Asian business is heating up in Japan!

For Japanese corporations, Asia has traditionally played a major role as a place to set up overseas production bases in the manufacturing industry. However, Asian countries are experiencing major economic growth and more companies in retail, services, the content industry, food service, and other fields are expanding into these new consumer markets. Japan has also set forth national strategies aimed at growing the tourism industry, and the number of Asian tourists to Japan is exploding.

The Japanese market is shrinking as Asian markets expand

In contrast to the domestic Japanese market that is shrinking due to its ageing population and falling birth rate, it is predicted that Asian markets will continue expanding as working-age populations grow in these countries. More and more Japanese companies are expanding into Asia, not only major corporations but also small-to-medium enterprises such as rural foodstuff manufacturers, breweries, and small factories with technological strength.

Asian business as a national strategy

In addition, the Japanese government is implementing Asian business-related initiatives like the following.

・“Cool Japan” strategy

The Cool Japan strategy is aimed at boosting exports of Japanese culture such as anime, manga, and other content; fashion; and food. This strategy is being implemented in a diverse way in Asia, for instance a test marketing support project for bringing Kyushu-grown foods to Thailand and s project to increase the Japanese comic market using smartphones. As for Japanese pop culture, local groups like the popular Japanese idol group AKB48 are making waves in Asian cities such as Shanghai, Jakarta, Bangkok, Taipei, and Manila.

・Drastically relaxed visa regulations for Asian citizens

With the goal of increasing the number of foreign tourists visiting Japan to 40 million by 2020, in 2013 and 2014 the Japanese government relaxed tourist visa requirements for Southeast Asian countries including Malaysia, Thailand, Vietnam, the Philippines, and Indonesia. It also relaxed visa rules for Chinese citizens in 2016. The number of tourists is soaring thanks to this policy, and various businesses are arising targeted at Asian tourists in Japan.

In this way, Asian business is growing in Japan, and it is certainly true that Asian human resources with Japanese skills will only increase in importance.

Read more about Japanese recruitment information, see Japanese-Jobs.com ( https://jp.japanese-jobs.com/en).