (SaaS).

Two Implementation Methods to Choose From Based on Budget and System

A major hurdle in implementing education voucher systems has been the high indirect costs. Until now, only a few municipalities with ample budgets have been able to introduce such systems.

This system provides a format that makes it easy for municipal departments to choose how to develop and operate the system according to their budget and organizational structure.

1 Open Source Utilization... For Municipalities with a Developed Environment

When using open source, municipalities can build the system with their existing development environment and municipal staff.

The base system was jointly developed with Itami City, Hyogo Prefecture, and is designed for ease of use by municipal staff, parents, and lesson providers. It can be flexibly customized to match specific policies you wish to implement (e.g., subsidies for cram schools, economic support for the regional transition of club activities), and modifications during operation are also easy.

Operation is possible by the municipality without incurring system usage fees, which are common with general SaaS services. This enables sustainable business operations with system maintenance costs minimized to the extreme.

For technical specifications such as development environment and licenses, please check GitHub. (A GitHub account is required for contributions)

GitHub: https://github.com/FutureLinkNetwork/oss-study-and-experience

2 SaaS Utilization... For Municipalities Wanting a Speedy Launch or Lacking Development Resources

Even municipalities without a development system can start their business immediately without infrastructure construction, with a system usage fee of only 1% of the funding source.

Furthermore, education voucher policies often involve outsourcing the paid SaaS, secretariat operations, and call center operations as a set, and the common practice of lump-sum outsourcing leads to increased indirect costs. "StaEx" allows for the procurement of the system alone, enabling operations tailored to the budget size.

For details, please see below.

https://www.study-and-experience.jp/

Current Status of Education Voucher Policies and the Background of "StaEx" Development

In recent years, education voucher policies that subsidize the costs of cram schools and lessons have been attracting attention in municipalities across the country, aiming to correct the "experience gap" in children's out-of-school education.

While there is support from the national government, the reality is that many municipalities "want to do it but cannot due to budget constraints" due to the recent soaring costs of system development and labor.

Recently, municipalities are increasingly promoting and considering education voucher (coupon) programs to close the experience gap for children, utilizing funds such as the Cabinet Office's "Special Local Revitalization Temporary Grant for Response to Price Increases."

However, in the field of such benefit programs, the complexity of target person extraction and manual payment processes also poses challenges.

This system was developed to significantly reduce the administrative burden on municipalities by digitally centralizing the often-complex target person management and payment processes. It can be utilized as an accurate budget execution platform for the swift and efficient return of various national grants and subsidies to residents.

FLN's Efforts in Education Voucher Policies

In April 2026, FLN concluded an agreement with Itami City, Hyogo Prefecture, regarding the development and service provision of the management and operation platform (StaEx) for the "Itami City Children's Lesson Support Project."

Overview of StaEx here

https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000473.000058260.html

FLN has a track record of developing and operating a "user-friendly cloud system (SaaS) platform from the field, reflecting the real voices of municipal staff," which can manage the entire process from application and delivery of education vouchers to their use at lesson schools and settlement.

We have received the following comments from the person in charge at Itami City, who is cooperating with the development.

Originally, outsourcing education vouchers only had the option of full-service outsourcing. Thanks to this service, we can now choose the scope of outsourcing according to the municipality's size and budget, greatly expanding the options for implementation methods and budgets.

(Omitted)

We can operate with minimal costs and concentrate on other tasks. I hope that this will give hope to municipalities struggling with their budgets, suggesting that "it might be possible for our municipality too."

- https://www.study-and-experience.jp/

We decided to make the developed system open source with the aim of building a sustainable mechanism for regional revitalization.

Future Outlook

This system can be flexibly introduced and operated in the optimal form according to the municipality's size, budget, and operational structure. By expanding the options for implementation methods, we will promote its widespread adoption and support, enabling many municipalities to build sustainable regional infrastructure for "delivering equal opportunities for learning and experience to children" even within limited budgets.

Through the nationwide dissemination of this system, we will contribute to the realization of a society without experience gaps between regions, by supporting childcare support as a partner to municipalities, working together as a region.