Responding to
the Digital Divide

Responding to the Digital Divide Responding to the Digital Divide

Working to enable information
access for everyone

To meet the diverse needs of customers, the Company offers several brands with different features: the 'SoftBank' brand for users actively using smartphones, 'Y!mobile' for light users, and 'LINEMO' for online-only services.

In response to the increasing demand for online services that can be completed entirely online among customers who have difficulty visiting shops and from digital-native generations, the Company has also developed its online shop. Additionally, in FY2025, customers who signed contracts online accounted for 12% of all customers, and online sales accounted for 11% of total sales.

Safe and comfortable smartphone solutions
for people of all ages

Safe and comfortable smartphone solutions for people of all ages

The Company offers smartphone classes nationwide for individuals who may be unfamiliar with using smartphones. Participation is open to everyone, regardless of their mobile device or carrier.

Specialized instructors provide support Smartphone Advisors who hold the Company's original certification assist participants with their questions and issues.
Class formats tailored to participants In-person classes Participants can attend classes in person at a nearby SoftBank shop or at public or commercial facilities.
Mobile classes The Smartphone All-Around Support Vehicles visit areas with limited transportation or locations far from shops. You can take the classes online inside the vehicle using monitors and tablets. It is a mobile classroom where you can learn with ease.
Online classes Participants can take the classes from home or by gathering at nearby municipal facilities such as community centers. They can learn essential smartphone skills with confidence, without needing to travel far.

Applications for smartphone seminars for municipalities and organizations are accepted through the form below. If you would like to participate as an individual, please contact your nearest SoftBank shop.

Major Courses
Target audience Course Estimated time Contents
For people who do not own a smartphone or are beginners
  • Learning how to navigate the screen
  • Exploring the map and camera functions
  • Exploring the Internet and apps
 60 minutes
  • Basic operations
  • Maps
  • Camera
  • Internet
  • Voice operation
  • Adding apps
Beginner-level users
  • Exploring how to use LINE
  • Exploring how to use smartphone payment services
 60 minutes
  • LINE basic interface / adding friends
  • Sending messages
  • Group chats
  • What smartphone payment services are
  • Trying smartphone payment services
Open to anyone
  • Smartphone fraud prevention
  • Using LINE for disaster preparedness
  • Introduction to generative AI
  • Managing health with smartphones: frailty prevention
 60 minutes
  • Understanding smartphone fraud risks
  • Learning smartphone fraud prevention methods
  • Smartphone evacuation simulation
  • Using LINE in emergencies
  • Introduction to generative AI
  • Experiencing AI-powered search
  • Introduction to frailty
  • Frailty risk assessment
  • Frailty prevention using smartphones
[Notes]
  1. *
    The Company offers courses in addition to those listed above. Please use the application form to inquire about other courses.
  2. *
    The Company has established its own guidelines for infection prevention measures.
  3. *
    Instructors may not be able to be dispatched depending on the region.

Supporting the education and participation in society
of children with disabilities

Maho Project

Since 2009, the Company has worked with the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology at The University of Tokyo on the Maho Project, an experimental study on the use of mobile devices to support children with disabilities.

Through initiatives up to FY2023, by lending tablets and the humanoid robot Pepper* to participating schools at no cost for a specified period and offering support that leveraged technology, the Company created practical examples of children's participation in society.
From FY2024, as the next phase, the Company has been promoting inclusive education by building on past initiatives and implementing outreach programs conducted by municipalities and schools.

Through the use of ICT, the experience of becoming able to do things that were previously difficult can increase children's motivation. The Company plans to continue expanding its initiatives so that children can further broaden what they are able to do.

[Note]
  1. *
    Pepper is lent at no cost as part of SoftBank Group Corp.'s Pepper Social Contribution Program.

Using AI to create an environment
where everyone can communicate smoothly

SureTalk is a communication tool jointly developed by The University of Electro-Communications and the Company that uses AI to facilitate communication between sign language users and spoken language users.

By tracking body movements captured by a camera-equipped device and extracting sign language features, the AI recognizes signs and converts them into text in real time. Sign language recognition requires a large volume of sign language video data to extract the characteristics of each person's sign language movements. By quantifying that data and training AI on it, it becomes possible to recognize signs as sign language.

Through the use of SureTalk, the Company aims to build social infrastructure to enable people with hearing disabilities to communicate freely in all kinds of situations.

Expanding opportunities for
those facing challenges
in daily life through
a smartphone app

Expanding opportunities for those facing challenges in daily life through a smartphone app

Assist Guide is an app that allows users to make a visualized list of things to do and how to do them for use in daily life. With smartphones or tablets, users can photograph each step of a task, add explanations and arrange them in order to make it easier to understand the activity as a whole.

Assist Guide can help children and those with other difficulties in daily life (including those with intellectual or developmental disabilities) broaden the scope of their activities in daily life.

In November 2021 and July 2022, Kagawa University and the city of Takamatsu, Kagawa, carried out demonstration tests of using the app to ride trains and buses.
Participants used Assist Guide, in which the steps to get from point A to point B were laid out in photos. With the app, participants who previously had difficulty using trains and buses, including individuals with intellectual and developmental disabilities, were able to travel on their own.
The Company will continue to hold workshops nationwide and provide opportunities for participants to learn how to use various apps.

The Company will continue to help remove barriers in society using Assist Guide to create environments that allow each person to exercise their full abilities.

Assist Guide

Contributing to leadership development for young people
with disabilities through the use of technology

Contributing to leadership development for young people with disabilities through the use of technology

Since 2007, the Company has supported DO-IT Japan, a higher education and employment support program for young people with disabilities organized by the Research Center for Advanced Science and Technology at The University of Tokyo.
This program supports elementary, junior high, high school and university students with reading and writing difficulties in advancing to higher education and transitioning to employment, with the goal of developing them into future leaders in society.

The Company will continue providing support to enhance the communication skills of participants with disabilities or illnesses, identify barriers in society, and help realize an open and inclusive society.

Promoting efforts to address
the digital divide through
measures such as
providing information and
communication devices
at no cost

The number of services and devices using internet communications is increasing every year, and IT has developed into an important lifeline that supports QOL (quality of life). At the same time, it is said that a digital divide is being created due to differences in internet accessibility according to factors such as living environment and income. When the volume of accessible information is low, this leads to lost opportunities to connect to convenient lifestyle services and new information, which could also affect academic ability, employment and income levels.

As part of its efforts to address the digital divide due to income, the Company provides smartphones, tablets, and other information and communication devices at no cost to children who are unable to receive learning opportunities due to poverty and nonprofit organizations that support bereaved or orphaned children. The Company will continue working to realize a society in which anyone, regardless of their living environment, can experience the convenience of the Internet through ICT.

Initiatives for Digital Day

Digital Day, which falls on the first Sunday and Monday of October each year, was established by the national government in 2021 as a regular opportunity for society as a whole to think about digital technology, with the aim of realizing human-friendly digitalization that leaves no one behind. The Company supports the purpose of Digital Day and implements initiatives that provide opportunities for people to engage with digital technology.

Examples of initiatives

  • Demo experiences of the new iOS
  • "Let's try generative AI" classes, where participants can learn how to use generative AI in ways useful for daily life through hands-on operation
  • "Money practice classes" for children, where they can enjoy learning about money through app-based experiences
  • Smartphone All-Around Support Vehicles, mobile smartphone classes conducted in cooperation with municipalities