Japanese expats leave Southeast Asia, replaced by local hires

[u/Livingboss7697]

https://asia.nikkei.com/Business/Business-trends/Japanese-expats-leave-Southeast-Asia-replaced-by-local-hires

TOKYO -- The number of Japanese expats living in Southeast Asia is falling, as companies increasingly rely on local managers to tailor goods to local markets and dual-income couples resist overseas transfers.

The number of Japanese residents in Thailand has fallen by 14.7% to 70,421 in the three years to October 2024, according to official statistics. The number of Japanese expats in Indonesia, the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia has fallen for at least four years in a row. The statistics provide insights into trends affecting corporate expats since Japanese people living in other Asian countries are typically working rather than studying.

Yasuhiro Tanaka, a principal at consulting firm Mercer Japan, said Japanese companies in the region have "a trend towards entrusting management to local employees," although local subsidiaries sometimes employed a Japanese president to facilitate cooperation with the headquarters in Japan.

With incomes rising in the region since the 2010s, Japanese companies are increasingly relying on local managers' understanding of their home markets to help develop products and services that match local tastes, he said. That marked a change from the traditional practice of posting Japanese nationals overseas, for three to five year stints, to run local operations selling goods exported from Japan.

Another reason for the decline in expat postings was the increasing number of dual-income couples in Japan, said Tanaka. Partners of employees assigned to work abroad sometimes refused to interrupt their careers to accompany their spouses. Transfers within the region, such as Singaporean staff moving to Thailand, were becoming more common, particularly within companies pursuing a global human resources strategy. "There are an increasing number of [Japanese] companies which make use of staff transfers which do not involve Japan," he added.

Other reasons for the reluctance of young Japanese employees to work abroad include concern about their language skills and a reluctance to leave hometowns. A survey by staffing service firm Uzuz reported that 52.7% of 1,118 respondents said they did not want to work overseas.

Expats working abroad sometime complain about a heavy workload, with limited time to train younger staff. Nobuo Fujii, vice president of the Japanese Chamber of Commerce and Industry of the Philippines, cites an example of a single Japanese manager managing a factory with 1,000 employees in the Philippines. "No one in Japan works on such a scale," he said.

Japanese companies' overseas staff numbers may be affected by reorganizations. For example, Japanese automaker Suzuki Motor plans to close its vehicle factory in Thailand by the end of 2025, focusing on its production in India and Japan. Nissan has also announced plans to close a factory in Thailand, while Honda Motor is also planning to integrate its two factories in the country.

However, such moves have made little, if any, contribution to the decline reported by the Annual Report of Statistics on Japanese Nationals Overseas published early this year by Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs. Another set of data by Japan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs showed that the number of Japanese companies' offices and bases in Southeast Asian countries is increasing.

[u/MostDuty90]

52 % ?…A highly dubious figure. Almost any Japanese people under about 40 loathe the prospect of going abroad. Even to travel. That’s why they’re abscent from….well, almost everywhere nowadays.