LIKE,Inc.
2462・Prime Market・Services
Business
Like Corporation is a holding company centered on three core businesses: Comprehensive Human Resources Services Business (Like Staffing), Childcare Support Services Business (Like Kids), and Nursing Care-Related Services Business (Like Care). Founded in 1993, it listed on the First Section of the Tokyo Stock Exchange (now the Prime Market) in 2007. The company offers services that accompany people through each stage of life, ranging from staffing, outsourcing, and recruitment placement to the operation of licensed nursery schools and after-school childcare clubs, as well as the operation of Fee-Based Nursing Care Homes for the Elderly at 26 facilities in the Greater Tokyo area. Consolidated net sales for FY2025 (ending May 2025) were ¥62,336 million. The company is also building a growth foundation that spans industries, including a capital and business alliance with Nippon Life Insurance Company (November 2024) and the launch of the Childcare Innovation Consortium (March 2025).
Business Model
Revenue is composed as follows: the childcare support business, accounting for approximately 53% of revenue, is a stable model centered on facility operation contracting and subsidy income from municipalities, corporations, and hospitals. The comprehensive human resource services business (approximately 33% of net sales) generates fee income from staffing, outsourcing, and placement services, while the nursing care-related services business (approximately 14%) derives revenue from nursing care service fees paid by residents. Synergies among the three businesses (such as recruitment support for nursery school teachers and care workers) complement cost competitiveness.
Company Strengths
The comprehensive staffing services business supplies nursery teachers, care workers, and foreign workers with specified skills to childcare and nursing care facilities, reducing personnel acquisition costs for the childcare support and nursing care businesses. In FY2025 (ended May 2025), childcare support business sales of ¥33,027 million and nursing care business sales of ¥8,564 million demonstrate that in-group demand forms a stable order base for the staffing business.
The childcare support business focuses primarily on the greater Tokyo metropolitan area, where 71,032 children were on waitlists for nursery places (April 2024) and 17,686 children were on waitlists for after-school programs (May 2024). The nursing care business also operates 26 facilities in areas with dense elderly populations across Kanagawa, Tokyo, and Saitama. This regional concentration achieves both operational efficiency and high demand fulfillment rates.
In November 2024, the company concluded a capital and business alliance with Nippon Life Insurance Company. Following a pilot introduction of the system at Nichiigakkan nursery facilities, the two companies are jointly developing an operational improvement system for nursery schools aimed at nationwide external sales, and through the "Childcare Innovation Consortium" launched in March 2025, the company is establishing a leadership position in driving efficiency and standardization across the industry.
ENVALITH's Perspective
Performance Trend
Revenue increased 16.8% over five fiscal periods, from ¥57,643 million in FY2022 (ended May 2022) to ¥67,315 million in FY2026 (ended May 2026), with growth accelerating to 8.0% year-on-year in the most recent period. Operating profit, however, has continued to decline after peaking at ¥4,239 million in FY2022 (ended May 2022), falling to ¥2,981 million in FY2026 (ended May 2026), with the operating margin deteriorating 3.0 points from 7.4% to 4.4%. Profitability has been pressured by rising personnel costs from wage improvements and enhanced hiring in the childcare support business, higher food costs due to inflation, and expanded DX investment. Net income recovered to ¥2,328 million (up 11.0% year-on-year), but this relies heavily on non-operating income such as equipment subsidy income (¥782 million) and insurance claim receipts (¥56 million). Operating cash flow improved to ¥4,974 million (up 31.4% year-on-year), and cash and cash equivalents at period-end increased to ¥9,898 million. The equity ratio improved to 46.1% (from 44.0% in the prior period), indicating stronger financial soundness.
Growth Strategy
Pursuing non-linear growth across five pillars: childcare M&A, expansion of foreign worker staffing, expansion of nursing care facilities, the fourth business initiative (childcare DX), and overseas expansion
In a market where competition is intensifying due to declining birth rates and a proliferation of small and mid-sized nursery operators, the company pursues aggressive M&A combined with the opening of after-school clubs and similar facilities to achieve non-linear growth. In FY2026 (ending May 2026), it newly opened 3 licensed nursery schools, 11 after-school clubs and similar facilities, and 2 contracted childcare facilities, continuing organic growth.
Strengthening referral, life-support, and care-worker (kaigo fukushishi) exam support services for Specified Skilled Worker (Category 1) foreign nationals in the nursing care industry. By leveraging the group's nursing care facility operation know-how to develop the acceptance environment, the company aims to increase the supply capacity for the nursing care industry, which faces severe labor shortages, and to cultivate this as the next growth pillar for its comprehensive staffing services business.
Promoting continuous opening of fee-based nursing homes with care services and other facilities in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area, along with expansion of business scale through M&A. Sunrise Villa Kasukabe Higashi, opened in February 2025, has been operating steadily, and operating profit in the nursing care business increased significantly by 39.8% year on year. The company is also concurrently promoting cost reductions through maximizing occupancy rates at existing facilities and improving operational efficiency.
The company is in-house developing a system to improve business challenges specific to nursery operators, such as complex applications to local governments. Following development completion in September 2026, and after operational migration testing, sales are scheduled to begin in April 2027 for nursery operators in the greater Tokyo metropolitan area under a subscription model. The company aims to cultivate this as its fourth business, following childcare, staffing, and nursing care.
Exporting and providing the high-quality childcare and nursing care know-how cultivated domestically in Japan to Southeast Asia. The company is also promoting the training of nursing care personnel, along with support for their employment and life in Japan, aiming to achieve both the resolution of the domestic labor shortage and profitability from overseas business. It plans to open a childcare facility in Indonesia around October 2026.
Last updated: July 17, 2026