Leifras Co., Ltd. (NASDAQ:LFS) reported an 8% rise in its share price on Thursday after Monbetsu City in Hokkaido awarded the company a contract to run community-based club activities at junior high schools.
The agreement runs for three years and is scheduled to commence in April 2026. Under the terms, Leifras will operate and manage a consolidated community club that serves students from three municipal junior high schools as the city transitions away from school-centered extracurricular arrangements toward a community-based approach.
The program, referred to by local officials as the "Monbetsu Model," is intended to counteract declining participation in school clubs linked to Japan's shrinking youth population. By pooling resources and students from three junior high schools, Monbetsu aims to offer a broader array of sports and activities than each school could sustain independently.
This new contract supplements Leifras's expanding footprint in supporting school club operations across Japan. For the nine months ended September 30, 2025, the company recorded social business sales of JPY 2,358.6 million, an increase of 36.4% year-over-year. Over the same period the number of schools under contract for club activities rose 53.2% year-over-year to 360 schools.
Leifras has also recently secured several significant projects in Japan's urban centers, including contracts in Nagoya City, Minato Ward in Tokyo, and Suita City in Osaka Prefecture, reflecting a wider push into both regional and metropolitan markets.
Kiyotaka Ito, Representative Director and CEO of Leifras, said, "We are honored to be awarded this contract by the Monbetsu City and to support the expansion of community-based club activities beginning in 2026. Leifras remains committed to providing a safe and secure environment for junior high school students in Monbetsu City to connect with friends from other schools and enjoy sports."
The Monbetsu contract highlights two concurrent trends for Leifras: growing demand from municipalities seeking to reorganize extracurricular provision amid demographic pressures, and the company’s continued expansion of its social business sales and contracted school base nationwide.
Summary
Leifras secured a three-year contract from Monbetsu City to manage a community-based junior high school club program beginning April 2026. The initiative is part of a strategy to consolidate extracurricular activities across three municipal schools to broaden student access to sports and activities in response to falling youth numbers. The award follows a period of rising social business sales and growth in the number of contracted schools for Leifras.