Rise of the technology sun in the East

December 02, 2017 05:21 pm | Updated December 03, 2017 01:03 am IST

Photo shows a portable facial recognition system developed by the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group for financial settlements. The device is being exhibited at the CEATEC Japan electronics and information technology convention that started on Oct. 3, 2017 at Makuhari Messe in Chiba. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo (Photo by Kyodo News via Getty Images)

Photo shows a portable facial recognition system developed by the Sumitomo Mitsui Financial Group for financial settlements. The device is being exhibited at the CEATEC Japan electronics and information technology convention that started on Oct. 3, 2017 at Makuhari Messe in Chiba. (Kyodo) ==Kyodo (Photo by Kyodo News via Getty Images)

Increasing protectionism in the U.S., combined with the trend of Western firms choosing to retain Indian talent locally, means that global opportunities for Indian IT professionals are getting squeezed. But even as the technology sun may be setting in the West, it could be rising in the East, with Japan ramping up its interest in India’s talent pool.

Japan’s shrinking demographics are causing a rethink of the archipelago’s notoriously immigrant-averse outlook. In 2016, only 9,80,000 babies were born in Japan, down from 2 million in 1975. The working age population is predicted to decline from 77 million in 2015 to 67 million in 2030. Unsurprisingly, more than half the companies surveyed recently by Japan’s Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry, say they have an interest in recruiting from overseas. To boost skilled immigration, Tokyo now allows foreign professionals to get permanent residency in Japan after living in the country for one to three years.

Japan’s shortfall in talent in the IT sector is acute. The country already suffers a lacuna of 2,00,000 IT engineers, which is expected to grow to 8,00,000 by 2030. India is a fertile hunting ground for new talent. Yohei Shibasaki, CEO of Fourth Valley Concierge Corp, a headhunting firm based in Tokyo, says he has begun recruiting from 30 Indian universities, including the IITs. “Japan realises that the best talent is in India, but we cannot manage with English speakers,” he adds. As a result, only 20 of Japan’s top firms recruit from India.

Harsh Obrai, the director of the India IT Forum in Tokyo, says the numbers of Indians working in Japan are gradually increasing. About 8,000 of the 23,000-strong Indian diaspora here are IT professionals. But he admits that living as a foreigner in Japan continues to be onerous from having to file tax returns in Japanese, to an inheritance tax that applies on global assets even for people who have only worked in the country for a few years. Securing housing without a guarantor, who is legally required to pay the rent if a tenant falls behind, is another obstacle.

Work culture

Some of these challenges have eased. In particular, a few Indian schools have opened in Tokyo. Housing with simpler rules for renting is also increasingly available, and areas with a preponderance of Indians, like Nishikasai in eastern Tokyo, have emerged. But V. Sriram, a long-term Japan resident who established Infosys’s first Japan office in 1997, believes the crucial issue that constrains more immigration from India is the difference in sensibility and work culture. In Japan, every task is considered equally important, big or small, he says, whereas Indians prioritise certain outcomes over others. There is little room in Japan for India’s famous improvisation. “The Japanese spend much more time testing for unlikely, random exceptions than Indians are used to.”

Mr. Sriram thinks it works better for both Japanese firms and Indian professionals to collaborate in third markets like the U.S. rather than in Japan itself. “The expectation remains that others have to change to fit Japan rather than Japan changing to accommodate them.” Mr. Shibasaki however, remains optimistic and points out that Japan’s foreign labour force is growing by about 20% every year. His company has proposed the setting up of Japan Centres in select IITs to teach students Japanese and familiarise them with cultural niceties connected to food and dress. For Indian IT job seekers, learning to wield chopsticks and the correct way to bow could yield rich dividends.

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