Cloud software and services provider BroadSoft has announced its expansion into Japan with the acquisition cloud communication provider PBXL.

“Through the acquisition of PBXL, we believe we are now positioned to expand our cloud footprint to a growth market eager to adopt cloud business services,” said Michael Tessler, chief executive officer of BroadSoft (News - Alert). “We also believe BroadCloud offers service providers eyeing the SMB market in Japan a competitive differentiator and opportunity to grow customers and revenues.”

The company expects to be able to offer services to up to 5 million small businesses in the country, covering 70 percent of the workforce.

The financial terms of the deal weren’t disclosed, but BroadSoft expects the acquisition to contribute $1.5 million in revenue to the company.

PBXL provides cloud-based PBX (News - Alert), softphone and cloud call center services to businesses in Japan. The company stresses its bilingual support staff that speaks both English and Japanese.

With the Japanese economy still feeling the effects of the “Lost Decade” since the economic bubble burst in the ‘90s and the announcement that the country is officially in recession again, many businesses will be looking to cut costs.

One way they’ll be doing that is by cutting on their telecommunications expenses through using cloud-based UC systems. PBXL touts UC services by showing how much money they save over maintaining separate phone and internet connections.

Even in the country’s famously conservative business culture, which still relies on technologies like fax machines that many Westerners might find outdated, BroadSoft hopes that they’ll find the low costs and easy installation of cloud UC services irresistible. With the PBXL acquisition, BroadSoft will have local knowledge that will help service providers operate more smoothly in the country.

Japan, even with its economic troubles, has been a leader in communications technology, rapidly adopting mobile internet and mobile payments years before its Western counterparts did.