Japan aims at attracting a large number of Indian IT companies and around 2 lakh IT professionals to overcome the shortage of IT professionals in the country. Currently, there are 71 Indian companies in Japan out of that a sizable are IT and ITES such as Hinduja Tech, Tata Elxsi and Wipro. There is also great potential for Indian companies to collaborate with Japanese industries in the fields of finance, manufacturing, electronics, automobile, tourism and agriculture. There are also technologies such as fintech, auto driving, big data, Artificial Intelligence, where Indian companies have a lot of scope to work in Japan. These interesting observations were made by Shigeki Maeda, Executive VP, JETRO during an India-Japan Business Partnership Seminar organised jointly by Bangalore Chamber of Industry and Commerce and JETRO in Bengaluru recently. Japan External Trade Organization (JETRO) is a Japanese government backed organization that promotes mutually beneficial trade and investment relations between Japan and other nations. JETRO does not charge any commission from the companies and helps them set up their business free of cost in Japan.
Maeda also informed that Japan had set up an IoT Acceleration Lab where many Indian companies such as Flutura Business Solutions Private Limited, Linkeddots Engineering Solutions Private Limited, Preva Systems Limited, Srishti ESDM Limited andTeevr Data Limited among others have already participated. The country is also issuing a Japanese Green Card for highly skilled Indian IT professionals which will also help them settle down in Japan.
“Currently, there are around 9,20,000 IT professionals in Japan and there is an immediate demand for more than 2 lakh IT professionals from India which is likely to swell up to 8 lakh IT professionals by 2030. This is being necessitated due to the advent of rapid technological innovations in the societal needs in Japan. On the other hand around 1400 Japanese companies have established their presence in India and represent different sectors such as machine tools, automotive and automotive components, electrical and electronics. Companies such as Panasonic, Toshiba, Hitachi are also in the process of establishing R&D centres in India,” pointed out Maeda.
One of the recent entrants in the Japanese market, Bengaluru based Utthunga Technologies, has already developed strong business with three Japanese companies after having started to explore the Japanese market in 2017. The company is expecting 13 new business relationships this year in Japan. This company took the help of JETRO in making its entry into the Japanese market. “Having a registered office in Japan helps and the knowledge of Japanese language helps in building strong business relationships. At the same time understanding the business etiquette and Japanese culture and having a subject matter expert during sales discussion, hiring native Japanese consultant or employees helps in making inroads in Japan,” explained Smitha Rao, Director, and Co Founder, Utthunga Technologies.
Similarly, Swastik Kulkarni, India Desk In Charge, Invest Japan Department at JETRO Tokyo noted that the Indian population in Japan is growing stronger at an average of 2,000 people per year and in the year 2017, around 134,400 tourists from India visited and it was increasing at 9.3 per cent YoY. “There are localities such as little India in the western part of Tokyo which is home to around 8,000 Indians. Though in smaller cities only Japanese language is spoken but off late English is becoming an integral part of the Japanese education system. The Japanese government is also taking steps in changing the workaholic culture in the country,” remarked Kulkarni.