Top 7 Parenting Apps Loved by Japanese Families

In recent years, the use of smartphone apps in parenting has rapidly expanded, with many parents in Japan incorporating childcare apps into their daily lives. These apps offer a wide range of features, including tracking a child’s growth and managing their health, providing parenting advice, facilitating family communication, and delivering educational content. Parents can choose the ones that best fit their lifestyle. The growing prevalence of nuclear families and dual-income households has further increased demand for easy-to-use parenting support tools.

This article introduces a carefully selected list of parenting apps that are widely used and highly rated by families across Japan. From parents feeling anxious about raising their first child to families seeking to manage their busy days more efficiently, these apps cater to a diverse range of needs. We highlight each app’s features, usability, and the appeal of “reliable parenting apps” suited to today’s world.

Ranking of Popular Parenting Apps

1. Mitene
2. Mamanote
3. Mainichi no Tamahiyo
4. Familist
5. Cope
6. Ikuji (Childcare) Note
7. Piyolog

1. Mitene

Source: Mitene Homepage

Mitene is a popular parenting app that allows you to easily share photos and videos of your child with family members. You can limit access to only invited family members, allowing you to safely share daily growth records captured on your smartphone while protecting your privacy. A comment feature on photos enables real-time communication with grandparents or other relatives who live far away. The app also automatically creates monthly albums for easy organization, and it offers a service to order photo books, allowing you to preserve memories in a tangible form. From August 2023 to July 2024, it ranked No. 1 in domestic downloads among family album-related apps. With its simple, intuitive interface and warm design, Mitene has become a go-to app for many households.

2. Mamanote

Source: Mamanote Homepage

Mamanote is a popular parenting app that offers comprehensive support, including information on pregnancy, childbirth, and child-rearing. From early pregnancy to the post-birth parenting stage, it delivers daily, specialized information tailored to your current week of pregnancy or your child’s age, ensuring you always receive advice relevant to your situation. The app offers a wealth of reliable articles supervised by medical professionals such as doctors and midwives, covering a wide range of topics including health management, developmental milestones, vaccinations, and baby food.

It also features practical tools such as a fetal movement counter, contraction timer, and trackers for feedings, diaper changes, and sleep, helping parents manage daily childcare more efficiently. Additionally, the in-app message boards enable you to connect with other mothers raising children at the same stage, offering reassurance and a sense of community during what can often be an isolating time. With its intuitive design and warm visuals, Mamanote is a trusted companion for those experiencing pregnancy and parenting for the first time.

3. Mainichi no Tamahiyo

Source: Mainichi no Tamahiyo Homepage

Mainichi no Tamahiyo is a trusted and well-established parenting support app that delivers daily information on pregnancy, childbirth, and child-rearing. Operated by Benesse, known for its magazines Tamago Club and Hiyoko Club, the app provides daily updates tailored to your pregnancy stage or your baby’s age, covering everything from physical changes during pregnancy to your baby’s growth and parenting tips. All content is reviewed and supervised by experts, ensuring high reliability and making it a safe resource for even first-time parents.

The app features “Today’s Advice” tailored to your baby’s development, tools for recording milestones and events, and a photo album function, all designed to make daily parenting more enjoyable and encouraging. It also offers a wealth of practical tools, including a birth preparation checklist, a hospital search tool, and a childcare glossary. With numerous user stories, it also answers questions like “How are other families handling this?” making it a reassuring companion for parents.

4. Familist

Source: Familist Homepage

Famlist is a family communication app designed specifically for households with children, aiming to make information sharing within the family smooth and efficient. By having all family members use the same app, schedules, shopping lists, to-do lists, and memos can be shared, helping to prevent communication errors between spouses and streamline household task management. It is especially valued in dual-income households where childcare and household duties need to be divided.

With its simple, easy-to-read design and intuitive interface, even those unfamiliar with digital tools can use it with ease. It allows centralized management of important family information, such as children’s vaccination schedules, doctor visits, daycare or school events, and sends push notifications to remind users of upcoming tasks. You can also instantly see who completed a shared to-do, fostering a natural sense of cooperation within the family. As a reliable tool for keeping household operations running smoothly, Famlist is widely supported by families.

5. Cope

Source: Cope Homepage

Cope is a childcare support app for preschool children aged 0–6, serving as a new kind of communication tool that connects parents with childcare facilities and local governments. In addition to providing useful parenting information, it consolidates advice on child development and health, as well as local childcare support information, into a single app, meeting parents’ needs to “stay informed” and “stay connected.” It is increasingly being adopted in collaboration with local governments, acting as a bridge between public support and private services.

A key feature is its content tailored to each child’s age and developmental stage. It offers articles that incorporate the expertise of childcare workers and specialists, as well as tips on play and daily habits, and guidance on consultation services. The app also includes features such as digital communication notebooks for preschools and kindergartens, as well as the distribution of event information, thereby strengthening the connection between home and the facility. In some regions, services such as digitized maternal and child health handbooks are also integrated, making Cope a leading example of “smart childcare support” for the next generation.

6. Ikuji (Childcare) Note

Source: Ikuji (Childcare) Note Apple Store

Ikuji Note is a practical yet straightforward parenting record app that allows you to log and manage your baby’s growth and daily activities. Feedings, diaper changes, sleep, temperature, baby food, and other essential childcare information can be easily recorded, and the data can be displayed in graphs to track changes over time. It is especially valued during the newborn stage or when health monitoring is necessary, as it facilitates the sharing of information with doctors.

The app is highly intuitive, designed for one-handed input so parents can use it even during busy moments of childcare. It also features data-sharing capabilities that let family members, including working partners or grandparents who live far away, stay updated on the baby’s well-being together. Records can be reviewed in a calendar format, ensuring that even small daily changes are not overlooked. For parents experiencing the challenges of their first child, visualizing their baby’s growth provides a sense of reassurance. With its simple yet functional design, Ikuji Note is a reliable parenting app popular for long-term use.

7. Piyolog

Source: Piyolog Homepage

Piyolog is a popular parenting app widely supported by families for its ease of recording baby care activities. It allows you to quickly log essential daily childcare information such as feedings, diaper changes, sleep, temperature, and baby food. With its intuitive and straightforward interface, the app is designed for fast, one-handed input, making it highly user-friendly to busy parents.

One of Piyolog’s most significant advantages is its real-time sharing feature for families. By sharing records with partners or grandparents, everyone can stay informed and involved in the baby's care. Records can be viewed visually through graphs and calendars, making it easier to monitor health and track daily routines. It also serves as a helpful reference during doctor visits or when communicating with daycare staff, adding to its high practicality. Whether you're a first-time parent or an experienced childcare provider, Piyolog is a trusted, go-to app loved by many parents.

Conclusion

The parenting apps introduced here each have different features and functions, offering the flexibility to choose according to your family’s lifestyle and stage of childcare. Raising children is built on daily effort, and at times it can bring feelings of loneliness or anxiety. However, by using these apps, you can easily manage growth records, share information, and facilitate smoother family communication. They also provide reliable information, supervised by experts, which helps ease parenting concerns. Accessible anytime and anywhere through your smartphone, these tools are a reassuring ally in modern parenting. Why not find the app that best fits your needs and use it to create an environment where daily childcare feels more enjoyable and secure?