More companies are taking on workplace wellness. In practice, though, you often hear that it does not take hold among staff once introduced, or that the effect is hard to see. As ways of working diversify, health troubles specific to women and a shortage of self-care are serious issues.

Yasai Yakuzen, a corporate programme built on vegetables and the wisdom of yakuzen, answers that. It runs on a smartphone alone, and because it is built to be kept up without strain, it grows staff capacity for self-care and supports workplace wellness.

Why workplace wellness matters, and the issues specific to women

Workplace wellness matters more to companies every year. In practice, though, plenty of companies find the effect hard to see once introduced, or that staff cannot keep it up. As ways of working diversify, health issues specific to women have come to the surface.

55% of women in their thirties and older put work first even when unwell

According to a survey published by BELTA Inc. (the women's life-stage brand BELTA) on 20 February 2024, about 90% of women in their thirties and older said they feel off more often than they did in their twenties. More than nine in ten said they had put up with feeling unwell, and the most common reason, given by 55.1%, was that it would affect the people around them at home or at work.

The finding shows how many working women push through while unwell, so as not to be a burden, and are not able to look after themselves properly.

[Source] BELTA Inc., survey on feeling unwell among women in their thirties and older (published 20 February 2024, PR TIMES), URL: https://prtimes.jp/main/html/rd/p/000000036.000070413.html (accessed 22 August 2025)

What is the Yasai Yakuzen workplace wellness service?

Yasai Yakuzen gives staff a way to see how they are doing day to day and to practise self-care through everyday food. Checking, learning and asking all happen on a phone, so it takes little effort to introduce and run, and it is easy to keep up.

Feature 1: the constitution check makes how you feel visible

A simple check on your phone shows how you are today and which way things are leaning. Vague off-days get organised into a constitution, which connects to changes in food and daily habits.

Feature 2: data reports by team show where the issues are

Check results are collected and analysed to make each team's tendencies clear. HR and management get an objective view of health issues across the organisation and can use it in planning.

Feature 3: e-learning, with yakuzen in short videos

Building on your constitution check, videos of around three minutes cover the ingredients and eating that suit you. Clear explanations from yakuzen specialists take you from the basics to practice efficiently.

Feature 4: a dedicated chat with a yakuzen practitioner

Practitioners answer everyday questions, right down to which item to pick at the convenience store. Supporting the small choices is how improving constitution and self-care come to stick.

What introducing Yasai Yakuzen does for you

For the company

• Health issues become visible person by person, so wellness can be planned by individual and by team
• Stronger benefits feed straight into hiring and into keeping people
• Lower cost than outside seminars, and less work for whoever runs it

For staff

• Self-care becomes a habit naturally, within everyday life
• Short and phone-based, so it fits between tasks
• You notice changes in how you feel sooner, which helps with prevention and acting early

From the people who built it

Asako Yamakawa, YAKUZEN TOKYO Inc. (Official site)

My own health broke down through overwork and mental strain, and on a doctor's instruction I took leave. In the course of that I met Chinese-medicine yakuzen, and the idea of settling the body through what ingredients do struck a deep chord. Women today carry many roles at work and at home, and often put up with feeling unwell rather than say anything. I was one of them. That is exactly why I came to want, strongly, to offer people struggling the same way a choice that is closer to hand and easier to reach.

Yasai Yakuzen was built with the wish that women who keep going while looking past how they feel can gain the power of self-care and hold their own, with some give in them, in the world as it is. Through this service we want to stand alongside the health issues of working women and help raise wellness across society.

Rei Kojima, CEO, Agriture Inc. (Official site)

At Agriture we have built businesses that bring vegetables closer to people, through dried vegetables and vegetable powders. What I have felt strongly in that work is that even where healthy choices exist, plenty of people cannot keep them up because they do not know how to bring them in a way that suits them.

Yasai Yakuzen has real value, I think, because it gives each member of staff a way to practise self-care through everyday meals without strain, supporting company wellness and better daily habits at the same time. For Agriture's part, we want our work widening what everyday vegetables can do to help support food and health in Japan.

What Yasai Yakuzen is

Yasai Yakuzen is a programme that uses everyday supermarket vegetables through a yakuzen lens, with the aim of settling the body through everyday meals. Nothing special has to be prepared, so anyone can start easily. It is easy to bring in as a benefit or a wellness measure, and it does good for both the organisation and its people.

It suits companies like these

• You want to start on workplace wellness but are stuck on what to actually do
• You want to raise health awareness among staff and are looking for something they can keep up
• You want stronger benefits, better hiring and better retention

▶ Request the workplace wellness materials for Yasai Yakuzen