As US markets cool down and China still struggle to catch up in 2005, Indian outsourcing hot for Japanese economy and strong Yen
Srini Ranganathan, Special Correspondent
December 17, 2004

As US markets cool down and China still struggle to catch up in 2005, Indian outsourcing boom will gain further momentum from expanding and later booming Japanese economy.

A recent survey by FICCI has revealed that the Indian IT companies are now eyeing Japan - the world's second largest IT market. As many as 50 Indian IT companies are planning to scale-up their presence in the Asian giant.

The survey covering 70 companies showed that around 52 companies, including majors TCS, Wipro, Infosys, HCL and NIIT, were already present in Japan. About 75 per cent of these companies are planning to scale up their presence in that country, the survey on ''Enhancing business relationship in ICT with Japan'' said.

According to the survey, while all the respondents feel that Japanese companies were willing to outsource IT services, 87.5 per cent of the respondents said that Japanese companies were inclined to outsource to the Indian IT industry. The survey said that though Japanese companies were aware of the capabilities of the Indian IT industry in terms of execution of projects and quality process, they did not have extensive interactions with the Indian firms. 

For the Indian firms gaining trust of Japanese companies for quality customer service would be the most challenging task. The Indian companies would, however, face intense competition from Chinese and Korean companies largely because of their inability so far to master the Japanese language. The survey suggested that Indian IT companies should encourage development of Japanese language proficiency and understand the business and cultural nuances of doing business in Japan.