ABSTRACT
In this chapter based on firm-level surveys I show the perceived and actual difficulties for both Japanese and Indian IT firms to work together and thus anticipate, in the context of Japan’s shortages of technical professionals, considerable institutional change. I present this change in Chapter 8 under various forms of Japan’s greater engagement with India and others as predicted by the imperatives of capital accumulation. The context and the preconditions for Japan’s engagement are demographic shifts, impending labor shortages, economic challenges, and the availability of IT professionals from the global economy. By demonstrating why Japan has been slow to work with foreign professionals and leverage offshoring opportunities, as evident from the limited inflows of foreign skilled professionals, I reveal the specificities of institutional stickiness found in the Japanese IT industry. At the same time, the workings of really existing capitalism (or actual forms of capitalism that deviate from the theoretical, idealized version) at the sectoral level illustrate the durability of Japanese business practices, despite the hollowing out of its manufacturing, a long period of deflationary recession, and a transition toward a services-driven economy.
