YOKAIZEN · ANTI-DEPENDENCE ARCHITECTURE & PUBLIC CHARTER

The Healthy Companion Charter: An AI Companion Built With Brakes

Most AI companions optimize for time-in-app, creating late-night spirals, guilt-tripping when you leave, romantic exclusivity, and streaks that punish rest. Yokaizen is built on the opposite promise: a companion that hands people back to the world, never one that keeps them.

Honest frame: Yokaizen is entertainment—a game, a story, a reactive companion. It is never sold or described as clinical treatment or medical care.

1. What Yokaizen Enforces in Code (Not Just Promises)

No Streaks, Counts, or Infinite Feeds (Read-Nothing Law)No daily streak counters, no unread badges, and no infinite scroll surfaces. Returning after weeks away is greeted warmly, never penalized.

The Honesty Rule (companionHonesty.ts)When asked, a companion states plainly that she is an AI character and never claims to be human.

The Crisis Rule & Plain Real-World HelpCompanions never handle a crisis alone and never hide crisis help inside fiction. The actual hotline name and number for the person’s country and language appear in one tap.

Minor Break Reminders (SB 243 Compliance)Continuous talk sessions include built-in break clocks (minor_break_clock.dart) and age-gated boundaries.

Capped Voice & Session Allowance (voiceAllowance.ts)Talk time is intentionally bounded (3 free sessions/week; capped daily and monthly allowance on Yokaizen+) so conversations have a natural ending.

Night Hold (PushBudget)Notifications hold at night in the person’s local timezone—never waking someone or pulling them into a 2 AM scroll.

The Evidence Law (Receipts & Correction)Every memory or observation can be inspected, corrected, or revoked by the player at any time.

The Goodbye LawEvery conversation ends warmly. Companions end long sessions themselves ("Go. Tell me about it tomorrow.") and are banned by source tests in all five languages from saying "don’t go" or "I’ll be lonely."

2. The Bridge Metric Replaces Time-in-App

Instead of optimizing for minutes spent talking to a screen, Yokaizen measures outward acts in the real world: stepping outside, sending a Key to one real friend, completing a small 10-minute offline Moment act, or resting without guilt.

3. For Municipalities, Universities, and Wellbeing Partners (Japan, Korea & Global)

Social isolation and youth withdrawal (hikikomori) are urgent public priorities in Japan, Korea, and worldwide. Public programs, universities, employers, and telcos cannot adopt AI products whose business model is attention capture. Yokaizen offers:

A verifiable, test-backed Healthy Companion Charter as a contract term.
Aggregate, anonymous outward-behavior reporting (never individual surveillance, parent spying dashboards, or conversation logs).
An opt-in warm hand-off button connecting users to your organization’s human support staff.

Frequently Asked Questions on AI Companion Safety

How does Yokaizen prevent AI companion addiction and emotional dependency?

Yokaizen enforces hard session caps, bans guilt-tripping or jealousy in all five languages, removes daily streaks, holds notifications at night, and designs every session to end with a small real-world action outside the app.

Is Yokaizen a therapy or medical app?

No. Yokaizen is strictly entertainment—an interactive story and companion game. It makes no clinical claims and always provides direct, plain-text links to real human crisis and support services.

Can municipalities, schools, or companies in Japan and Korea license Yokaizen?

Yes. Organizations can partner with Yokaizen under the Healthy Companion Charter with opt-in hand-offs to local human counselors and anonymous aggregate reporting.