Medi Face Joins Digitalization Subsidy Program as IT Support Operator
The registration places Medi Face's AI mental health tool inside a government subsidy framework, removing the cost barrier that has kept small and mid-sized companies out of mental health DX.
Reporting from 1 source: ASCII.jp.
Medi Face, a Tokyo-based medical technology company, was selected on September 7 as an IT introduction support operator for the Digitalization and AI Introduction Subsidy 2026 program. Its AI mental health care tool was registered in the same program. The company will now guide small and mid-sized businesses from tool selection through subsidy application and post-introduction operation, coordinating with occupational physicians, public health nurses, and medical institutions.
Medi Face is part of the Hoyo-kai medical corporation group. Its CEO Toru Chikazawa is a psychiatrist and occupational physician who founded the company while a medical student at Hokkaido University. The registered tool analyzes facial expressions, voice, and speech content to assess mental health risk. The company has run joint research with Hokkaido University Hospital and a joint demonstration experiment with NTT TechnoCross, and its corporate service Mente for Biz is already in use at major companies.
The subsidy program, officially the SME Digitalization and AI Introduction Support Project, is led by the Organization for Small and Medium Enterprises and Regional Innovation. Support operators handle tool proposals, installation, and the subsidy application paperwork. Medi Face's operator number is ITP07-0004964 and its tool number is DL07-0039644.
Synthesized by Yomimono from the 1 cited source below, including Japanese-language reporting where cited, then editorially reviewed before publishing.