I was in Hokkaido many years ago for work and loved it. Compared to the rest of Japan, indoor/outdoor spaces are wider, food is better, and people are friendlier. I never could swing another work visit, so I dream about spending time there in retirement.
I could imagine, though, that companies might have trouble attracting quality talent to Hokkaido, because people see more opportunities in the big cities down south. I suppose it's like if you were trying to build a tech hub in Montana.
It's not landlocked and less isolated than Montana. Montana is beautiful in select parts but it's also a little bleak. Hokkaido is still a lush island and Sapporo is a proper city. I'd say it's more like getting companies to move from SF or LA to Seattle.
The same could probably be said of many areas of the US (or other countries). Good outdoor recreation opportunities, some good local food options, but not a huge number of (local) employment opportunities or the nearby options that density brings.
As you say, if you can work remotely, it may be fine but it's a different situation from working in a hub of whatever your specialty is.
> As you say, if you can work remotely, it may be fine but it's a different situation from working in a hub of whatever your specialty is.
The question is: is that actually a problem with Japanese work culture? That would be a large problem in US work culture because there's no loyalty from your employer, so you have to be prepared to find a new job at any moment. But it certainly used to be the case that if you worked for BigCorp, you could reasonably expect to work there for the rest of your life if you wanted. And under those conditions, it doesn't matter if the area is a hub for your job specialty.
I know Japan at least used to have a work culture where companies would be loyal to their employees, based on patio11's excellent blog post on how Japanese business culture differs from that of the US. But that was many years ago now, so I don't know if the culture in Japan is still like that or if it has changed.
Well, many of those BigCorps simply went out of business over the years. Kodak in Rochester was a pretty good bet until it wasn't. Not so much culture as business realities.
Japan has been more stable in that regard. More stability but probably also fewer real opportunities.
Kodak actually spun out their chemical company quite a while before things really went south with film. The real problem was that Kodak had a huge film-related consumables business and, to a first approximation, that just went away.
I could imagine, though, that companies might have trouble attracting quality talent to Hokkaido, because people see more opportunities in the big cities down south. I suppose it's like if you were trying to build a tech hub in Montana.