Concentrations of Call Centers in Peripheral Areas : Cases in Japan

Transcription

1 Networks and Communication Studies NETCOM, vol. 17, n 3-4, 2003 p Concentrations of Call Centers in Peripheral Areas : Cases in Japan Yoshio Arai 1, Kazuhiro Sugizaki 2 Résumé. La localisation des centres d appel dans des zones périphériques Études de cas au Japon. Cet article s intéresse aux centres d appels et à la localisation d activités utilisatrices d informations dans des secteurs périphériques au Japon. Bien que les centres d appels se concentrent souvent dans les très grandes agglomérations, on note une localisation croissante de centres d appels à Sapporo et à Naha (villes situées dans des secteurs périphériques). Des incitations ont pu être lancées par les autorités locales et notamment sous forme d aides destinées à compenser les frais de télécommunication (les centres d appel utilisent les lignes spécialisées numériques pour relier les centres situés dans des zones périphériques aux grands centres téléphoniques installés principalement à Tokyo). Parmi les autres avantages de ces zones périphériques, l auteur identifie : bas niveaux de salaire ; faible taux de turnover ; forte demande d emploi de la part d une population féminine ; stagnation de l économie locale. Dans ces deux ville de Sapporo et Naha, les centres d appel ont contribué à la revitalisation de l économie locale (création d'emplois). Mot clés. Centres d appels. Régions périphériques. Télécommunications. Naha (Japon), Sapporo (Japon) Abstract. This paper addresses the concentrations of call centers as an example illustrating the location of information-related industries in peripheral areas in Japan. Althought there has been a strong tendency for call centers to concentrate in large metropolitan areas, a rapid growth of call centers can also be observed recently in Sapporo and in Naha, two major cities located in Japan s peripheral areas. A number of local governments in peripheral areas carry out promotional policies aimed at attracting information-related industries. Among these policies, assistance offered to compensate for telecommunication charges can be particularly effective in attracting call centers that utilize digital leased lines to connect the centers in peripheral areas to phone hubs installed mainly in Tokyo. In addition, the following locational factors can also be identified as exerting a positive influence on call center location : (1) low wage level of employees, (2) low job turnover rate, (3) abundant supply of young female labor. The urban size of Sapporo and Naha, and the recent stagnation of the local economy, established supportive conditions, as well. These call centers in both areas contributed to the revitalization of the local economy through procurement and employment. Key words. Call center, peripheral area, promotional policy, employment, Naha, Sapporo 1. Department of Human Geography, University of Tokyo at Komaba, yarai@humgeo.c.utokyo.ac.jp 2. Asaka High School, sugizaki@hte.highway.ne.jp

2 188 NETCOM, vol. 17, n 3-4, INTRODUCTION In recent years, it has been noted that the development of information and communication technology (ICT) has a discernible effect on the location patterns of business activities. Although many commentators predicted that decentralization of city functions will progress because ICT substitutes for face-to-face contacts, Graham and Marvin (1996) argue that the importance of face-to-face contact will not diminish even if ICT progresses and that high-level management functions will increasingly concentrate in large cities, while labor-intensive routine work will move to peripheral areas where cheap labor is available. The relation between ICT and industrial location cannot be immediately concluded, therefore, because of the short period after the penetration of ICT. The economic activity of call centers is mentioned as one example illustrating the relocation of industries to peripheral areas. Although Bristow et al. (2000) and Graef (1998) agreed that call centers have been concentrated in large cities, they also pointed out that the developing technology of database and of telecommunication systems enabled call centers to be located in the peripheral areas of a country. It has also been pointed out in recent years that large-scale call centers based on the development of ICT would locate in peripheral areas where labor cost was low [Bristow et al. (2000); Richardson et al. (2000)]. This locational tendency can be observed not only domestically but also globally. For example, call centers in European countries were concentrating in Dublin, a peripheral location to the European continent [Breathnach (2000)]. The relocation of call centers to the peripheral areas can provide many employment opportunities previously not found these peripheral areas. For this reason, a number of local governments in peripheral areas carry out policies to attract the call centers [Lorentzon (1998)]. In addition, the national governments of Ireland and New Zealand have formulated policies aimed at attracting call centers from abroad [Larner (2001)]. Although there is no academic study dealing with the locational characteristics of call centers in Japan, the concentrations of call centers around Naha located at the southern end of the country, as well as around Sapporo located at the northern end of the country, have been reported in the Japanese mass media. This paper focuses on the formation of these concentrations of call centers. Our purpose is to identify the location, distribution, and policies promoting call center development in Japan. We begin with a survey of the geographical distribution of call centers in Japan (Section 2). Second, the locational characteristics of call centers adjacent to Sapporo and Naha will be analyzed. Initiatives by local government to encourage the concentration of call centers will also analyzed (Section 3). Third, the locational attributes of call centers in peripheral areas will be illustrated with the case of Sapporo (Section 4). Finally, the economic contribution of call centers to the local economy will be examined (Section 5).

3 CONCENTRATIONS OF CALL CENTERS IN PERIPHERAL AREAS 189 N km Number of call-centers Unit area: prefecture Source: Survey of Selected Service Industries,1999;Telemarketing Industry Figure 1. Geographical distribution of call centers in Japan 2. GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF CALL CENTERS IN JAPAN Though there is no general survey covering the whole range of call centers in Japan, a survey focusing on telemarketing companies which operated the contracts for call centers was carried out by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry in 1999 (Survey on Selected Service Industries 1999; Telemarketing Industry). The geographical distribution of call centers in Japan can be roughly grasped

4 190 NETCOM, vol. 17, n 3-4, 2003 Sapporo Tokyo N Naha km Figure 2-. The location of Sapporo and Naha based on the results of this survey. Figure 1 illustrates the distribution of telemarketing companies call centers in Japan in The strong tendency for call centers to concentrate in large metropolitan areas such as Tokyo, Osaka, Nagoya and Fukuoka can be observed. This finding supports the research of Bristow et al. (2000) and Graef (1998). Although the concentration of call centers in large cities is generally the case in Japan, an alternative trend has been observed in recent years, the location of call centers in peripheral areas. Above all, in Naha, which is the principal city of

5 CONCENTRATIONS OF CALL CENTERS IN PERIPHERAL AREAS Sapporo Naha Figure 3. The numbers of call centers in Sapporo and in Naha 4000 Sapporo Naha Figure 4. The numbers of full time employees of call centers in Sapporo and innaha

6 192 NETCOM, vol. 17, n 3-4, 2003 Okinawa, to the far south, and in Sapporo, which is the principal city of Hokkaido, to the far north. In these two areas, a number of call centers have been set up there in the past two or three years (Figure 2, 3). The new location of call centers has generated thousands of full-time employment opportunities (Figure 4). Table 1. Initiatives by local governments in peripheral areas in Japan to attract IT-related firms (source: Japan Telemarketing Association) Prefecture/City Subsidized Industry Initial investment Major contents of subsidy Office space cost Personnel expenses Telecommunications expenses Hokkaido call center O O Aomori call center, data processing O O Iwate call center O O O Miyagi call center, data processing O Niigata call center, data processing O O O Toyama call center, data processing, software design O O O Fukui call center, data processing O Mie call center, data processing, software design O O O Tottori call center O O O O Shimane call center, data processing, software design, web/graphics O O O Kagawa call center, data processing, software design O Ehime call center (established by manufacturing industry and distribution industry O O Nagasaki call center O O O Oita call center O O O Miyazaki information service industry (including call center) O O O Kagoshima manufacturing industry and call center, data processing O O Okinawa call center, data processing, software design, web/graphics O O O Sapporo (City) call center O

7 CONCENTRATIONS OF CALL CENTERS IN PERIPHERAL AREAS INITIATIVES BY LOCAL GOVERNMENTS IN PERIPHERAL AREAS IN JAPAN TO ATTRACT CALL CENTERS 3.1. Overview of initiatives to attract IT-related firms in peripheral areas The promotion policy to attract IT-related industries is expected to positively influence economic development in peripheral areas far apart from the major metropolises of Japan in recent years. The attraction initiatives aimed at IT-related industries carried out by the local governments of peripheral areas in Japan are summarized in Table 1. Each local government assumes a degree of responsibility for initial investments, office space costs, personal expenses or telecommunication charges. Among IT-related industries, the call centers industry is targeted in particular by these promotion policies. A new policy menu related to telecommunication charges is noteworthy in this policy mix. It would appear that by offering a policy for telecommunication charge assistance, local governments are making a concerted effort to overcome the higher costs of business in peripheral areas. The formulation of these promotion policies provides one potential explanation for the rapid growth of call centers in Sapporo and in Naha. In many other cities included in Table 1, however, growth similar to the cases of Sapporo and of Naha cannot be observed. This observation provides evidence that there are certain locational advantages other than the so-called attraction initiatives put forward by local governments in these cities. The effectiveness of the promotion policies by the government of Okinawa Prefecture and by the governments of Sapporo City and of Hokkaido Prefecture for the growth of call center location will be examined in a later part of this section. The locational advantages of Sapporo and of Naha other than those that can be tied to specific government initiatives will be examined in the following section. Focus will be put on the characteristics of local labor market Initiatives to attract call centers by the local governments of Hokkaido Prefecture, of Sapporo City, and of Okinawa Prefecture In this section, the details of the initiatives to attract call centers of local governments in Sapporo and in Naha will be presented first, followed by an examination of the effectiveness of the offers by local governments to reduce telecommunication expenses for call centers. Okinawa Prefecture, including Naha, is located at the southern end of Japan and its economic base depends greatly on the tourism industry and the US military base located there. Because of the absence of major basic industries, the unemployment rate in this area is relatively high compared to the national average. To improve these serious economic conditions, the prefectural government developed an industrial policy mix called the Multimedia Island Plan in This policy mix aims to attract IT industries which have the potential of overcoming the constraints of distance. The first phase of this plan aims at attracting call centers. The prefectural government of Okinawa accords various tax privileges in order to

8 194 NETCOM, vol. 17, n 3-4, 2003 attract call centers. In addition, direct subsidies to call centers located in Okinawa Prefecture have been carried out. Among these subsidies, grants-in-aid for the telecommunication cost of call centers is noteworthy. In Japan, customers generally have access to toll-free numbers to talk with call centers; the costs of their telephone charges must be paid by the call centers. Since the origin place of customers calls are concentrated in major metropolitan areas such as Tokyo, telephone charges which must be absorbed by companies will soar when call centers are located in peripheral areas, such as Okinawa. In reality, call centers located in Naha receive the benefit of recent developments in telecommunication technology. If they set up their phone hub in Tokyo, where the largest concentration of their customers exists, they can receive toll-free calls in the same toll area where the customers live and can pass these calls to the office in Naha using leased telephone lines. In this way, they can reduce their total telecommunication cost, because the leased line charges are relatively cheap. The prefectural government of Okinawa assists call center companies by subsidizing 80 % of these leased line charges. How was this percentage for the grant-in-aid decided? The amount corresponding to 20 % of leased line charges between Tokyo and Naha is really equal to the whole cost of leased line charges between major places located on the outskirts of Tokyo, such as Yokohama, Saitama and Chiba. The call centers located in Naha utilizing the incentive policy can obtain parity with the centers located at the outskirts of Tokyo, at least in terms of the telecommunication cost. A similar initiative to that in Okinawa is carried out in Hokkaido. The government of Sapporo City accords various tax privileges to call centers, and subsidizes half the price of leased line costs between Tokyo and Sapporo. How does such support of communication charges reduce the telecommunication cost and enable the call centers to locate in peripheral areas, as a result? Using a call center located in Sapporo as an example, a trial calculation can be conducted as follows. A Company is a call center with 160 seats. The number of phone lines used by A Company is calculated as 123 since the number of outside lines of a call center is estimated to be approximately 80 % of the number of seats. Aussming 25 working days per month, the number of calls that A Company receives in one month can be estimated to be 135,000 calls based on the data from the survey carried by the Japan Telemarketing Association in May, It is assumed that all the calls received by toll-free phone from the Central Tokyo area that correspond to the 03 long distance code, and that all calls are processed within 3 minutes. Under these assumptions, the total telecommunication charge per month absorbed by a call center of the same size as A Company can be calculated as 1,334,000 (approximately US$11,600 based on the average exchange rate from 1999 to 2001) when standard ISDN lines are used (Figure 5-A). When the concerned call center is located in Sapporo and receives the customers

9 CONCENTRATIONS OF CALL CENTERS IN PERIPHERAL AREAS 195 A Customers Telecom Station Toll-free telephone service ISDN line Tokyo Call center B Toll-free telephone service Customers Telecom station Call center ISDN line Tokyo Sapporo C Customers Toll-free telephone service Telecom station ISDN line Hub Digital leased line Call center Tokyo Sapporo Figure 5. Schematic telecommunication system of call center calls via the toll-free phone system, the total telecommunication charge per month increases to 10,986,000 (US$95,500) (Figure 5-B). The additional cost compared with the Tokyo call center case amounts to no less than 9,653,000 (US$83,900). How will the telecommunication cost change when the concerned call center located in Sapporo uses the telecommunication system constructed with the phone hub installed in Tokyo and the leased line between Tokyo and Sapporo, as mentioned above (Figure 5-C)? The bandwidth of a digital leased line required to transfer all traffic for 128 phone lines is approximately 9Mbps. The price of this kind

10 196 NETCOM, vol. 17, n 3-4, 2003 of leased line is 1,527,000 (US$13,400) per month. The total telecommunication charge can be estimated to be 2,861,000 (US$25,000). The additional cost when comparing Tokyo and Sapporo is only an additional 1,527,000 (US$13,400). In addition, the assistance by the government of Hokkaido to absorb half of the leased line charges further reduces the total telecommunication charge to 2,097,000 (US$18,300). The actual additional cost compared with the case where the call center is located in Tokyo becomes only 764,000 (US$6,700). The wage level in Tokyo is, of course, different from that of Sapporo. Since A call center employs 219 agents, the personnel expenses are estimated to be reduced approximately 6,000,000 (US$52,500) when a call center the same size as company A employs agents in Sapporo compared with the case where the agents are employed in Tokyo (a point to be described later in detail). When a call center located in Sapporo uses the toll-free phone service only, the reduced amount of personnel expenses cannot compensate for the additional telecommunication cost. Contrarily, a company can reduce the operating cost by 4,500,000 (US$39,300) per month when they use a telecommunication system that includes the phone hub installed in Tokyo in combination with digital leased lines between Tokyo and Sapporo. The reduction in operating cost increases to 5,200,000 (US$45,500) per month when there is subsidization by the local government on telecommunication charges. In summary, the usage of new telecommunication technology such as digital leased lines and phone hubs can overcome the disadvantages found in areas remote from major demand areas for call center services. The combination of new telecommunication technology and the utilization of low personnel expenses enables call centers to be located and operated profitably in peripheral areas. In addition, assistance by local government has the effect of reducing the telecommunication cost of call centers to a considerable degree, compared with personnel expenses in peripheral areas. It can be concluded that telecommunication cost subsidies by local governments are certainly effective as an incentive for promoting the location of call centers in peripheral areas. 4. CHARACTERISTICS OF THE LOCAL LABOR MARKET AND THE CONCENTRATION OF CALL CENTERS IN SAPPORO The analysis in the previous section shows that the promotion policies by local governments have had a partial effect on the attraction of call centers in peripheral areas. However, every local government performing these promotion policies is not necessarily successful at attracting call centers. This fact suggests that there are some locational factors other than the local policies. The characteristics of the local labor market are notable in this regard. In this section, the features of the local labor market will be examined through a case study of call centers in Sapporo. Some interviews were carried out with the companies of call centers located in Sapporo in September, The number of employees in these companies

11 CONCENTRATIONS OF CALL CENTERS IN PERIPHERAL AREAS 197 Table 2. Locational factors of call centers in Sapporo abstracted from the result of theinterviews Low wage rate Low job leaving rate of agents An abundant supply of labor force suitable for agent Low office cost People's ability of speaking standard Japanese A call center O O O O B call center O O C call center O D call center O O O O E call center O O O totaled 1,686. It corresponded to 67.4 % of the total number of all employees working in call centers located in Sapporo. Table 2 shows the reasons taken into consideration other than the attraction initiatives by local governments when they decided to locate their call centers in Sapporo. Review of the features of human resources in Sapporo indicates the following. More than one company mentioned that (1) the wage level was low; (2) the job turnover was low, that is, the retention level was high; (3) the supply of human resources as agents was abundant and steady; and (4) the spoken language of the potential agents was close to standard Japanese. In sum, these companies were able to gather excellent employees who worked for an extended period of time even if their wage level was low. A company and D company listed in Table 2 emphasized that the wage level in Sapporo is low compared with that of Tokyo. These two companies operate call centers employing 219 agents and 1,305 agents, respectively. For such large-scale call centers, low personnel expenses compared with those of Tokyo appear to be a strong incentive for locational decisions. How low are the wages in Sapporo compared with those of Tokyo? Most of agents in call centers are females in their twenties. The wage level of such female employees in Hokkaido is approximately 80 % of that in Tokyo. A company and D company thus are able to save 72 million (626 thousand US dollars) per year and 144 million (1,251 thousand US dollars) per year, respectively, capitalizing on the wage differential between Sapporo and Tokyo. In short, a considerable amount of personnel expenses can be saved by locating call centers in Sapporo instead of in Tokyo; in other words, for larger call centers, a low wage level provides a significant locational advantage to peripheral areas. The abundant supply of labor suitable for agent work is another advantage found in Sapporo. Sapporo is a large peripheral city with a population of more than one million with a number of higher education institutions. The supply of skilled labor is plentiful. Contrarily, job opportunities for well-educated people in Sapporo

12 198 NETCOM, vol. 17, n 3-4, Tokyo Sapporo / / / / / / / / / / / /2000 Figure 6 Opening-to-application ratio in Tokyo and in Sapporo are rather restricted because of its industrial structure which concentrates on serving branch activities of nationwide corporate networks. The recent stagnation of the economy in Hokkaido exacerbates the shortage of job opportunities. The openingto-application ratio in Sapporo is considerably lower compared with that of Tokyo, as shown in Figure 6. These poor conditions have bearing on the labor market of young females. Given these circumstances, call center companies in Sapporo can easily gather numerous, high quality applicants for agent jobs. In addition, the rate of job turnover is low because of the lack of good jobs for young skilled female workers. The low turnover rate of agents creates various advantages for call center operations in terms of service quality as well as personnel management. 5. CONTRIBUTIONS OF CALL CENTERS TO THE ECONOMY IN PERIPHERAL AREAS 5.1. Procurement and wage payment The location of call centers contributes to the surrounding area in various ways. First, there is the wage payment to employees and, second, procurement from local firms. The prefectural government of Okinawa surveyed these money flows and estimated the economic contributions of the location of call centers. Table 3 summaries the results of this estimation. In Okinawa, 570 million (approximately

13 CONCENTRATIONS OF CALL CENTERS IN PERIPHERAL AREAS Sum Subsidy for telecommunication charges Procurement from Okinawa's firms Total wages 122,192, ,270, ,040,000 US$ 1,063,000 US$ 3,707,000 US$ 4,974, ,165, ,680,000 2,912,550,000 US$ 3,914,000 US$ 5,945,000 US$ 25,327, ,357,000 1,109,950,000 3,484,590,000 US$ 4,977,000 US$ 9,652,000 US$ 30,301,000 Table 3. Money flows of call centers in Okinawa Prefecture 5 million US dollars) is disbursed by the prefecture government as a subsidy to the call center companies for telecommunication charges in the 1999 and 2000 fiscal years. On the other hand, call center companies generated procurement revenue of 1,110 million (9.7 million US dollars) and paid wages totaling 3,480 million (30.4 million US dollars). The budgetary spending by the local government in order to attract call centers clearly has a positive effect on the economy of the region. In the case of Sapporo, there is no official survey concerning the economic contribution of call centers. However, these can be estimated based on data relating to procurement and employment by call centers in Sapporo, as determined by our interviews. Our estimation is that procurement totaling 770 million (6.7 million US dollars) was generated and wages totaling 11,340 million (99.2 million US dollars) were paid in the three years from 1999 to The total amount of money spent by the call center companies is estimated to total 12,110 million (105.9 million US dollars). In contrast, the expenditure of the city government of Sapporo for incentive policies to attract call centers was only 280 million (2.4 million US dollars) in the same period. It is clear that the promotion policies by the local government are certainly effective and the call centers attracted by these policies contributed to the vitalization of the city economy Employment The contribution of the location of call centers to local employment is worthy of closer examination. As mentioned above, 3,411 persons in Naha as of August, 2001, and 2,500 persons in Sapporo as of September, 2001, were being employed by call centers on a full-time basis. Almost all of these employees are locally recruited females in their twenties. Table 4 shows the employment conditions of female labor in their twenties in Sapporo and in Naha. The numbers of unemployed persons in each city equal approximately 9,000. The unemployment rate stands at a considerably high value; 8.6% and 15.1 %, respectively. The additional jobs obtained by the newly located call centers absorbed approximately one third of the unemployed females in their twenties in each city. The percentage of new employees in call centers, relative to

14 200 NETCOM, vol. 17, n 3-4, 2003 Number of call center employment Population Work force of female in their twenties Number of the unemployed Unemployment rate Sapporo ,822, ,310 8, % Naha* ,190,675 58,649 8, % * including the adjacent urban areas Source: Population Census 2000 Table 4. The number of the unemployed in 2000: Female in their twenties the whole female labor force in their twenties equals 2.4 % in Sapporo and 5.8 % in Naha. The employment contribution by these peripherally located call centers is significant. The quality of employment should also be inspected. According to the official statistics of the Ministry of International Trade and Industry, the percentage of part-time employment is high in telemarketing businesses in Japan. Contrarily, based on our investigation in Sapporo, call centers employ their agents as full-time employees. Most of the managers of call centers expressed their intention to continue to offer such full-time employment. Richardson et al. (2000) are skeptical about the significance of the establishment of call centers in peripheral areas. They emphasize that the typical work in call centers is a simple, routine one and that the wage level is rather low based on their investigation of the call centers located in peripheral areas in England. They also stress that the opportunity for acquiring skills for employees is limited. However, the wage level of agents in Sapporo, which is approximately 180,000 (US$1,565), is not low compared to average wages for females in their twenties working in the service industry in Sapporo, which is 179,300 (US$1,559). Furthermore, training for agents in call centers in Sapporo appears more substantial thanthe case in England. The duration of introductory training including IT skills as well as basic skills associated with customer handling is from two weeks to half a year. In addition, some firms prepare management training programs for their agents with appropriate ability and experiences. These training programs are superior in quality and quantity in comparison with those found at an average company in Japan. Therefore, based on our investigation in the cases of Sapporo and Naha, we would like to express a more positive view concerning the significance of the employment opportunities offered by the call centers to the stagnated local economies of the peripheral areas. 6. CONCLUSION This paper focuses on the recent emergence of concentrations of call centers in peripheral areas in Japan. Based on the case studies in Sapporo and in Naha, the locational factors contributing to the concentration of call centers in peripheral areas were analyzed. The economic contribution to the regional economy resulting from the establishment of call centers was also examined. The results of this study can be summarized as follows.

15 CONCENTRATIONS OF CALL CENTERS IN PERIPHERAL AREAS 201 First, from a Japanese national perspective, call centers have a tendency to concentrate in large metropolises such as Tokyo and Osaka. In recent years, rapid growth of call center concentrations however are being observed in Sapporo and in Naha, both cities are located in Japan s peripheral areas. Second, a number of local governments in peripheral areas formulated promotional policies to attract information-related industries. Among the various promotional policies, assistance offered to offset telecommunication charges appear to be particularly effective at attracting call centers that utilize digital leased lines to connect the centers in peripheral areas to phone hubs installed mainly in Tokyo. As a result of such assistance, call centers located in Sapporo or in Naha can be competitive with those in the suburbs of major metropolises. The following locational factors can also be identified as exerting a positive influence on call center location : (1) low wage level of employees, (2) low job turnover rate, (3) abundant supply of young female labor. The urban size of Sapporo and Naha, and the recent stagnation of their local economies, provided supportive conditions, as well. Third, the peripherally located call centers contribute to the local economy through procurement and employment. The total amount of the money spent by call centers is considerably large compared to the amount spent on the promotion policies. The promotion policies by local governments are certainly effective and the attracted call centers contribute to the revitalization of the city economy. In addition, these call centers provide relatively good jobs for young females in the concerned areas. The results of this study suggest that the concentration of call centers contributes to the local economyof the peripheral areas. These areas are now distressed due to poor economic circumstances, and resolving these economic difficulties is extremely challenging. Efforts to attract call centers in Sapporo and Naha address such challenges in noteworthy ways. Call centers employing Japanese speaking agents cannot easily locate outside Japan because of the lack of Japanese speaking agents.? In European countries, non-english speaking call centers appear to be increasing, e.g. in Ireland. They recruit many non-english speaking workers from abroad as customer/technical service agents. Advertisements of recruiting firms for these jobs can be found on their web sites (for example, Compared with the European cases, it is far more difficult to recruit Japanese speaking agents outside Japan due to the notable low rate of international migration of the Japanese people. Instead, peripheral areas of Japan can help maintain the competitiveness of this market. This condition is considerably different from the recent experience of Japan s manufacturing industries, as the manufacturing production system has extended to developing countries. The call center industry is expected to offer new possibilities for revitalizing the local economy of peripheral areas in Japan.

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