Obstacles For Engineers Bound For Japan
By Anohar John
Jan. 3, 2005

Japan today is at the crossroads. It has a great cultural heritage, an economy coming out of the disasters of world war, and prosperous hard working mentality and, is looking up to information technology sector for a shot in the arm, but the Japanese IT industry is acutely short in human resources. It has been estimated that Japan would need half a million IT personnel in the next five years and a report from Japan says that the Government has decided in principle that foreign skilled labour must be used to keep the Japanese economy going and maintain the country's competitiveness in the global IT industry.

So, time for discussing "Is Japanese useful?" is over and it is now upto us to gear up to the challenge of Japan's IT industry. Japan is planning to recruit 10,000 Indian software engineers to meet the acute shortage of highly skilled software professionals in the next five years. If IT industry in India wants to exploit the Japanese market potential, we should start learning Japanese and learn that language well, to achieve a level of competence of a high order in it - to a level to develop software in Japanese. Even the one or two Indian Universities that offer degree courses in Japanese language can only turn out fairly good interpreters; proficiency in reading and writing the language is still weak. There is an urgent need for a large number of good Japanese language teachers in India, preferably natives, and a key to fill this gap lies with Japan. The Japanese government could take the initiative to offer facilities for the training of teachers in the language, but any major initiative in this regard on the part of the Japanese government has to wait for better days than the present. Till then, there is bound to be a mismatch between the demand for and supply of competent ,Indian IT professionals in Japan; and the loser, both Japan and India.

India's relationship with Japan is well-known and dates back to ancient time when Buddhist philosophy made its impact. However, such philosophy or connections now occupies very little space in the modern Japan. Not being tangible, the root of the religion has remained only in the minds of a few aged Japanese people.

In recent times, Japanese corporations and media have come to see India's global success in IT. But the general view is that India is still little understood and feels distant. A few of the large manufacturers have established development centers in India. Japan continues to be a large importer of software from the United States not realizing that much of the software development has actually been done in India

Remarkably, one Indian city which has clearly set its eyes on Japan is the City of Pune, located at approximately 180 km southeast of Mumbai. City of Pune, which is known since old times as a seat of knowledge and education, had sowed the seeds of Japanese language way back in 1965. Thanks to the enthusiastic support by the local students who studied Japanese without any specific commercial incentives, today, that initiative has grown into a movement which sees over 12,000 students studying Japanese language every year.

This clearly puts the city in the top place as for the number of Japanese language students in India. The software exports from Pune to Japan increased eight-fold to US$120 million in 2004 from US$15 million in 2000. In the past two years over 100 Indian IT persons from Pune have joined Japanese IT industry. On the Indian side, Pune clearly is a pioneer as a city to lead a new era of Indo-Japanese collaboration.

It was waiting to happen, yet most didn?t see it coming. They thought IT would defy Newton?s laws. However, what went up, is now coming down ? high-flying companies are no longer flying, and have jettisoned some of their crew to ride through the slowdown,

RADARS and Crystal Balls are shrouded in mist. Organizations large and small, but largely the small ones, are scampering in a spate of anxiety and a little confusion over the uncertainty. The gold rush is declared over.

Those who made money in the gold rush were those who sold the picks and shovels and offered mining services. They continue to make money. This is true of great companies, too. Everything has just become difficult by an order of magnitude. However, great companies are already in some state of preparedness. The rest need to acquire the armory. The average and the good now need to become great. But, the question is: how?

The main factor is the highly positive signs of growth potential in Japan. Japan has announced Visa simplifications.

Japan posted a phenomenal economic recovery and became the second-biggest economy. It found a way to produce goods of the highest quality at lower costs and shorter product development life-cycles. This became legendary and prompted the Emperor to give the ?Second Order of the Sacred Treasure? to the man who evangelized and taught Japan quality.

It is said that the only thing constant is change. Nothing could be more influenced by change than software. It is but natural to expect the software world to manage change well. By logical extension, the software industry should also manage the change in status of markets. However, change may not be beneficial all the time. What is required is to manage it to change the change into improvement. Good change management techniques will benefit the offshore model tremendously. Development of much more robust business models is also tied in to this.

The CEO of IAP Company Limited, Mr. Vipul Kant Upadhyay met Mr. Mori, The Prime Minister of Japan. Various issues like better technological cooperation between India and Japan were discussed. IAP, which has a tie-up with the largest Human Resource company in Japan, is training and bringing 10,000 software professional over the next 5 years. Mr. Upadhyay also apprised Prime Minister Mori about this project and other innovative projects of IAP between India and Japan in the field of IT.

The restrictions for entering in Japan are now released for the talented Indian IT Engineers after the visit of last Prime Minister of Japan, Mr. Mori to India and Indian IT minister Mr. Mahajan to Japan. There is a new policy now stating to take Indian IT engineers first in Japan then other foreigners to fill the shortage of IT engineers in Japan. But due to some problems like Shortage of knowledge of Japanese Language, Japanese Culture and Business rules, the number of Indian IT engineers in Japan is less. Most of the Indian IT engineers know the Japanese Language but that level is upto some basic Greetings or writing and reading Hiragana, Katakana; so one has to pay extra cost of interpreter to read and understand Japanese Specifications.

Now, this new company i-POC went to India and specially PUNE, the city where the Japanese Language education is very much superior, planned a project of education of IT engineers in Japanese Language, and tied-up with one of the IT training school for co-operation in IT training, in this way we structured a business scheme to bring IT engineers able to use Japanese Language. The contents of education in Pune are:

( 1 ) Education of IT in Japanese Language
( 2 ) Cultural translation of Japanese culture and

Business rules.

This training is short term Training having long term effects.

The Japanese Language level of these IT engineers will be about 2nd level of Japanese Language Proficiency Test ( Around 1500 Kanji characters ) and who will be able to read and write Japanese System Specifications, and IT level will be the specialist in Java, XML etccwhich Japanese software market is lacking these days. Above that, to support these engineers placed in Japan we are thinking to establish " i-POC Indian IT Engineer Support Center ( Provisional name )" in Softopia Japan, i.e. in Head office, and from there the life support of these IT engineers and employment management will be performed.

For the last 12 years hiring and employing software (and network) engineers from overseas to work in Japan. Some companies have made numerous trips to get people from the India. Heck I even set up an office in Bombay to interview more than 1,000 engineers over a 5-year period in the early 1999's

What is found that although there are many difficulties involved in bringing someone from a different culture into Japan, and the fact is that their creativity, and original approach to solving problems makes foreign engineers a valuable contribution to a complex software project. In addition, foreign engineers often have better formal training than their Japanese counterparts in database schema design and thus their larger projects tend to be more stable and are completed on time and in budget. It's not that unusual to find foreign engineers with advanced degrees in complex software and networking techniques which Japanese engineers can't get training for here in Japan.

Some people say that programmers from different countries have different "working personalities" as a result of their culture. For example, Indian engineers are supposed to be good at math and therefore at database work, whereas US engineers are creative and do better in real-world interfacing and user interfaces. To some extent this may be true in the lower grades of engineer, but as you start to work with highly skilled staff, the national distinctions blur and the person's true intellect and technical training become much more important. Therefore, I'd have to say that if you were thinking of bringing database engineers in and were trying to decide between India and China, the more you pay, the less the origin of the person matters.

The most common reasons for companies wanting to bring in foreign engineers are: a) to save costs over local alternatives, b) to get higher skill and quality, c) to work in a technology that there is no local supply for. Most smaller software producing companies in particular get excited when they hear that the average Indian or Chinese software engineer with a Master's Degree only gets about JPY50,000-JPY80,000 per month. Then they offer the person a job here in Tokyo for JPY250,000 and wonder why the person leaves the job after only 6 months on the job. The usual comment is, "Oh, those foreigners, they have no sense of loyalty or obligation."

The fact is that software developers are not sweat shop laborers, instead they're highly intelligent individuals who can probably outthink the boss any day of the week. Hiring foreigners for a sweat shop operation is just like trying to hire Japanese for the same job: it will only work until the person wakes up and realize that he/she can do better elsewhere.

No, instead, the way to save money by bringing in a foreign engineer is to get someone at a high level and let their efficiency be the source of your savings. Either that or consider off-shore outsourcing, where you put 80% of your manpower in the home country and bring only 20% (at a high enough salary to keep them) into Japan. This strategy is only effective if you have a project team of 10 or more people - so it isn't for everyone. Also, it means that you have to find excellent communicators, who can pick up client specifications in Japan and relay them in highly detailed specification documents back to the home country - a difficult task.

One thing to remember when recruiting overseas is that foreign engineers, and Indian ones in particularly are both fascinated and horrified at the same time by the idea of working in Japan. So a large part of your time will be spent telling them how great it is to live in Japan (especially since most people want to go to the USA) and how the different culture is actually a lot of fun. To help things along,

Also, people tend to forget how expensive living in Japan is, so we always check if the person has enough money to eat and catch transport. Coming from a country where JPY50,000 is a lot of money, buying a JPY1,000 bento for lunch is expensive for someone who has just arrived and who may not get paid for another 30 days. If the new employee doesn't have enough cash, we take a small risk and advance them the money.

Looking after them Perhaps the biggest problem for most newly arrived foreign engineers is loneliness and homesickness. If the person gets too depressed, they become extremely demotivated, and in extreme cases will even run away - returning to the home country, or just simply disappearing for several days. The best way to get your new employee past this stage is to remember that most people are simple and satisfied by even a hint of home. For example, helping them to find a local restaurant that serves familiar foods, a store that sells home-cooking ingredients, local publications in their language, and of course, local social groups with countrymen who have gone through the same acclimatization process and can give personal support to the person. For example, there is an Indian Society here in Tokyo that has over 3,000 members.

Managing On the employer's side, the biggest problem is how Japanese managers can manage their new foreign staff members. Of course, language is a major issue but equally difficult is the fact that Japanese companies forget that newly arrived foreign employees have no idea of Japanese "common sense" - so this leads to misunderstandings about the employee's intention. For example, Americans often want directness and a lot freedom in deciding what to do, whereas, most Japanese traditional companies prefer to tell the employee what to do.

One area of "common sense" that almost all foreigners don't understand is office habits, such as not leaving the office before your boss, looking busy even when you are not, and not criticizing your seniors even if they are wrong. Of course, even some Japanese disagree with these points, but the fact is that in many old-fashioned companies, disobeying these unspoken rules makes the Japanese staff feel that the foreigner is selfish and unhelpful. What is the answer to this problem? Simple, give the new candidate some cultural training.

This leads me to the fact that companies hiring foreigners MUST offer their employees cultural and language training. Here at LINC Media we always offer a language and training subsidy to the employee, so that they can learn how to fit in. We also appoint a senior employee to be the buddy or "sempai" to the new person, helping to take care of them until they can figure out the ropes for themselves.

One way around the management problem is a simple technique used at LINC Media. That is, make sure that the direct manager responsible for day-to-day issues is a fellow foreigner, who understands both the new employee's culture and who has been in Japan for a while. While it may cost more, or require promotion of a foreigner to kacho/ bucho status in a conservative company, having foreigners dealing with other foreigners really releases tension that can otherwise build up. The only thing to watch out for here, is that the foreigners and Japanese don't start to form different cliques and stop working with each other. So obviously the foreign manager has to be very sure of the job role, and have a close, understanding relationship with his/her Japanese immediate superior.

The Japan Foundation administers the Japanese Language Proficiency Test once a year all over the world. In India, the test sites includes New Delhi, Pune, Calcutta. A new test site at Chennai is being added from December 2000. There are four levels in the test: Level 4 (or 'yon kyuu') is the easiest and Level 1 (or 'ikkyuu') is the hardest.

The number of participants reflects the number of learners and the popularity of learning Japanese. As shown in the figure below, the number of participants in all over India has been increasing in recent years. A closer look at this figure reveals some interesting facts.

In Pune, which is the test site for participants from the western and the southern India, the number is increasing by 50 percents for the last four years. The number of participants in other areas is remaining almost unchanged. What is the cause of the steep increase in western and southern India? The answer is clear. It is IT industries which drive people to rush to study Japanese. Not only the symbolic centers for IT industries such as Technology Park in Bangalore and Hitech City in Hyderabad but also other IT industries are sprouting in western and southern India. Some of them are targeting Japan as their business market and developing programs for Japanese clients.

The wages for IT engineers in India, which is relatively high compared to other labors with the same level of education, are still lower compared to those in Japan. There is no need to mention the richness and quality of human resources in southern India in IT.

Now, let us see how software development for the Japanese market works. Let us say a Japanese company wants an Indian software engineer to develop a program, the Japanese company will give Indian engineer a plan written in Japanese. The first task for the engineer is to translate the plan into English. After the plan is translated into English, the Indian programmers write a program in English. This task can be done by programmers without the knowledge of Japanese. Then words and sentences which appear on the screen such as 'Type in your ID number' or 'click OK' will be translated into Japanese. Then test runs will be repeated. Finally, a manual which goes along with the program will be written in English first by engineers and will be translated into Japanese by so called language specialists or consultants. Among these steps, the first and the last require the highest competence in the Japanese language. Translation of a plan in Japanese to English is usually made by Indians who are aquainted with both a computer language and Japanese. The last step, namely, writing manual in Japanese, is not possible unless the person is quite competent in Japanese along with fluent knowledge of programming. At present, very few engineers from India are able to produce manuals or written documents in Japanese which meet the standard in Japan. However, these documents can be put into use only after edited by Japanese engineers . Now I touched upon the problem of quality. Let me discuss the problems I see among those who are trying to get into the Japanese software market.

2. Shortage of qualified language specialists.

Shortage of qualified engineers with good Japanese competence is a major problem in the current IT situation and it is one of the most difficult problems to solve. It is not easy to acquire a foreign language to the level of a practical use. Generally speaking, Indians who are in the multilingual environment from their birth have an aptitude in acquiring listening and speaking skill of foreign languages. However, the ability of speaking a foreign language gives a wrong impression that he or she possess a good command of the language. What is really required for software developers is not expressions of greetings or daily conversations but a solid competence in reading and writing of technical documents along with technical terms. This seems to be a weak area of foreign language learners in India. Level 1 in Japanese Competency Test requires at least 1200 hours of study. However, at present, no academic institutions in India can train students to this level. Even for graduates from three-year major course at JNU can barely pass level 1. The level itself is not set too high if compared to TOEFL score required by applicants to American universities. The Japanese competency test, like TOEFL, is used to measure the applicantsŽ?ŽÇreadiness to enter a Japanese college. In this sense, the Japanese language competency test is comparable to TOEFL. Both tests set the minimum requirement for success in academic career that he or she will pursue. It is hard to imagine that anybody in the US will hire a person who cannot pass TOEFL as an English translator. However, in India, beginners if not novice in Japanese language, are making considerable amount of money by doing translation business.

3. Shortage of Institutions

3.1. Colleges

In India, there are only two BA courses in Japanese, namely Jawaharlal Nehru University and Visva Bharati University, and two post graduate courses, Delhi University and JNU. Graduates from these colleges may not be ready to work as a Japanese specialist from the day 1st. However, thanks to their command in Japanese trained at college and their high potentials, they are trained through on- job training, and in a year or so, they become qualified to work as a specialist in the Japanese section.

Some other universities have been offering part-time courses in Japanese. Furthermore, some of them have been trying to find a way to promote their part-time courses to degree courses. In spite of their continuous efforts, obstacles that are hard to solve has hindered the development of courses of the Japanese language. Institutions are facing a shortage of staff more seriously than software firms.

Let me cite one example what happened in Hyderabad for the last few years. In Hyderabad, there used to be two institutions offering Japanese language courses. Both of them have lost the instructors and were forced to close the courses. The instructors are now working as Japanese language consultants at software companies. What happened to those institutions is the reflection of the recent trend of career planning of those who learnt Japanese. Scarcely any people remain on an academic track once they learn that the salary offered by a private office is incomparable to that by academic institutions run by the government. It will not take more than a few years before a newly graduate will surpass a renowned professor in terms of salary. Academic institutions have to take an aggressive step to reform the system in order to attract both students and instructors. Some institutions or their foster father, government, are somehow reluctant in restructuring of existing systems, which is a matter of daily practice in private sectors to win business competitions. I was surprised to learn that there are six full time professors in Russian department in one of the institutions in Hyderabad and they have been waiting for a single new student in vain for quite some time while Japanese students lost all of their instructors one after another. I felt as if a ghost of socialism of old days were still lingering around on the campus.

3.2. Private language Schools

Most of the learners of the Japanese language belong to private language schools due to the limitation of official courses offered by colleges. Some of those private schools are flexibly modifying the curriculum and offering specialized Japanese course for software developers. However, the unstable status of instructors is a chronic problem among private institutions. Many instructors are underpaid and leave schools for better opportunities. Some institutions do not limit their activities to teaching but also dispatch instructors for translation and interpretation work to survive.

4. Lack of quality checking

As mentioned above, it is not a matter of months to learn Japanese and any foreign languages. Under the current situation where demand outreaches supply, however, apparently no so qualified people are in business. English translation sounds perfect unless it is checked against original texts in Japanese. The problem is who can do it. Translation into Japanese does not mean anything if one does not know Japanese, whether it is a masterpiece or a just doodle. They know something went wrong only after receiving claims from clients and lose the companyŽ?ŽÇs credibility. It is surprising that there are people who do not doubt that a three-month training is just enough to start translation. I anticipate that the irrational spree will not last long. The law of selection will come into play and good ones will remain and others will be weeded out in the very near future. Otherwise the whole IT engineers from India targeting Japan will suffer.

I have discussed many negative aspects of the present situation of the Japanese language in the IT community. It is only because I hope that a healthy relationship between Indian and Japanese IT industries will develop. In addition, in order to avoid an incorrect impression, I would like to emphasize that there are highly qualified people who are working hard for the perfection of Japanese translation and interpretation.

5. New trend in training programs

Some Training companies are now hiring full-time native Japanese language instructors directly from Japan who have high computer literacy. I want to introduce one case here in Bangalore. In an India- Japan joint venture company, the very intensive training program for new-comers continue as long as ten months. Those who are in the program are allowed to use only Japanese from morning till evening. Teaching aids such as audio-visual materials and studying materials are all provided by the office. Even computers in the office are working under the Japanese environment. Trainees learn not only grammar and expressions but also the business attitude of Japanese people, which is required for a successful business with Japanese clients. This intensive program is the best Japanese language program I have ever seen in India. The program does not stop here. After completing the ten-month language training, the trainees continue their on-job training in Japan for two years.

It is ironic that those who understand the quality standard required to work for Japanese clients also know that they cannot fully rely on the existing institutions. Instead of waiting for the limited number of professionals from reputed institutions to join the office, companies have started their own in- house program with Japanese national instructors and a curriculum specifically designed for engineers working for Japan.

Japan plans to hire up to 10,000 Indian software engineers. The Japanese government has decided in principle that foreign skilled labour must be used to keep the country's economy going and maintain its competitiveness, Asahi Shimbun newspaper said. A major Japanese firm, Pasona, has already arranged to bring in the first batch of 50 Indians IT engineers in September and is likely to recruit 10,000 Indian engineers over the next five years.

I am sure this report is ringing a bell among IT community so loudly. It is still too early to judge that recruitment of 10,000 IT specialists for the next five year is actually realized or fizzle out with a mere slogan. Nevertheless, it is not deniable that the door of Japan to the Indian IT experts are opened now.

6. Final remark

Finally, let me add a very positive sign developing right now in this area. Bangalore University and Pune University are planning to start the first degree course in western and southern India respectively. Once they are realized and combined with rich human resources in the area, IT industries will greatly benefit from them. The Japan foundation will also support the program by providing instructorŽ?ŽÇs salary and donating teaching materials.

With an average salary equivalent of only 30,000 to 60,000 yen per month for experienced DOS and UNIX systems analysts in India, and comparable positions in Japan paying 500,000 to 800,000 yen, it is little wonder that Indian companies are beating a path to Japan. From Bombay and Bangalore, a small but growing number of well-organized and well-funded companies are setting up shop in Tokyo. Their target market is largely the programming of turnkey business systems. However, as more and more corporations tu rn to foreign outsourcing as a way to reduce overhead and improve their intellectual skill base, manpower contracts for Indian programmers are also becoming common.

Go East, young man!

Based on club membership lists and known major computer sites, a reasonable estimate would appear that there are about 200 Indian software specialists currently working in Tokyo. (Figures for other parts of Japan are unknown.) Many of these specialists ar e young--in their late twenties or early thirties--and they have a level of education and skill difficult to find in the Japanese software industry. The most common qualification is a master's degree in computer science with three- to five-years of experi ence in a relevant programming field.

The Japan Data Processing and Developing Association predicts that Japan will face a shortage of some 540,000 programmers by the year 2000. So while a pioneering force of 200 may seem a drop in the ocean compared to Japan's overall needs, industry watche rs predict that the number of Indians urlll rise rapidly. This will become especially true as Japanese industry downsizes and adopts the higher complexity of Open Systems solutions.

Kommera Reddy is typical of India's best and brightest. At 30, he is team leader of a development effort at a large toreign bank in Tokyo. Initially brought to Japan for a stint of only six months, the client liked him so much that his employer asked him to extend his stay just a few more months." That was in mid-1993, and he is still here.

Reddy has two master's degrees and is experienced in almost every major RDBMS language, from ORACLE and SYBASE to Foxpro and Access. Reddy confidently says that he can learn a new database language with only two days of exposure and practice. Although he declined to state his salary, he admits that "the allowance is very low compared to Japanese employees." Computing Japan's own inquiries reveal that typically people such as Reddy receive an income of from Y160,000 to 250,000 after accommodation and imme diate living costs.

Quite apart from the cost benefits, Reddy sums up the demand for Indian programmers as, "The Japanese are unable to do 'complete' software that is portable and integrated. I was shocked when I first came to Japan to see that the Japanese teams around me were producing text-handling routines that didn't even have wrap-around handling. The Japanese programmers I have met have a very narrow focus and are not able to consider project issues outside of those assigned to them." He ack nowledges that there are some very talented Japanese programmers around, but feels that "they are still low down on the learning curve for the newer RDBMS languages, and will take time to pick up speed." Successful Indian transplants Probably the best known of the Indian software companies in Tokyo is Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), a subsidiary of Tata Ltd., India's largest conglomerate. TCS is also one of the most successful of the Indian transplants, with Japan-based revenues expected to exceed Y350 million this year. The Japanese operation started as a liaison office in 1987, and upgraded to a branch office in 1992. Company Manager Srinivasan Hari now controls the services of nearly 50 engineers (bot h on-site and off-site) as well as other permanent office staff.

TCS has a strong base upon which to build. Overall, it ranks as the largest software house in South Asia, employing some 3,500 software engineers in India. Reflecting the high degree of competition in the Indian computer industry over 70% of the TCS tech nical staff have a master's degree in engineering.

Tata has another company active in Japan: Tata Unisys. As the name implies, the company is a joint-venture with Unisys Japan and works exclusively on projects for Unisvs customers. Currently Tata Unisys has 8 engineers in Japan, all of whom are software people.

Another company trying hard in Japan is Dastur Engineering International GmbH (Dasturco). Dasturco is a consulting engineering firm that is seeking complex computing and industrial engineering projects. In comparison with TCS and Tata Unisys, Dasturco ha s found it more difficult to break into the Japanese market. Dasturco is still Icarning the ropes on bow to win credibility and acceptance from its target market of Japanese financial and engineering firms. After a year on the ground in Tokyo, the company has yet to land a major software contract; it has been settling instead for more traditional civil engineering jobs.

Opportunities and obstacles Other countries in the region, such as China and the Philippines, are showing increased interest in selling their software services in Japan, but the Indian companies enjoy a head start because of prior working relationships with large Japanese corporations elsewhere in Asia. TCS has been able to capitalize on such relationships, and Dasturco is trying to do the same. TCS manager Hari feels that his company's merits are two-fold: a familiarity with doing full projects offshore , and the ability to draw on a diverse range of skilled people at short notice. Although there are regular manpowerstyle opportunities being created in Japan by the current recession, most of the Indian firms here prefer to offer full- scale curnkey solutions. Running a manpower business requires extensive attention to administrative details, such as compliance with immigration and labor regulations and obtaining subcontractor licenses. This administrative burden leads many companies to conclude that the manpower approach is not really worth the r equired investment.

The main problem facing is the language. There are few top-quality providers of Japanese language training in India, so TCS makes the best of a difficult situation by employing the exclusive services of a private tra ining company. Its engineers typically study Japanese language part-time for three to six months prior to departing for Japan. While this may not be sufficient for them to become fluent, they at least acquire sufticient skills to interact at the level of their assignment. One advantage for TCS is that its specialty is very advanced systems; and in such cases, English is often the language of choice even in Japan.

Another major difficulty is finding affordable accommodation. This may not seem like an important issue, but problems grow in proportion to the number of local employees. Many Japanese landlords have a strong aversion to renting to foreign tenants, and a s Japanese law does not prohibit non-overt discrimination, suitable apartments for foreign staff are often in short supply. Those places available are often a long commute from the office, with monthly rent of Y150,000 or more. The costs further mount wit h the addition of a 2 or 3-month deposit and the pervasive "present money" and "key money" payments so common in Japan. Simply setting up an apartment for a new employee can cost a company up to Y900,000 even before furnishings.

The high cost of housing in Tokyo is one reason that most companies favor single employees, or encourage married employees to leave their families back in India. For a worker with a family, international school fees can easily surpass even the rental fee s. Tuition at an international school in the Tokyo area runs as high as Y1,700,000 per child per year.

Although start-up costs are high, it can still be a good business decision to bring an Indian programmer or systems analyst to Japan rather than hire locally. With a 1,000% wage differential, an astute company can recoup its investment in just a few mont hs.

Changing Attitudes:

Even as companies like TCS, Tata Unisys, and Dasturco are making their way to Japan, Japanese software companies are trying to recruit workers closer to home in China, Malaysia, or the Philippines. Language and distance are the main disincentives against going to India. Also, Japanese companies have started more subsidiaries in Southeast Asia than in India over the past five years, in part because government regulation in India makes life difficult for Japanese ventures.

Nevertheless, persistence and technical expertise are two qualities that many Indian companies have in abundance. These are precisely the qualities that are likely to win them jobs and customer loyalty in the future. The recession is changing a lot of at titudes in Japan, and those foreign software and services companies who are already here are turning out to be the beneficiaries of those changes. Back to Top Page.

We believe Japan has been quite keen to attract the Indian information technology (IT) companies & proffesionals to go and set up offices in Japan, but there are some apprehensions that the Indian companies highlight, such as English language and basic habits like Indian food, etc. I remember I had met a Japanese Embassy officer in one seminar some time back, who mentioned that Japan is willing to provide basic infrastructure to the Indian IT professionals and engineers to make them compatible to living in Japan. Today, every Indian IT professional wants to go to the US, because he feels more comfortable there. There is a large Indian community there, he can adjust to the food easily and language is not an issue there. Is there any specific initiative Japan is taking to attract Indian IT professionals?

DCM: Food is not too much of a problem. Indian food is readily available and quite popular in Japan. The main problem is language. In our country. Everything is done in the Japanese language. And so, language is very important. I know that some of the Indian companies provide internal language training to their people who are being sent to Japan, and also on our part we are providing Japanese language courses in our Japan Information and Cultural Centre. Also in Mumbai and Chennai, there is a language programme. So our government is providing some kind of assistance. That kind of assistance in increased language proficiency is one of the efforts that we are making. Another aspect is about facilitation of providing visas. When Mr. Yoshiro Mori visited India as Prime Minister in the summer of 2000, he introduced the idea of multiple-entry visas for Indian IT engineers who travel to Japan to develop software. I think, besides language, another difficulty is the difference of business customs in our countries. In our country, when we develop a software, it is not like in other countries where you write down everything, and according to those instructions the software can be developed in a remote place. That is the way I believe most of the software development is taking place in India. In our country, it is more of a group-oriented thing. It is not written very specifically on a piece of paper, but the idea and the contents of the software are worked out together through discussions. So, in such circumstances, Indian software developers have to visit Japan many times and try to spend more time to understand the Japanese customs. These kind of differences in business conduct do exist, and they have to be taken care of.

Opinions from Indian Engineers:

* We are to enhance communication skill in Japanese, and to deliver materials in Japanese.

* Many companies spends many time and resources to provide engineers education/training programs for Japanese language. Opinions from Japanese Companies :

* We still need more Indian engineers who speak Japanese.

* Being fluent in Japanese is part of prerequisite in doing work in Japan.

Many Indian Engineers would like to get a good job in japan. But they are not ready to accept the actual situation.About 96 % of the people who are looking for jobs have no communication skill in japanese language.They are depending on short term or even crash courses in japanese language to get there.but unfornuately for a proffesional job it is not enough.In a situation if any one of these persons are given a software to be developed in japanese language then they will be unable to do it.

So companys from japan should give personal language training for these persons at least for six months before they should join on duty.

------------

About the author Anohar John: 
Published with uselessknowledge.com
Source: uselessknowledge.com

Tell a friend about this site!