Market Overview

The business process outsourcing (BPO) market size (total of IT BPO and non-IT BPO) was estimated at 4,884,920 million yen for FY2023, up 3.9% from the preceding fiscal year, based on the sales of businesses. IT BPO rose by 5.9% from the preceding fiscal year to 2,947,000 million yen, and IT BPO grew by 1.0% to 1,937,920 million yen.

The number of companies embarking on promoting digital transformation (transformation centered around business automation using digital technology) has been increasing in the past few years, accelerating organizational restructuring (to focus on core business activities, and reallocating human resources accordingly).
Along with this process, companies are increasingly outsourcing non-core activities that cannot be covered on their own. In addition, there is a growing momentum for utilizing end-to-end outsourcing, even including core activities in business restructuring such as strategy planning and consulting. Under the circumstances, the BPO market is on the rise.
It is also noteworthy that growing momentum for outsourcing at public sector including local governments is contributing to the market expansion, as outsourcing proved effective in COVID-19 measures-related operations.

Noteworthy Topics

Demand for “Digital BPO” Expands as Digital Transformation Cures Talent Shortages

Many BPO providers are now offering “digital BPO”, a hybrid service encompassing both human operations and digital technology.
Demand for digital BPO is growing strong particularly for Japanese companies that operates globally, who wish to improve operations drastically to increasing cost competitiveness.


Digital technology reduces concerns regarding talent shortages at clients, as well as improves efficiency, reduces costs, and enhances service quality of BPO itself. Expanding the capabilities, technology leverages the growth of the BPO market.

Future Outlook

In line with the increasing adoption of affordable cloud-based services, the number of companies using BPO services has been expanding in FY2024, including small and mid-sized businesses. Additionally, the expansion of the client base in the public sector, which had long been an untapped market, along with the full-scale introduction of services powered by generative AI (which began in earnest at the end of 2022), positions the market for continued growth moving forward.
The overall BPO services market for FY2024, based on business sales, is forecast to grow by 4.2% year-on-year, reaching 5,091,440 million yen. Both the IT BPO market and non-IT BPO market are projected to grow by 6.0% (3,124,000 million yen) and 1.5% (1,967,440 million yen), respectively.

Research Outline