Characteristics of Job Hunting in Japan
Job hunting activities in Japan has a unique culture and is different from that of your home country. Job hunting activity begins during early school time (3rd year of university undergraduate and 1st year of masters) and lasts for 4 months. Recruitment standards of companies largely differ from that of oversea companies so it is necessary to prepare well for job hunting activities.
(1)New graduate recruiting and midcareer recruiting
Recruitment activity system in Japan can be divided into two. One is “midcareer recruitment” for those who have experience of working, and second, "new graduate recruiting”, recruitment of those who have graduated professional training college, universities etc., and will be working for the first time.
While midcareer recruitment is carried out in a similar way as overseas, new graduate recruitment is very unique and no other country has the same style.
Japanese companies recruit international students with the same recruiting process as Japanese students within the same number of new hires. In other words, foreign students must compete with their Japanese counterparts. Foreign companies in Japan often follow the same recruitment method as Japanese companies.
Therefore, if you would like to work in Japan, you must look for a job following Japan’s recruitment rules for both Japanese and foreign companies.
(2)Characteristics of Japan’s new graduate recruitment
(1) Bulk hiring of new graduates
Japan takes a unique system called “Bulk hiring of new graduates” for job hunting process. Companies will recruit graduating students each year while they are still in school.
(2) Joining company in April
Most universities overseas begin in September but most universities and professional training college in Japan begin in April and students graduate in March. Given that, students graduating in March will enter and begin working at company on April 1st.
(3) Job hunting schedule
Many companies in Japan follow the same recruiting schedule. Additionally, job hunting in Japan starts earlier than overseas. As of August 2021, job hunting starts on the 1st of March every year by students who belong to the year prior to the final grade (3rd year of the undergraduate's course, 1st year of the master's course or 2nd year of their PhD course respectively) and ends four months later in the middle of June.
(4) Recruitment exam
Many Japanese companies require students to take exams in subjects such as mathematics, Japanese, and English. They often require a profile-sheet with Japanese writing. Various kinds of interviews will be held at least three times per company.
(5) Recruitment Standards
Overseas companies often adapt the "performance -based pay system" as criteria for promotion and salary increase. This system evaluates the person’s ability, work achievement or result. Consequently, they often look for industry-ready personnel at the time of hiring. Thus, standards for evaluation are the specialism or knowledge gained at universities etc. or acquired skills through internship etc.
Meanwhile, as Japanese companies are accustomed to taking the time to provide employees with training necessary for their job, they tend to recruit promising students with good qualifications, who are likely to contribute to the company in the long-run.
The figure on the below right indicates survey results of key characteristics employers look for when recruiting potential employees. Japanese companies regard communication ability, independence, cooperativeness, and potentiality such as willingness to take on new challenges as more important than academic scores, expertise in a certain field and foreign language ability. "Potentiality" originally means “the capacity for development and future success.” "Potentiality-hiring" is a way of recruiting by attaching greater value on an applicant's potential capability and future possibility of being successful, even if they may not be qualified in terms of skills and knowledge to fully contribute to the company at that particular moment. Japanese companies provide effective training so they tend to recruit such students with future success potential and not industry-ready personnel.
Source: Japan Business Federation “Questionnaire Survey on New Graduate Recruitment in 2018”
