Invest KOREA

KOTRA holds KOREA IT Expo in Tokyo / Some 100 Japanese companies, including NTT DoCoMo, attend

Aims to help Korean companies take advantage of the Japanese ICT and service industry boom and the 2020 Tokyo Olympics / Job fair concurrently held due to high demand for Korean talent

More opportunities are opening up for small and medium Korean companies to make inroads into Japan as the government pushes forward with policies to boost the local ICT industry and prepares for the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

Korea Trade-Investment Promotion Agency (KOTRA) announced that it held the Korea IT Expo 2017 event in Tokyo on November 14 in cooperation with the Korean Ministry of Science and ICT. 40 small and medium Korean companies in the fields of artificial intelligence (AI), big data, virtual reality (VR), and Internet of Things (IoT) attended the event, as well as some 100 influential Japanese ICT firms, including NTT DoCoMo, Fujitsu, NEC and SoftBank. The one-day program consisted of one-on-one export consulting sessions, job fair and a seminar on Korea's ICT industries.

Export MoUs worth a total of USD 10.5 million (KRW 11.7 billion) were signed that day, raising hopes for concrete results in the near future. 3-D dental equipment maker RAY signed with VR-based dental solutions company MegaGen Japan with plans to supply products to dental clinics in Japan. Database protection software company Ware Valley signed with NEC, and mobile communication device maker HFR with Fujitsu, to expand their presence in Japanese ICT markets.

Seven large-scale Japanese ICT companies, including Amazon Japan and Rakuten, carried out a job fair for Korean job seekers. Despite an aging population, Japan's economy is thriving, causing local firms to look overseas in search of new talent. Kusunogi Ayako, HR manager of CROOZ, which runs the representative fashion e-commerce site Shoplist.com, noted, "even when assigned a difficult task, Korean employees tend to work extremely hard," adding,"[the company] plans to continue to actively hire from Korea in the future."

According to Japan's Ministry of Internal Affairs and Communications, ICT markets made up the country's largest industry as of 2015, accounting for a total of JPY 90.7 trillion (KRW 896 trillion). In 2013, the Japanese government established a national new growth plan, and has since been working on elevating its ICT industry to the next level. By doing so, it intends to revitalize the dwindling manufacturing sector, and raise the added value of logistics, distribution and services industries. In particular, there is also a high demand for cooperation with Korean firms that possess software solutions related to the construction and tourism sectors, which are enjoying a recent boom due to the upcoming 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Meanwhile, Korean exports to Japan for the first nine months of 2017 amounted to USD 3.09, up 4.5 percent from the same period the previous year, according to the Ministry of Science and ICT.

Director Jo Eunho of KOTRA's Regional Headquarters in Japan noted, "due to its aging population, Japan is highly interested in ICT solutions capable of replacing human labor in logistics, agriculture and medical industries," and emphasized, "now is time for Korea's creative companies and individuals to actively look into Japan's ICT markets."

Source: Invest Korea (Nov. 14, 2017)