Japanese mobile carrier KDDI (TYO:9433) has announced that it will establish a data center in Sendai, one of the areas hit the hardest by the earthquake and tsunami this past March.
The center will be for managing mobile customer data, and will see up to 700 residents hired — good news for the city where employment is a major problem as the Sendai is still in the middle of rebuilding after the disaster. KDDI’s chairman Tadashi Onodera explained:
We need to set up the center to deal with a growing number of subscriptions for tablets such as smartphones… Considering the issue of employment, we have determined Sendai would be the best place.
It’s good to see technology companies getting involved with the recovery effort. Earlier this year we saw Amazon announce a call center in Sendai. That’s expected to open in the spring of 2012 and will bring about 1000 jobs to the area. Hopefully we can see more companies do the same, and the sooner the better.
The March earthquake was one of the biggest stories of the past year, although it has been gradually replaced in the news cycle by other things. That doesn’t mean that the recovery effort doesn’t need help though, so if you’d like to pitch in, there are still many ways to give this holiday season.
[Source: The Japan Times, Image from The Sanyo Shimbun]