Leading Mark fully acquires Jounetsu, which develops behavioral change custom training

Leading Mark Inc. (Headquarters: Minato-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Yuji Iida, hereinafter "Leading Mark"), which operates the platform "Mikiwame AI" using its proprietary inner visualization technology and aims to be the "No. 1 HRTech Company in the AI Era," announced that it has acquired all shares of Jounetsu Inc. (Headquarters: Shibuya-ku, Tokyo; President and CEO: Genki Mizuno, hereinafter "Jounetsu"), a company that develops full-custom behavioral change training primarily for large corporations, and made it a wholly-owned subsidiary.

Through this integration, Leading Mark will highly fuse its strength in "measuring inner aspects with data" with Jounetsu's expertise in "training that promotes behavioral change," providing an unprecedented comprehensive HR solution that addresses the biggest challenge for Japanese companies: "the alignment of management strategy and human resource strategy."

Background of Full Integration: The Era of "Outcomes" from "Inputs" in Human Capital Disclosure

The corporate training service market in Japan continues to grow steadily, boosted by government support for reskilling and the full-scale implementation of human capital disclosure. The market size is projected to reach 613 billion yen in fiscal year 2025, with the e-learning market also expanding to 400 billion yen (Source: Yano Research Institute). Furthermore, in human capital disclosure in securities reports, companies are entering a phase where further evolution is required, moving from the disclosure of "training hours and costs (inputs)" to the disclosure of "the effects and contributions to performance brought about by training investment (outcomes)."

On the other hand, 82% of companies recognize "the alignment of management strategy and human resource strategy" as their biggest challenge (Source: PwC Consulting LLC). The reality is that many companies face the deep dilemma of "having visualized organizational issues (data) through surveys and aptitude tests, but not knowing what specific measures (prescriptions) to take afterward."

Leading Mark has so far provided services that continuously visualize the personality and mental state of employees for a cumulative total of 6,000 companies and over 2 million test-takers through aptitude tests and the well-being survey "Mikiwame AI." With this acquisition, Leading Mark will establish a system capable of designing and providing full-custom training perfectly tailored to the characteristics of each individual and the organizational state, starting from the human resource data accumulated from hiring through post-employment. This will enable the provision of a new HR solution that supports the entire process from "measurement (data)" to "behavioral change (training)" without interruption.

Strengths of Jounetsu and Synergies Created

1. "Full-Custom Behavioral Change Training" with a Proven Track Record

Since its establishment in 2007, Jounetsu has been a professional group in training, boasting over 800 implementation cases for major companies such as JT, the Financial Services Agency, and the KDDI Group, with over 70,000 participants. They offer full-custom "practice x failure" type training using their unique methodology for everyone from new graduates to managers, and their extremely high repeat rate of approximately 90% attests to the deep trust they have earned.

2. Creation of New Value through "Product (Data) x Training (Behavioral Change)"

Utilizing multifaceted human resource data as input, including individual personality data visualized by "Mikiwame Aptitude Test," organizational status captured by "Mikiwame Well-being," and 1-on-1 operational data accumulated in "Mikiwame Management." Based on this data, they will provide "custom-made training programs" that are perfectly adjusted to the issues of each organization and individual. This will go beyond mere "completion of training" to promote concrete behavioral change based on data, jointly realizing "data-driven outcome-generating training" that can withstand human capital disclosure.

Messages from the Representatives of Both Companies

Yuji Iida, President and CEO, Leading Mark Inc.

Through "Mikiwame AI," Leading Mark has visualized organizational issues for companies. However, many clients have expressed a strong desire for "comprehensive support, including concrete organizational development and training beyond visualization." In fact, our training business, which we started on a trial basis, received orders that significantly exceeded expectations even during the pilot period. This positive response was one of the convictions that led us to decide on this acquisition. By combining Leading Mark's potential with Jounetsu's track record and capabilities, cultivated over many years with over 800 major corporate clients, we are confident that the training business will become Leading Mark's "third pillar." Under the new group structure, we will contribute more concretely to improving the productivity of Japanese companies and the success of human capital management.

Genki Mizuno, President and CEO, Jounetsu Inc.

Since our founding, Jounetsu has been engaged in practical human resource development and organizational development that unlocks the potential of people and organizations, with the mission of "nurturing as many passionate individuals as possible and making Japan passionate." The vision of "improving Japan's productivity" advocated by Leading Mark deeply resonates with our goal of realizing "a society where every working individual has passion and can demonstrate their potential."

Through this group integration, we will fuse Jounetsu's cultivated full-custom training and behavioral change support with Mikiwame's technology for visualizing people's inner states and organizational conditions, providing customers with more evidence-based and reproducible human resource development and organizational transformation.

Together with Leading Mark, we will dedicate ourselves to evolving Japan's "working" into something more passionate and fulfilling.

Company Overview

【Leading Mark Inc.】

Company Name: Leading Mark Inc.

Representative: Yuji Iida, President and CEO

Location: 10th Floor, Toranomon 33 Mori Bldg., 3-8-21 Toranomon, Minato-ku, Tokyo 105-0001

Business Description: Operation of HRTech platform "Mikiwame AI (Aptitude Test/Well-being)" and others, which visualize people's inner aspects based on organizational psychology.

URL: https://www.leadingmark.jp/

【Jounetsu Inc.】

Company Name: Jounetsu Inc.

Representative: Genki Mizuno, President and CEO

Location: 4th Floor, Shibuya YT Bldg., 21-3 Shinsen-cho, Shibuya-ku, Tokyo 150-0045

Business Description: Planning and operation of corporate organizational consulting and full-custom employee training.

URL: https://www.jyounetsu.co.jp/