Simultaneous recruiting of new graduates#Hiring practices

In Japan, most students hunt for jobs before graduation from university or high school, seeking {{nihongo|"informal offers of employment"|内定|naitei}} one year before graduation, which will hopefully lead to {{nihongo|"formal offer of employment"|正式な内定|seishiki na naitei}} six months later, securing them a promise of employment by the time they graduate. Japanese university students generally begin job hunting all at once in their third year. {{fact|date=August 2019}}

The government permits companies to begin the selection process and give out informal offers beginning April 1, at the start of the fourth year. These jobs are mainly set to begin on April 1 of the following year. Due to this process, attaining a good position as a regular employee at any other time of year, or any later in life, is extremely difficult.{{fact|date=August 2019}}

Since companies prefer to hire new graduates, students who are unsuccessful in attaining a job offer upon graduating often opt to stay in school for another year. According to a survey conducted by Mynavi, nearly 80% of job-seekers who had recently graduated from university had difficulty applying for entry-level positions in Japan.{{cite web|url=https://resemom.jp/article/2014/10/17/20938.html|title=【大学と就職】8割の企業が採用しない？ 既卒の就職活動の厳しい実態 - リセマム|date=17 October 2014 |access-date=17 October 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141021043814/http://resemom.jp/article/2014/10/17/20938.html|archive-date=21 October 2014|url-status=live}} This is in contrast to other countries, where companies do not generally discriminate against those who have recently graduated.{{fact|date=August 2019}}

By contrast, potential employees in Japan are largely judged by their educational background. The prestige of the university and high school that a student attends has a marked effect on their ability to find similarly sought-after jobs as adults.{{fact|date=August 2019}}

Large companies in particular (e.g. those listed in Nikkei 225), prefer to hire new graduates of prestigious universities "in bulk" to replace retiring workers and groom in-house talent, and the numbers can vary widely from year to year. Employers tend to hire a group of people in a mechanical fashion every year. One example is Toyota; the company hired over 1,500 new graduates in 2010, but this number was barely half of the number employed the year before, and Toyota announced its intention to cut new hires in 2011 further down to 1,200. The company may offer more jobs later on, but those who missed out on the current round of hiring will have a slim chance of gaining a position because they will be overshadowed by fresh graduates.{{fact|date=August 2019}}

According to the nonprofit group Lifelink's survey conducted in July, 2013, one in five Japanese college students thought about committing suicide during the job-hunting process.{{Cite web|last=Otake|first=Tomoko|date=2013-10-18|title=Job hunt stressing students, making them suicidal: poll|url=https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/10/18/national/job-hunt-stressing-students-making-them-suicidal-poll/|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131021130449/https://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/10/18/national/job-hunt-stressing-students-making-them-suicidal-poll/|archive-date=2013-10-21|access-date=2021-04-25|website=The Japan Times|language=en-US}}

The shūkatsu system is under strain due to Japan's shrinking population and competition from foreign and nontraditional companies.[https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20190731-why-japans-shkatsu-is-disappearing-for-japanese-youth Why Japan’s ‘shūkatsu’ job-seeking system is changing] BBC, Mari Shibata, 21 August 2019

This custom has been seen to cause many social problems in modern Japan. Students who do not reach a decision about their employment before graduating from university often face great hardships searching for a job after the fact, as the majority of Japanese companies prefer to hire students scheduled to graduate in the spring. In recent years, an increasing number of university seniors looking for jobs have chosen to repeat a year to avoid being placed in the "previous graduate" category by companies. Under the current system, Japanese companies penalize students who study overseas or have already graduated.{{cn|date=November 2016}}

Reiko Kosugi, a research director at the Japan Institute for Labor Policy and Training, criticized this process in a 2006 essay in The Asia-Pacific Journal, saying, "If business is in a slump at the point of one's graduation and he cannot get a job, this custom produces inequality of opportunity, and people in this age bracket tend to remain unemployed for a long time."{{Cite web|title=Youth Employment in Japan's Economic Recovery:'Freeters' and 'NEETs' |url=http://www.japanfocus.org/-Kosugi-Reiko/2022 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120905070155/http://japanfocus.org/-Kosugi-Reiko/2022 |archive-date=5 September 2012| date=5 September 2012 |url-status=dead}} The Asia-Pacific Journal: Japan Focus, 11 May 2006 Nagoya University professor Mitsuru Wakabayashi has stated, "If this custom is joined to permanent employment, it produces closed markets of employment, where outplacement is hard, and the employees tend to obey any and all unreasonable demands made by their companies so as not to be fired."{{Cite web|url=http://ir.nul.nagoya-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2237/3769/1/KJ00000137258.pdf |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070630133153/http://ir.nul.nagoya-u.ac.jp/dspace/bitstream/2237/3769/1/KJ00000137258.pdf |archive-date = 30 June 2007 |title=Career Development under the Lifetime Employment System of Japanese Organizations |date=30 June 2007 }} (PDF) Bulletin of the Faculty of Education, Nagoya University, 1988, Vol. 35, 1–20

Yuki Honda, a professor at the University of Tokyo's Graduate School of Education, has said "Whether they get a job when they graduate decides their whole life". Ken Mogi, a Japanese brain scientist, points out that limiting job opportunities would lead to a human rights issue and that Japanese companies cannot secure non-traditional competent people in the current job hunting system.{{cite web|url=https://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/9151298/|title=茂木健一郎氏が日本の新卒一括採用に「人権問題」と批判 - ライブドアニュース|access-date=13 September 2014|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160304023448/http://news.livedoor.com/article/detail/9151298/|archive-date=4 March 2016|url-status=live}}

The strictness of the {{Nihongo|"recruit suits"|リクルートスーツ}},(in Japanese) [https://only.co.jp/howto/archives/964 リクルートスーツの違いは何？就活以外の着用シーンは？] 2018/06/07 hairstyles, and even employers' demands on how a recruit may sit has been criticized as sexist. Non-binary and transgender individuals also criticize the process, as it does not allow for gender variance.{{cite news |title=Shukatsu sexism: The Japanese jobseekers fighting discrimination |url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-55344408 |access-date=17 January 2021 |work=BBC News |date=17 January 2021}}

{{Nihongo|Shūshoku katsudō|就職活動}},[https://www.bbc.com/worklife/article/20190731-why-japans-shkatsu-is-disappearing-for-japanese-youth Why Japan’s ‘shūkatsu’ job-seeking system is changing] BBC, Mari Shibata, 21 August 2019 which is abbreviated to {{Nihongo|Shūkatsu|就活}}, starts in April and ends during the hiring season each year from August to October. Japanese university students who fail to receive a job offer often must wait a year to repeat the process competing against the following year's graduating students,[https://www.bbc.com/news/amp/world-asia-55344408 Shukatsu sexism: The Japanese jobseekers fighting discrimination] BBC News, Tom Bateman, 17 January 2021 and those graduates are referred to as shūshoku rōnin ({{Lang|ja|就職浪人}}), borrowing the term for a masterless samurai.Akihiko Yonekawa. Beyond Polite Japanese. page 25. Kodansha 2001. {{ISBN|4-7700-2773-7}}{{Lang|ja|浪人}} at Japanese-English dictionaries: [http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=浪人&dtype=3&dname=2na プログレッシブ和英中辞典] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130218175532/dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=浪人&dtype=3&dname=2na |date=2013-02-18 }} or [http://dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=浪人&dtype=3&dname=2ss ニューセンチュリー和英辞典] {{webarchive|url=https://archive.today/20130219003708/dic.yahoo.co.jp/dsearch?enc=UTF-8&p=浪人&dtype=3&dname=2ss |date=2013-02-19 }} The stress involved has been cited as a factor in suicide in Japan.[https://www.scmp.com/week-asia/society/article/3011203/do-stressed-millennials-spell-end-shukatsu-japans-notorious Do stressed millennials spell end for ‘shukatsu’, Japan’s notorious graduate recruitment process?] SCMP, Crystal Tai, 22 May 2019

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{{toomanylinks|date=September 2022}}

• [http://www.jil.go.jp/english/JLR/documents/2013/JLR37_yano.pdf Japan's New Recruits: Victims of the Japanese-Style Family and Japanese-Style Employment]
• [http://chronicle.com/article/Japanese-Students-Abandon/64007/　In Bleak Economy, Japanese Students Grow Frustrated With Endless Job Hunt]
• [https://archive.today/20130218185851/http://mdn.mainichi.jp/mdnnews/news/20100315p2a00m0na017000c.html More universities allowing students to delay graduation due to job shortage]
• [https://www.nytimes.com/1994/06/25/business/company-news-japanese-graduates-finding-few-jobs.html Japanese Graduates Finding Few Jobs]
• [http://www.mutantfrog.com/2005/06/16/getting-a-doctorate-in-japan/ Ph. D.’s in Japan can’t find work: Little recognition for high expertise, says Mainichi Communications Survey]
• [https://web.archive.org/web/20110722070124/http://www.kisc.meiji.ac.jp/cgi-isc/cgiwrap/~kenjisuz/country.cgi?LG=e&CO=15 Economic and Social Data Rankings (Freedom of choice in life)]
• [http://www.economist.com/business-finance/displaystory.cfm?story_id=15720585 Hiring practices in Japan]
• [https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/04/10/AR2010041002835.html Once drawn to U.S. universities, more Japanese students staying home]
• [https://www.usatoday.com/money/world/2009-03-05-japan-lifetime-employment_N.htm Japan offers a lifetime job, if hired right out of school]
• [http://www.ajc.com/news/nation-world/japanese-jobseekers-hold-tokyo-831044.html Japanese jobseekers hold Tokyo pep rally]

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Simultaneous Recruiting Of New Graduates}}

Category:Graduate recruitment

Category:Culture of Japan

Category:Employment in Japan