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There are over 1,200 Japan-owned companies in the UK employing around 174,000 people. The number employed grew around 2% from 2022 to 2023.*
The top 5 Japanese companies** that have grown the most in the UK 2022-2023 are:
1. Dentsu UK/Dentsu International
Advertising and marketing giant Dentsu has two main subsidiaries in the UK – Dentsu UK and Dentsu International. Dentsu has been undergoing a period of consolidation globally, known as One Dentsu, becoming a holding company Dentsu Group Inc in Japan, and in the UK many of its acquisitions and also local companies such as Dentsu Manchester and Dentsu Edinburgh have been closed down and hived up into Dentsu UK.
In 2023 Dentsu Group Inc acquired UK marketing company Tag, one of its biggest acquisitions since it acquired Aegis in 2012. Tag has over 2,700 employees worldwide.
The number of employees at Dentsu UK has grown 66% since 2022 and turnover has grown 51% year on year. This growth is not just due to consolidation, however, as the entire Dentsu group of companies in the UK now employ over 5,000 people, a third more than in 2022, representing around 7% of the global Dentsu workforce – compared to the average for the biggest Japanese companies in the UK of around 2% of the global workforce. Dentsu employs over 17,000 in the EMEA region, around 27% of its global workforce – considerably above the average of 14% for the biggest Japanese companies in EMEA.
None of the Dentsu UK board directors are Japanese and there is one Japanese director, Arinobu Soga, Chief Governance Officer based in Japan, on the Dentsu International board.
2. Hitachi Solutions Europe
Hitachi Solutions Europe is one of the few Hitachi companies left standing in the UK after Hitachi’s aggressive divestments over the past few years. It is a global cloud-services, systems integrator focused on the Microsoft platform. The UK subsidiary is owned by Hitachi Solutions America. As a result, three of the 7 board members (2 Japanese, 1 American) are based in the USA. Two Japanese board members are based in Japan and two directors (one British and one Australian) are based in the UK.
It now employs 555 people in the UK, up 38% from the previous year and turnover has also increased, by 55%.
Overall the number of people employed by Hitachi group companies in the UK has fallen over 40% over the past 4 or 5 years thanks to the divestments and shut down of the Horizon nuclear power project. The employee numbers in the UK only represent 1.4% of Hitachi’s total global employees, lower than the average for other large Japanese companies in Europe of 2.4%. Employee numbers have increased 7% across the EMEA region, mainly due to the acquisition of ABB Power Grids, now Hitachi Energy and represent around 9% of the global total.
Hitachi Energy (formerly ABB Power Grids) is also growing, now employing over 400 people in the UK. The biggest Hitachi group subsidiary in the UK is Hitachi Rail which has over 2,700 employees, a 5% increase on 2022. Hitachi Vantara has 574 employees, expanding since Hitachi Consulting was merged into it in 2021.
There is still a Hitachi Europe in the UK, employing around 330 people, which coordinates the import of Hitachi consumer electronics and other products, as well as providing shared services in the region. There are also Hitachi Europes in Germany (84 employees), Italy (32 employees), France (15 employees) and Spain. Hitachi Europe in the UK has one Japanese board member, based in Japan and the most senior board member is Lorena Dellagiovanna, who is also based in Japan and is Chief Sustainability Officer and SVP.
3. Hawk-Eye Innovations (Sony)
Hawk-Eye Innovations was acquired by Sony in 2011 and has been growing almost every year since. It now employs 529 people in the UK, up 34% on the previous year. Turnover has only grown 4% however. Of the five directors on the board, 2 are Japanese, one in Japan, one in the UK. The other three are British, based in the UK,
It’s hard to give an accurate estimate of Sony’s overall presence in the UK as three of the main subsidiaries – Sony Mobile Communications, Sony Europe and the Sony UK Technology Centre in Pencoed are branches and do not therefore file annual reports giving employee numbers or turnover. The best guess is employee numbers have remained somewhere around 5,000 over the past few years. Sony employs around 12,300 people across the European region, around 11% of the global total and the UK represents about 4% of the global total – higher than the average for other large Japanese companies in the European region.
One of the bigger subsidiaries in the UK, Sony Interactive Entertainment Europe has also grown over the past year, by 9% and is now employing 1,539 people, with turnover also rising 15% on 2022. Of the three board members, 1 is Japanese based in Japan and the other two are British, based in the UK. UPDATE – however, Sony Interactive Entertainment have just announced job cuts globally, including Europe (27th February 2024)
4. NTT Data UK
NTT Data UK is by far the largest NTT group company in the UK, with over 1,500 employees, a year on year growth of 27%. Turnover has also grown 25% on the previous year. NTT group companies now employ over 3,500 in the UK, including recent acquisition Sapphire.
NTT has also been consolidated and reorganising its group companies globally. Its integrated annual report does not, however, give regional breakdowns of employee numbers. We estimate there are at least 40,000 people working for NTT group companies in the EMEA region, around 12% of the 338,000 people working for NTT globally. When NTT Data EMEAL (the L is for Latin America) was formed in 2021, it was stated that the region had 38,000 employees.
NTT Data UK’s board has two German members, based in Germany and one Japanese member based in Spain. The CEO is Spanish and the CFO British – both based in the UK. The very European nature of the board is a legacy of the acquisitions of Spanish IT company Everis in 2013.
5. Tokyo Electron Europe
Tokyo Electron is a supplier of equipment to fabricate integrated circuits (IC), flat panel displays (FPD), and photovoltaic cells (PV). It has grown 26% over the past year, now employing 530 people. With the European headquarters in Crawley, it has branches in Israel, Belgium, Italy, Germany, France, Netherlands, Ireland and Austria. Tokyo Electron has over 16,600 employees worldwide and 669 employees in Europe and the Middle East.
It has two Japanese board directors, both based in Japan. The other three board directors are British and American, based in the UK.
*based on the 1007 companies who have filed with Companies House for the year ending 2023.
**with over 500 employees in the UK
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