Job recruitment activities, such as interviews, for college students scheduled to graduate next spring were given the official starting signal in Japan on Monday, though the bulk of job-hunting students already received informal employment offers.
Trading house Itochu, highly popular among graduating students, began interviewing applicants online, and Daiichi Life Insurance, set to abolish job location transfers without prior consent in April next year, launched interviews in person.
Every year, the Japanese government imposes a nonbinding “ban” on the recruitment of new graduates until May 31, about nine months prior to their graduation, to allow the students to concentrate on academic activities.
But in reality, many companies ignore the ban to secure talented people ahead of their rivals.
As of May 1, 76% of students seeking jobs starting next April had already received informal employment pledges, a survey by Career-tasu, which operates websites to provide job-hinting assistance, showed.
Nojima launched as early as September last year interviews with prospective 2027 graduates and made unofficial job offers in November “because rival firms had begun their moves,” the major appliance retailer’s public relations official said.
Companies are also capitalizing on internship programs to enclose high-potential graduates.
“As students have increasingly been joining companies that made informal job offers first, we need to act early,” a recruitment official at a major restaurant chain said.