In addition to photo sharing and decoration apps, a genre of apps popular among women here in Japan is the utility category. Specifically, many of these are apps that provide a convenient way for women to track their menstrual cycles. Apps like Luna Luna and Lalu are particularly popular with Japanese users. Luna Luna began as a dedicated feature phone service, and it had more than 4.5 million users as of April 2013. Lalu is a product by Ateam, a company located in Nagoya, Aichi prefecture. This app had over one million users as of Feburary of 2013.

Ateam recently released a new community app for the same target demographic. It’s called Urara. This particular community is aimed at women who want to get pregnant or those in fertility treatment. The app was born out of a growing need seen among the existing users of Lalu. Although the app’s main users are women, partners or spouses can register to use the app.

Users can find answers to their questions thanks to contributions from other community members. This is especially useful since many such users may not feel comfortable discussing this sort of topic openly with friends. Within the app, users can also turn to professional counselors to receive monthly advice. Other content, such as recipes that may help with fertility, are available in the app.

According to data from the Japanese Ministry of Health, the amount of financial aid provided for fertility treatment has grown by six times when compared to seven years ago. This is, of course, part of the reason behind the country’s aging population, and Urara aspires to provide a solution for this very urgent problem.

Urara is available for download over on Google Play and will cost a monthly fee of 350 yen. (or about $3.50)