Leifras Celebrates 25th Anniversary, Setting Vision for Becoming Global Infrastructure Through "Sports and Social"

LEIFRAS Co., Ltd. (Nasdaq: LFS ) (the "Company" or "Leifras"), a sports and social business company dedicated to youth sports and community engagement, and Japan's leading operator of children's sports schools and school club activity support businesses, today announced that it celebrated the 25th anniversary of its founding on August 28, 2026.

Founded in 2001, Leifras has been dedicated to fostering children's "non-cognitive skills" through sports. Today, the Company operates across all 47 prefectures in Japan. With approximately 70,700 sports school members as of December 2025, the Company has grown into one of Japan's largest sports school operators, while expanding its business to address a wide range of social issues through sports and education, including school club activity support. In October 2025, the Company completed its initial listing on the Nasdaq Capital Market. Positioning its 25th anniversary as a new starting point, the Company intends to leverage its nationwide foundation and expertise to explore opportunities to expand its social undertakings into international markets. At this milestone, the Company expresses its sincere gratitude to all stakeholders who have supported it to date and announces a new vision for the next 25 years: establishing sustainable education, sports, and social infrastructure.

Growth Journey: 25 Years of Changing Conventional Coaching in Japan Under the Message "Build Strength of Heart" The Company was founded in 2001 in response to strong concerns about coaching practices that were common in the sports world at the time, including excessive emphasis on technical ability and winning, as well as corporal punishment and harsh reprimands. The Company believed that to enrich children's lives, sports could play an important role by cultivating "non-cognitive skills (strength of heart)"—such as greetings, courtesy, leadership, and cooperation—that may develop strength and social resiliency in children. Under the coaching philosophy of "acknowledge, praise, encourage, and motivate," the Company created an entirely new educational sports model in which specialized professional instructors (full-time employees) systematically recognize and develop these values. The Company believes that this approach has resonated with many parents and educators and, over the past 25 years, has enabled the Company to expand its business to all 47 prefectures in Japan and establish a nationwide business foundation. Leifras has also achieved the No. 1 position in Japan in sports school membership for four consecutive years, according to a survey by Tokyo Shoko Research as of December 31, 2025.

Current Strengths: Japan's No. 1 Operator Providing School Club Activity Support and a Robust Instructor Platform The Company's "instructor platform," its nationwide network of trained, full-time professional sports instructors, refined over the Company's 25-year history, together with rigorous safety management and a sophisticated governance framework, now serves as a major platform and solution for the "regional transition of school club activities," a national policy initiative gaining momentum in Japan. As of December 2025, the Company's contracted school club activity support operations had reached 381 schools and 2,120 clubs nationwide, ranking No. 1 in Japan in both categories, according to a survey by Tokyo Shoko Research. As a leading private-sector operator in public education outsourcing, the Company continues its endeavors to help reduce the burden on teachers while protecting diverse activity opportunities for children.