FTN Sessions01 On-site Report of 'Femtech Talks ～Updating Knowledge & Developing Businesses Around Menstruation'

FASHION TECH NEWS has been sharing various information about 'Femtech', which uses technology to solve women's unique health problems. Wanting to foster interest in this field, we held our first sponsored event, a talk show on Femtech, on November 15th (Wednesday).

In this event, what kind of lectures were given, and how did the participants react? This time, we will report on the successful 'Femtech Talks ～Updating Knowledge & Developing Businesses Around Menstruation'.

An Event Highlighting Menstrual Issues that Haven't been Discussed Much in The Past

The event took place at EGG, located in the Shin Marunouchi Building, an innovative space that serves as a hub for working people throughout the city with a fusion of office and exchange spaces.

Co-hosted by the Tokyo Marunouchi Innovation Platform (TMIP) who runs this remarkable space, the event was open only to women. Thus, attracting those who have concerns about menstruation or those who wish to update their knowledge about menstruation.

Firstly, the event started with an introduction to TMIP and their initiatives and goals by Azegami from Mitsubishi Estate Co., Ltd., who operates EGG.

Brochures were distributed at the venue on the day of the event. These brochures included the event schedule, seminar program, profiles of the speakers, and more.

At this event, we invited individuals who are tackling Femtech and menstruation-related businesses from various angles, to broaden their insights. Seminars were conducted that approached menstruation, often considered a women-only issue, from different perspectives.

A Variety of Seminars Discussing Menstruation

The first speaker was Yu Sato, who is in charge of planning and PR for 'Natracare', an organic & natural menstrual product at Omochabako Corporation.

With the theme set to 'Oh yeah, I'm on my period today: Rediscovering the choices for a comfortable menstrual week', Sato based her talk on her own experiences with menstrual pain and irregularities as she lectured on the fact that many women are troubled by menstruation and that changing lifestyles have led to different menstrual cycles and frequencies, as well as explained how to select menstrual products, menstruation overseas, and introduced 'Natracare', an organic cotton napkin.

The next speaker was Hitomi Kiuchi, who operates the Femtech enlightenment media, 'Woman Hormone University', at Ashitarunrunlab, Inc.

The theme of her talk was 'Understanding the reality and trends of menstruation, and the gender gap through social media'.

She explained the current situation where proper menstrual knowledge cannot be learned only through school education, citing that 85% of people are not satisfied with the content of menstrual classes at school, knowledge is insufficient with classes alone, and menstruation varies by individual, so it is not comparable to others.

As a solution to these issues, she suggested the use of their own 'Women's Hormonal University' media, increasing the selection of menstrual products, and introducing menstrual products from overseas.

The last speakers were President Daisuke Sakagami from azuki Co., Ltd., which operates a water-absorbing shorts brand for sports athletes, and Aiko Sugihara, a gymnast who was involved in the development, from TRyAS Co., Ltd.

The talk theme was 'Solving the challenges of menstruation'. Sakagami passionately discussed what the challenges of menstruation are. His words, "The reality is that many people aren't even aware of the problems," were particularly striking. Sugihara also spoke from an athlete's perspective about menstrual issues and shared her experiences of how she has managed to solve them.