Japan opens its doors to Indian IT pros

By siliconindia   |   Monday, 22 September 2003, 19:30 IST
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HYDERABAD: The boom in embedded software solutions worldwide has opened new avenues for Indian IT professionals, according to a report in Economic Times, a business daily in India. Japan has emerged as the potential destination for Indian techies because of their superior technical skills and knowledge of English. “Japan needs about 3 lakh IT engineers for its flourishing telecom and consumer electronics industry. Indians are strong in embedded technology. Another big plus is that they are proficient in English and can adapt themselves easily to new technology, mostly developed in the US. This gives them an edge over the Chinese and other Asians. These professionals get between Rs 1 lakh and Rs 1.5 lakh a month,” said Kazuhiko Nishida, director of I-POC, a placement company that trains Indian techies in Japanese and hires them for projects in that country. I-POC has so far sent 80 engineers to Japan after training them at its centres in Pune and Hyderabad. Many of them have joined a software park at Gifu. The company plans to send 200 more such professionals in the next two years in view of the “growing demand for Indians” there. Right now, about 1,500 Indians work in Japan. But this figure is bound to jump in the next few years, Nishida said. Besides, this would also lead to the creation of new jobs in India with the setting up of offshore development centres, he added. “A significant portion of IT projects would be outsourced in future. The presence of a strong pool of Indian IT workers with knowledge about Japanese IT vocabulary and that country’s market would definitely help in moving the work here,” he observed. However, Indian IT companies have advised caution before joining the Japanese bandwagon. J A Chowdary of Portal Player India Ex-Employees (Pinexe) acknowledged the demand for embedded solutions in Japan but expressed concern over the continuing recession in that country. “Japan has been plagued by recession since late 90s. Several Japanese companies are offlaying their workers. So job security cannot be taken for granted. But outsourcing to India might become a reality. It also makes good business for the Japanese companies as they can save money that way,” he explained.

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