F E AT U RE Santa Fe goods ready to move A member of the Santa Fe team Yamatane employees HIROYUKI HOSHINO, ASSISTANT MANAGER IN YAMATANE CORPORATIONS INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS DEPARTMENT PASCAL LATUI, MOVING SERVICES MANAGER AT SANTA FE RELOCATION For Yamatane, China offers strong possibilities. Exchanges with China and the Asian region are increasing and these will grow further, says Hoshino. Wed like to strengthen cooperation with FIDI agencies. Movements of people, goods and money are active in Asia the market is expanding. At the same time, major cities in Asian countries have developed and life has become convenient. You can transfer overseas easily, resulting in a small amount of moving packages per case, which reduces the amount of individual handling. From among the global giants, Yamatane detects increasing business growth among biotech and telecoms companies. Like others in the trade, Hoshino anticipates more people arriving ahead of the 2020 Olympics. The companys logistics arm operates mainly in Japan, but it is expanding globally, as is its moving business. Santa Fes growing business sector its trade base a mix of international and domestic moves for corporate and direct consumer clients has, says Latui, seen more and more Japanese nationals moving overseas compared with foreigners coming into Japan. Weve also been successful in winning new business with large Japanese corporations, which traditionally prefer working with Japanese movers. With shipping allowances squeezed and companies worldwide offering staff monetary allowances to sort moves directly, any new business avenue is welcome. Santa Fe is handling more and more shipments from India, mainly for the automotive and IT sector. One of our distinguishing points is our focus on technology and using it to make managing relocations much easier, says Latui. Yokohama has been trading since 1976. In the early days, its main business was household removal for families of the US military in Japan. Its scope has 76 FF291JunJul19 pp70-79 Regional Focus Japan.indd 76 expanded to cover global and domestic moves, with customers varying from expats of foreign and Japanese companies to locals. In short, we cover everything as far as household removals are concerned, says Nogami. Over recent years, business volume is quite stable, though we have seen a moderate increase. This, rather than a significant boost from any new sector, he attributes to the companys overall operational strength though, as it has for Santa Fe, shipments from India have grown in recent years. Boosts like that are needed to cope with the demanding nature of an ever-changing world. As with Europes General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR), data protection has become a very sensitive matter in Japan, says Nogami. Also high wage increases in the service industry have increased costs considerably. Then there are the vagaries of bureaucracy for instance, where customs used to tolerate including food for personal consumption in a removals package, imports are now severely restricted. For Yamatane, one of the main industry challenges is keeping hold of a good workforce amid a national labour shortage and ageing population. Its response has been to devise new efficiency measures alongside career development for everyone, whatever their job. FIDI membership benefits Japanese Affiliates in many ways. It helps us explain to customers the nature of our global partnerships, says Masee. Since we compete with several global brands, having a qualified network of experienced and specialised partners covering most major destinations is important. It gives clients peace of mind. It also helps underscore the reliability of our processes and financial stability. Much the same applies to Nippon Express WWW. F I D I . OR G 10/05/2019 16:53