Foreign financial firms move out
BY ETSUSHI TSURU, THE ASAHI SHIMBUN
2010/03/12
Foreign financial companies in Japan are increasingly shedding their local staff and leaving the country for greener pastures elsewhere in Asia, according to a recent report by a human resources company.
The report issued by Executive Search Partners Co. said that roughly 4,500 full-time employees at foreign banks, securities companies, investment funds and asset management firms lost their jobs between early 2008 and August 2009.
Of that total, only about 900 found new work at foreign financial companies, while the remaining 3,600 landed jobs in other industries or remained more or less unemployed, the report estimated.
Even if the economy improves, those companies will only increase hiring by around 2,000 people in total, according to the ESP.
"Many foreign companies have concluded that investing in the Japanese market is not profitable," the report said.
For example, the British banking group Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corp. moved its Japanese stock research and investment operations to its Hong Kong office. According to sources, 40 to 50 employees lost their jobs in the consolidation.
An executive of a European financial company said the scale of profitability in Japan today is "less than half that during the peak."
"Many companies are now cutting back on staff and diverting resources to emerging economies in Asia," the executive said.
Foreign financial companies enhanced their Japanese operations in the 1990s as the Tokyo Stock Exchange emerged as the world's second largest bourse in terms of aggregate value.
After major Japanese securities companies such as Yamaichi Securities Co. went belly up in the mid- to late 1990s, many foreign financial companies scooped up the employees who lost their jobs.
However, the companies have since scaled back their business in Japan.
According to a report compiled by Thomson Reuters, since 1998, the share of stock underwriting commissions of foreign securities companies peaked at 45.8 percent in 2001, but fell to 25.7 percent in 2009.
"The withdrawal of foreign companies from Japan will deal a severe blow to this country, as the foreign financials have helped Japanese companies procure funds, have supported entry into foreign markets and supported individual investors by managing their funds," said Katsunobu Komizo, the ESP founder and chief executive officer.