Sendairuns on a handful of strong industries. If you’re job-hunting or weighing a move, here’s where the opportunities (and the big-name employers) are.
Top industries & employers
Universities & research
Tohoku University, Miyagi University, Tohoku Institute of Technology, AIST Tohoku
Tohoku University is one of Japan's former imperial universities and the research anchor of the whole region, with strengths in materials, spintronics and disaster science that spin out into local companies.
Regional branch operations
The Tōhoku branches of the megabanks, the trading houses, the general contractors and the electronics majors
Sendai is the textbook Japanese 'branch-office economy' — most large employers here are the regional arm of a Tokyo company. It means plentiful white-collar work and a career that periodically involves being transferred somewhere else.
Consumer goods & retail
Iris Ohyama, 77 Bank, Fujisaki, Sendai Aeon operations, Kahoku Shimpō
Iris Ohyama is one of the few genuinely national consumer brands headquartered in the city rather than branch-managed from it, and 77 Bank is the dominant regional financial institution.
Electronics & semiconductors
Tokyo Electron Miyagi, Sony Semiconductor, Alps Alpine, Murata regional plants
The semiconductor equipment and device cluster sits mostly in the prefecture around Sendai rather than inside the city — Tokyo Electron's Miyagi plant is at Taiwa, half an hour north — so a job here can easily mean a commute out of the city.
Disaster science & resilience
IRIDeS at Tohoku University, JICA and UN-linked programmes, engineering consultancies
The Sendai Framework for Disaster Risk Reduction 2015–2030 was adopted at the Third UN World Conference on Disaster Risk Reduction held here in March 2015, and the city has built a genuine international specialism around resilience research and training.
Agriculture, fisheries & food
Miyagi rice and sake producers, Shiogama and Ishinomaki fisheries, Sendai miso and kamaboko makers
Miyagi is a major rice and sake prefecture and its Pacific fishing ports are among Japan's most important — the food economy is a real employer across the region rather than a tourist line.
Some of this may be out of date. Spotted something inaccurate? Help us keep it right for the next newcomer.