In Japan, more workers leaving cities for regional offices

An increasing number of business people, including those who are middle-age, have been moving from major cities to companies based in regional areas.

Local companies need talented personnel who can immediately play key roles in overseas operations and other new fields. At the same time, there are many middle-aged workers in large cities who want to better utilize their knowledge and skills.

The government is encouraging such workers to move to regional areas, but many who have done so have apparently faced hardships due to an insufficient understanding of their new workplaces and the discontent of their family members.

Yasuhisa Tsubata, 47, moved from his job in Tokyo to a company in Fukuyama, Hiroshima Prefecture, in October last year. "I had no ties with the city I went to, but the appeal of the job was more important to me," Tsubata said.

In Tokyo, he was responsible for supervising management and fostering new businesses for an information technology company. Tsubata had an acquaintance at Tsuneishi Holdings Corp., which operates various affiliated companies in such fields as shipbuilding and marine transportation.

He was solicited to join the company when his acquaintance said, "Our company wants to start a new business but we can't find a suitable person in this region."

Tsubata said, "I thought I could do lots of business with the ideas and work speed I acquired at the IT company."

He became an executive officer of the corporation, and in April established an investment company for start-up firms. Tsubata was upbeat, saying, "I want to find new businesses that can be a revenue source 10 years from now."

Shunsuke Tomaru, 32, who now works as a website director for Aratana Inc., an IT start-up firm in Miyazaki, moved from a website production company in Tokyo in 2012. He is a native of Maebashi.

He said: "I can put my expert knowledge to good use, and certain burdens such as commuting are smaller. I can share information via the Internet with clients in faraway places, and I can go on business trips when necessary."

Last year, Mizuho Information & Research Institute conducted an online survey about moving from the Tokyo metropolitan area to a regional area for a new job. About 380 people responded.

The results showed that 33 percent of the respondents, aged 45 to 60 years old, moved to places with which they had no ties. This was more than the 25 percent who said they moved back to places where they were born.

One reason cited by the largest number of respondents was that they wanted to be involved at different levels of business to better utilize their skills and experiences.

For regional communities, which are concerned about decreasing populations and waning local industries, people who have played active roles in business and can come together with their family members are sought after.

Last year, BizReach Inc., which operates an information service website for people searching for new jobs, held an event for people in the Tokyo metropolitan area. At the event, local government heads from regional cities touted how comfortable their cities are to live in.

Furthermore, many companies in major cities provide few opportunities for promotion due to streamlining of their management.

Starting in October last year, the national government began setting up strategic bases for professional workers in 46 prefectures nationwide. The bases are intended to introduce business people in large cities to companies in regional areas.

The bases collect information from local companies about what types of people they want to employ, and mediate between these companies and potential employees in cooperation with private-sector job-brokering companies. Using this scheme, 26 people got new jobs as of the end of March.

However, not all cases were successful.

An official in charge of personnel affairs in one local company said, "There was a worker who resigned because his wife, who is a Tokyo native, asked him to go back to Tokyo."

If a person moves to a new job without having sufficiently checked the corporate culture and their own role in the new workplace, they may feel something is wrong after they start.

A man who changed from a job in Tokyo to one in a regional area complained, "Living expenses are lower, but my salary also fell."

Men wishing to move to regional areas also need to carefully consider their wives' work and their children's education.

Prof. Minoru Noda of Meiji University's Graduate School of Global Business, who is an expert in human resource management, said, "Nowadays, local companies are also required to do businesses overseas and implement proper corporate governance, but workers capable of tackling these tasks are in short supply in regional areas."

In many major companies, the age limit for managerial posts is set at 55 and employees' mandatory retirement age is 60. Noda said regional areas therefore have the potential to absorb people who want to continue using the knowledge and experience they acquired in their long career.

"It may be good to consider getting a new job in a regional area as one of your options after considering how your living conditions will change," Noda said.