Where footloose jobs and mobile people meet: the peculiar case of the Japanese call centre industry in Bangkok

Much services offshoring takes place between English-speaking economies. Conditions for non-English-speaking economies like Japan and Thailand are more challenging. The limited availability of Japanese language skills abroad restricts opportunities for Japanese firms to offshore contact services. Japanese firms negotiate this condition by offshoring contact services to low-cost destinations and hiring Japanese staff at local wages. Bangkok is such a destination. The city that otherwise has remained relatively untouched by the services offshoring wave, features a small but vibrant collection of Japanese contact centres. This chapter explores both the firms’ strategies and the motives of the Japanese workers filling the cubicles.