Sunwells Co., Ltd. President and CEO Ryota Naeshiro

Doing something different is the key to success.

President and CEO of Sunwells Co., Ltd.　Ryotatsu Naeshiro(Nawashiro Ryotatsu)

■ Profile

Born in Ishikawa Prefecture on July 20th, 1973. Founded Item Co., Ltd. in 2001. Established Care Communications Co., Ltd. (now Sunwells Co., Ltd.) in 2006 and began operating nursing care facilities. Later, in 2011, the company merged with two nursing care facility management companies, changed its name to the current Sunwells Co., Ltd., and became Representative Director and President. In 2018, launched the "PD House" business, which is currently the core of the company's operations.

Sunwells Co., Ltd. started out as a small company with one employee and went public. Its president, Ryota Naeshiro, dropped out of high school and successfully passed the university entrance exams, but developed kidney disease and was forced to drop out. However, we spoke to him about how he went from there to establishing a new approach to nursing care and the cutting edge of the nursing care industry.

During high school, I spent all my time in club activities in my hometown of Ishikawa Prefecture. I was a troublemaker and didn't study hard, so I dropped out in my third year and tried various jobs. When I was 18 or 19, I decided I wanted to go to college, so I attended a correspondence high school to pass the Daiken (University Entrance Qualification Examination). After passing the Daiken, I attended a preparatory school and managed to get into a university in Saitama Prefecture. However, shortly after enrolling, I developed kidney disease and had to be hospitalized for long-term treatment. The cost of taking a leave of absence from university was quite high, so I decided to drop out of university just after enrolling. It's been an interesting journey, dropping out of high school and university (laughs). After repeated hospitalizations and treatments, I received specialist treatment at the age of 25 and now have almost no symptoms. Since my kidneys were surgically removed, they only function at about 6% of their capacity, but I enjoy golf, kickboxing, marine sports, and other activities, leading to a comfortable life.

■Starting a business because I don't want to cause trouble for others

Due to kidney disease, I was unable to return to work until I was 25. Because I didn't want to burden those around me with my illness, I decided to start a business and work small jobs on my own. When considering what field to start, I chose nursing care, thinking that my long hospital experience could be useful to elderly people with illnesses or disabilities. Furthermore, Japan introduced long-term care insurance in April 2000, and the government now covers 90% of the cost of barrier-free renovations, such as installing handrails, in the homes of those certified for long-term care. However, the maximum construction cost was a small 200,000 yen, so I was limited to small-scale work. Thinking, "I can do something as simple as installing handrails myself," I founded a construction company specializing in barrier-free renovations. To differentiate myself from ordinary construction companies that can't afford to only take on small jobs costing 40,000 to 50,000 yen, I worked hard on even small projects, and my workload quickly increased. Eventually, I couldn't handle the work alone, and eventually I hired about 10 employees.

You can't succeed by doing the same thing as everyone else

As the business grew, one day, I was approached with the idea of ​​opening a nursing home. At the time, many nursing homes resembled detention centers. However, I happened to visit a day care center in Toyama Prefecture that was housed in a traditional Japanese house. It had a homey atmosphere, so I took inspiration from that facility and launched the first traditional Japanese home day care center in Ishikawa Prefecture. I then added new elements to the day care center, such as accommodation and rehabilitation. Doing the same thing as everyone else won't work. So I was constantly thinking about what else I could do that no one else was doing. At the time, I had about 30 users with Parkinson's disease, and I wondered why each of them's condition worsened once they entered a facility. So I came up with the idea of ​​a facility specializing in Parkinson's disease, built it locally, and received an overwhelming response. Having recovered from my own battle with the disease after meeting a nephrologist, I had a strong awareness of the importance of specialists. There were no facilities specializing in Parkinson's disease, either in Japan or overseas, where neurologists would visit patients. I thought this could potentially be recognized globally. I worked with a specialist doctor to develop the service and even had a paper written about it. Furthermore, the nursing care industry is an unpopular occupation, so going public and increasing our brand power will help boost the industry. Recruitment is important to expand, but the nursing care industry is unpopular, so it's difficult to attract talent. That's why we are conscious of strengthening the business itself from the bottom up by going public and thoroughly implementing sales and profit management.

■Why are there so few specialized facilities in the nursing care industry?

When long-term care insurance was introduced in 2000, the population was aging, and simply building a facility meant people would come in without any effort. However, competition has intensified in recent years, with some companies even going bankrupt. Companies that have continued in this same environment are unsure how to differentiate themselves or recruit new staff, and the industry as a whole is lagging behind in terms of business. Our facility management policy is that there are approximately 40,000 people with Parkinson's disease in general nursing care facilities in Japan, so we are not yet considering opening facilities specializing in other diseases. We have restructured our company and are expanding our number of locations, but building a single location costs hundreds of millions of yen and requires nearly 60 to 70 employees, so we intend to focus primarily on patients with Parkinson's disease. To provide higher-quality services, our facilities have begun a pilot project called "Holomedicine," which enables 3D remote treatment, and we are working to create a service that allows many people to receive easy and accurate medical care.

■Message to university students

It seems like there are a lot of very talented students these days. With so much information available, it should be easy to acquire knowledge. I hope that they will use that knowledge to take on new challenges around the world. I also hope that they will continue to make money. There are more and more people who think, "cheap cars and clothes are fine," so I hope that they will succeed without suppressing their desires, without causing trouble.

Student Newspaper Online 2023 interview by Rikkyo University 4th year student Sudo Kakuto