Indian IT firms looking at Japan via China

By agencies   |   Tuesday, 26 April 2005, 19:30 IST
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MUMBAI: Though the Indian IT industry has made big gains in the U.S. and Europe, they have been nowhere near in replicating the success in the lucrative Japanese market due to unfamiliar language and culture. But the solution lies in China as Indian IT companies have now realized that its better to serve Japan from China due to its proximity and familiar culture and language experts. “Besides, the lucre of the local Chinese market and servicing MNCs, Indian IT majors can strengthen their positions in tough markets like Japan and South Korea,” said Sunil Mehta, vice-president (research), Nasscom. Interestingly, Japanese is the standard second language that Chinese programers have been learning. Identified as one of the top-three emerging markets for the Indian IT brigade, Japan accounts for a mere 3 percent of our IT exports today, as Indian firms have traditionally found it hard to do business in Japan. “Culture in China is vastly different from what our IT industry is used to in the U.S. Many Indian companies are looking at entering China to service Japan from there,” confirms Kapil Dev Singh, head (research), IDC. China has been a favored nation for Japan’s software imports. The synergy begins with the cultural affinity to other areas like familiarization with the ‘double byte’ system that is used to generate Chinese and Japanese characters.

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