This IDC study (a translation of the Japanese report IDC #J12260101) analyzes the Japan IT services market situation and trends. It also classifies the IT services spending into customer industry (18 industries) and IT services subcategories spending by segment into customer main industry segments (6 industries) to forecast the market. IDC examines the market in 2011 for each market segment and forecasts the market size and growth rates from 2012 to 2016. IDC also adds recommendations for service vendors.

In 2012, Japan IT services market is expected to recover and record positive growth after four long years. However, the growth rate is expected to remain low throughout the forecast period due to structural changes, namely increased cloud usage, service price stabilizing at low price, and overseas shift in IT spending. There is even a possibility that this growth rate will drop further due to the economic situation overseas, such as the European debt crisis. "As the Japan IT services market continues to grow at a low rate, vendors must share long-term visions with their customers and provide services that will realize those visions. They must adopt the attitude to create new businesses together with their customers, rather than just solving business issues. Therefore, they should quickly increase their knowledge and capabilities, including making bold alliances," says Yukiharu Yorifuji, group director, IT Services and Communications, IDC Japan.