How Japanese professionals find healthy work-life balance in Espoo, Finland

Espoo's innovation community in Finland might be the best-kept secret among Europe's leading innovation ecosystems. In recent years, several large Japanese companies have become privy to the benefits of working in Finland's second-biggest city, situated next to Helsinki, the Finnish capital.

Japan's leading forest and paper packaging group, Oji Holdings, acquired Espoo-based Walki Group in 2023. In 2020, Mitsubishi Electric began a wide-ranging strategic partnership with EKE-Electronics, a leading Finnish developer of Train Control and Management Systems (TCMS). A year earlier, Kyocera acquired Tikitin (now called Kyocera Technologies), a MEMS technology spin-off from VTT.

For corporations, Espoo offers unique benefits like access to one of the world's top deep tech ecosystems and talents emerging, for example, from Aalto University. But what do the people who emigrate here think about working and living in Espoo?

Agile working, peaceful living close to nature

Ken Shibata, the Director of Strategic Partnership between EKE-Electronics and Mitsubishi Electric, moved to Finland in 2024. Shibata notes two insights about working and living in Espoo.

One of them is agility. According to Shibata, EKE-Electronics excels in agile software engineering. EKE-Electronics has applied agile ways of working to other processes as well. Developing TCMS requires large-scale, complex project work. Being agile means that EKE-Electronics actively communicates with its customers throughout the development process.

Secondly, Shibata has been impressed with the work-life balance in Finland. Besides work, there is plenty of time to enjoy time with family and explore nature, which is always around the corner in Espoo.

"I think EKE-Electronics’ working style is quite advanced in terms of wellbeing. The balance of working life is nice." Shibata says.

"From Espoo, we can access Nuuksio National Park. It is good for hiking and picking blueberries and mushrooms."

With companies like Mitsubishi Electric landing in Espoo, it is positive to see the Japanese presence growing in the innovation community. Shibata thinks that knowing other Japan-related companies in the area is an advantage for companies. Even if not collaborating directly, Shibata points out that it is beneficial to be able to discuss possible collaborations and innovations with them.

"It is good to be located in this type of innovative area."

In our other article about Mitsubishi Electric's collaboration with EKE-Electronics, we discuss how Mitsubishi Electric found a perfect strategic collaboration partnership in Espoo.