Japan Firms Fully Start Activities to Recruit New Graduates

June 1, 2018

Tokyo- Major companies in Japan fully started on Friday activities, including interviews, for recruiting university students who graduate in spring 2019.

Of job-seeking students, 42.7 pct already secured informal work contacts as of May 1, up 7.6 percentage points from a year before, an indication that the job market situation is favorable to the students' side, according to a survey by job information and staffing service firm Recruit Career Co.

Many of the informal job contracts are believed to have been given by foreign-affiliated and small companies that are not members of the Japan Business Federation (Keidanren), the nation's biggest business group comprising mainly large firms.

Japanese companies, both large and small, are generally active in hiring new graduates, an official of Recruit Career said.

On Friday, Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance Co. held the first round of interviews with students at venues, including in Tokyo's Shibuya Ward.

"I feel pressure as the race for job offers from major companies is tough," a 23-year-old female student of Waseda University said. "But I hope to do my best at each interview."

Keidanren's related guidelines allow member companies to offer job seminars for students from March 1 and launch specific selection procedures, including interviews, from June 1.

For students who graduated in spring 2016, Keidanren set the starting date for the selection procedures at Aug. 1. But the date was changed to June 1 for those who graduated in spring 2017 and spring this year, following complaints from students that the later start would make the period of their job-hunting activities longer and increase their burden. Jiji Press