Over the last 24 months, some of my closest friends in Japan, who happen to be recruiters, have personally revealed the subtext narrative that is the recently tumultuous field of sourcing and placing mid-level and executive talent locally and from abroad.
The picture hasn’t been pretty. As banking collapsed in the U.S. and the general chaotic atmosphere of Wall Street inexorably washed over all the major global markets, the cushy “expat package” that has become a staple of the foreign community in Japan underwent a major adjustment.
In its wake, the adjustment spared only the most capable, or in some cases simply well-networked, employees working in positions that even today remain tenuous. All the bonuses and value-added treats went under the microscope and were reevaluated, irrevocably changing the nature of the expat executive in Japan for the foreseeable future.
But the most significant aspect of these recent conversations with recruiter friends came from the revelation that these dealers in human capital actually have a unique vantage point from which to view the business climate in general.
Before tremors of market flux hit the newspapers, often it’s the recruiters—ever sensitive to their clients’ staffing concerns—who have the inside line on the coming bump in the road, months before even the most informed business leaders have figured out what’s coming next.
It’s because of this unique “weather forecasting” role that we are particularly excited to have David Swan, from one of Japan’s largest recruiting firms, Robert Walters Japan K.K., participate in this issue (“Aim And Hire,” page 30).
And, in a matter that relates directly to the very nature of what the ACCJ Journal is, this month we address the area of digital publishing (“The Paperless Library,” page 40). As new devices such as the Amazon Kindle, the iPhone and now the Apple iPad emerge as game-changing platforms for media consumption, Japanese publishers are being forced to consider new ways to deliver their content that move beyond the current standard PC and mobile phone distribution models.
Although the West has already decided that print is a medium on the way out, Japan still continues a relatively healthy relationship with paper, despite counterintuitive signals embodied in the recent advertising downturn stemming from a prolonged recession.
The direction Japanese publishing takes from here on out will not be directed by Western trends and IT habits, but by the tastes of Japanese consumers as well as the willingness of Japanese publishers to open their content up to the digital arena and the ability of advertisers to innovate within new platforms.
In this issue we access some of the leading experts in the fields of digital media, traditional publishing, and advertising to expose the myriad possibilities facing content producers in a market undergoing rapid evolution before our eyes.
As 2010 unfolds, a still somewhat jittery Japan business community is slowly gaining a surer footing, prepping us all for recovery characterized by cautious, yet optimistic steps into the future.
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