Japan’s largest systems integrator, NTT Data Ltd, which was spun off from Nippon Telegraph & Telephone Corp several years ago, is to set up four new 100%-owned subsidiaries in regional areas of Japan, in order to ensure that it can obtain staff over the next few years: the companies will subcontract work which NTT obtains from customers Tokyo and other large urban areas and the move reflects the continuing shortage of software engineers – caused in part by the preference for custom-developed systems, necessitating armies of programmers for big projects such as on-line banking; shortage of techncial staff has forced traditionally male-oriented companies to change their employment policies to embrace women, who by custom have always retired upon marriage; they are now considering development overseas, particularly in India, the formation of joint ventures in China, and employment of foreign workers – with consequent changes required in immigration laws.
