• Japanese financial services in the UK and EMEA - The UK’s financial regulatory authority has announced further plans to ease the rules for banks and insurers in the UK. This is in line with both previous and current British government policy of putting more emphasis on growth and investment over concerns about safety and risk. It is also part of trying to find a...
  • The puzzle of Japanese foreign direct investment in the UK - Something has been puzzling me for a few years about Japanese foreign investment in the UK. The net investment by Japanese companies in the British “communications” sector since 2016 is US$55bn, over three times more than the next largest net investment, which was in the food manufacturing sector. There have been various acquisitions and investments...
  • What’s going on in Japanese HR? – online seminar July 3 15:00-16:30 BST/10:00-11:30 EST - Human resource management in Japan has changed radically over the past decade. What does this mean if your company has employees in Japan, or your parent company is Japanese? Join our online seminar (July 3 15:00-16:30 UK time/10:00-11:30 EST) to find out.  We’ll look at: The JTC – Japanese Traditional Company – lifetime employment, seniority based...
  • What is a Japanese company anyway? - One of many jobs I did not get over the years was a board position for an investment trust focused on Japan. In the “any other questions for us?” bit at the end, I raised the issue of “how do you define a Japanese company? Is it enough just to say it is listed on...
  • Largest Japan owned companies in the UK – 2024 - The largest Japan owned companies in the UK employ around 65,000 people and have grown around 5% on average in terms of employee numbers in the year 2023 to 2024. The top 5 The top three largest companies are the same as in 2015/6 – Nissan Motor Manufacturing with around 7,000 employees, down 500 from...
  • Japanese companies in the UK 20 years on - After a three year gap due to the pandemic, my company has rejoined the Japanese Chamber of Commerce in the UK. My company was the first non-Japanese company, with no Japanese nationals working for it, to be allowed to become a member in 2004. This followed a change in the rules, in reaction to declining...
  • Australia overtakes China as second largest host of Japanese nationals living overseas - The headline in Japan on the Japanese Ministry of Foreign Affairs latest data on Japanese nationals living overseas was that the number of Japanese living in China had dipped below 100,000 for the first time. This meant China was overtaken by Australia as the second largest host of Japanese nationals, below the USA, also for...
  • Japanese financial services companies in the UK and EMEA after Brexit - Japanese financial services firms in the UK have remained fairly resilient since Brexit, in terms of turnover and headcount – with significant growth shown by the non-life insurers and leasing and financing companies, but less growth for some in the banking and securities sectors.  On the other hand, the UK has had significant outflows of...
  • The history of Japanese financial services companies in the UK and EMEA - Banks Japanese banks first established operations in London in the 19th and early 20th centuries, to support Japan’s overseas trade and gain knowledge of modern financial and commercial practices. Japan was rapidly industrializing after the Meiji Restoration of 1868 and many of the banks worked closely with the Japanese government on their modernization programme. The...
  • Reflections on the past forty years of Japanese business in the UK – what’s next? – 7 - (continued from part 6) The Japanese consumer electronics companies which were such prominent sponsors of the 1985 Japanese Miracle conference at Oxford University had all set up manufacturing in the UK in the 1970s. Sony was the first, taking over an empty factory in Bridgend, with support from the Welsh development agency. Sony denied that...

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