Use of English stirs fear of job loss for Japanese
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TOKYO — In the cafeteria at the headquarters of Japan’s top online retailer Rakuten, employees with furrowed brows can often be seen trying to comprehend the company’s strictly English language menus.
The online giant is swapping Japanese for English as its official language company-wide in preparation for an overseas expansion, a move “crucial for us to survive in this competitive industry,” said spokesman Hirotoshi Kato.
It is not the only Japanese firm to eschew its native tongue as it searches for overseas growth beyond a moribund, shrinking domestic market.
As the population shrinks and a stronger yen boosts companies’ power for overseas acquisitions, the need for better international communication is growing in Japan as firms pin their survival on emerging markets.
Fast Retailing, which operates the cheap-chic Uniqlo brand, also plans to evolve into a more global company, looking to increase its overseas sales ratio to more than 50 percent in five years from about 10 percent now.
“The Japanese market is shrinking while overseas markets are expanding,” said Hideki Yoshihara, professor of business management at Nanzan University..... MORE
Source: The Daily Tribune
URL: http://www.tribuneonline.org/commentary/20101122com3.html
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