The Journey Toward Well-Working Starts Now
At SmartHR, our mission is to solve the societal issues surrounding work and create a society where everyone can choose how they contribute.
We use the phrase “Well-Working” to express that mission in a simpler, more flexible way.
Since we launched SmartHR in 2015, over 80,000 companies (*1) have signed up for our service, while the number of mobile app installations has exceeded 2 million (*2).
But the journey toward realizing our vision has only just begun.
Our goal is to become an indispensable service for every working person in Japan, a trusted part of the infrastructure supporting their daily lives. To get there, we will continue expanding the value we provide and help drive change in Japan’s work culture through our service vision: “Worker-Friendly: Designed for All”.
- *1 As of April 2026, representing corporate accounts (tenants) that completed office registration on SmartHR, excluding canceled subscriptions.
- *2 As of February 2026.
SmartHR’s Roots
SmartHR was inspired by a personal experience of our founder, Shoji Miyata.
In 2015, Shoji saw his partner, who was pregnant at the time, struggling with piles of paperwork for maternity and childcare leave. These forms, which are typically handled by companies and submitted to the government, revealed to him inefficiencies in the existing system. While Japan’s social security system itself plays an invaluable role in society, its outdated processes place an unnecessary burden on employees. This became the driving force behind the creation of SmartHR in 2015—to simplify and modernize HR tasks, making them more accessible and human-friendly for everyone.
Since then, SmartHR has grown from a purely HR management tool into a full-fledged suite of services, now offering a broad range of talent management features. Today, we are also expanding into areas like information management systems, continuing our commitment to building workplaces where workers of all backgrounds can thrive. Our goals, however, remain the same: to create a society where everyone can choose how they contribute and to support sustainable business growth. This is our priority when it comes to developing new solutions.
Where We Stand
Our Service’s Role in Solving Societal Issues
SmartHR is tackling the ever-changing challenges of Japanese society head-on, working to address key issues and deliver impactful solutions.
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Accelerating Digital Transformation (DX)
The shift to new digital technologies is gaining momentum as legacy systems reach the end of their lifecycle and the demand for IT talent outpaces supply.
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Shrinking Workforce
By 2030, the workforce shortage in Japan is projected to reach 6.44 million due to a shrinking labor pool overall as well as regional disparities in labor availability.
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Evolving Work Styles
Remote work, side jobs, and shifting values are driving a transformation in the way people think about their careers.
In today’s complex and shifting landscape, SmartHR helps businesses by focusing on two key areas: streamlining operations and enhancing employee engagement.
Celebrating 10 Years of SmartHR
SmartHR is celebrating its 10th anniversary in 2025.
To commemorate this significant milestone, we’ve launched a special anniversary site featuring:
- Roundtable discussions reflecting on how SmartHR and our users have grown together
- Expert interviews on the future of work itself
- A message from our CEO, Masato Serizawa, looking ahead to the next decade
- And more content celebrating 10 years of progress
Delivering Meaningful Results
Our Product Principles
These Product Principles define what a good product means at SmartHR today.
Great products come from great teams and meaningful dialogue. We established these principles as a shared language to encourage conversation among everyone involved in our products, so we can deliver greater value to society, in better ways.
Ease of Use for HR and Management
A large database of employee data is only valuable if it’s up-to-date and easily accessible. SmartHR consolidates data from daily operations into a singular, centralized location, making it readily available anytime. Plus, our system syncs data across all functions, which eliminates the need for data re-entry. From onboarding details to the latest engagement survey results, SmartHR helps analyze organizational challenges, support staffing decisions, and inform other key processes effortlessly.
Strong Support from Our User Base
Nearly a decade after its initial launch, SmartHR has earned strong support from its users. We’re proud to count more than 80,000 companies among our users, and our high retention rates and customer satisfaction are a testament to our success. As we continue to evolve, we remain committed to being an indispensable partner in our clients’ organizational success.
- *1 Deloitte Tohmatsu MIC Economics Research Institute, “HRTech Cloud Market Facts and Outlook 2025”.Opens external site in a new window or tab.
- *2 Named among the top services in the Talent Management System category at the “BOXIL SaaS AWARD Spring 2025Opens external site in a new window or tab.” presented by SMARTCAMP Co., Ltd.
- *3 Number of tenants that have completed business location registration on SmartHR (excluding tenants that have canceled their accounts).
- *4 Calculated from the average CMRR churn rate over the past 12 months (as of April 2026).
Where We Are Headed
Connecting All Back-Office Operations to Become the Central Hub for Employees
SmartHR is expanding its offerings beyond HR to transform back-office operations. Our goal is to become the core service and the central hub that connects employees and back-office staff, simplifying interactions at every step.
Building New Services Around Employee Data
SmartHR’s employee data empowers more than just HR functions.
By leveraging our core strength—accurate, up-to-date employee data—we’re expanding its impact beyond HR and labor management, extending into areas like employee workflows, portals, IT systems (such as ID management), and broader platform services.
Addressing Organization-Wide Back-Office Issues
In many back-office workflows, data must be passed between systems at various stages, requiring staff to spend time managing and syncing that data. SmartHR tackles these hidden inefficiencies by connecting back-office operations through centralized employee data. This approach not only streamlines individual tasks but also drives greater efficiency across all back-office operations.
Investing in a Unified Infrastructure
To unlock greater value and expand our product’s capabilities, we’re focusing on technological investments into key areas like authentication, permissions management, AI utilization, and APIs—all of which help to seamlessly interconnect back-office functions.
SmartHR’s Vision for the Future
Connecting all workflows around employee data.
SmartHR’s Vision for the Future and Well-Working
At the heart of SmartHR’s mission is the goal of creating a society where everyone can choose how they contribute. However, we know that achieving this vision of "well-working" is no easy task. As we continue along our journey, we’re reminded daily of the challenges ahead. One of the major themes we tackle—efficiency and automation—often leaves behind more complex and demanding tasks. In the age of rapid digitalization, we often hear about the importance of the "human touch", but it’s clear that even these tasks require new skills and training to keep up with advancing technology. For those who don’t adapt, the opportunities to contribute may diminish.
That’s why we believe our mission is not just about improving efficiency. We’re focused on empowering people to master new technologies and adapt to ever-changing working styles. Our commitment to talent management is central to this, as we help unlock the potential of every employee, enabling them to thrive in this shifting landscape.
Our mission doesn’t stop at streamlining back-office tasks, however. We’re also committed to providing the tools that help companies invest in their people and maximize organizational productivity—from recruitment and talent development to fostering employee engagement.
We’re here not just to provide tools, but to support meaningful transformation in every organization, helping them achieve the outcomes they envision.
The societal issues surrounding work remain abundant, and the path to achieving “well-working” across society is still a long one. But it’s exactly because of these challenging issues that we are committed to expanding our business and transforming the landscape of work in Japan, one step at a time. Our hope is that, years from now, people will look back and say, "SmartHR really helped change Japan’s work environment for the better”.
