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 have already received informal employment offers.
Trading house Itochu, highly popular among graduating students, has begun interviewing applicants online, and Daiichi Life Insurance, set to abolish job location transfers without prior consent in April next year, has launched face-to-face interviews.
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-hunting assistance, showed.
Nojima launched interviews with prospective 2027 graduates as early as September last year 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 recruit high-potential graduates.
¡°As students have increasingly been joining companies that are the first to make informal job offers, we need to act early,¡± a recruitment official at a major restaurant chain said.
For the 2027 spring hiring season, companies including Japanese mobile communications firm NTT Docomo and East Japan Railway Co. (JR East)?have introduced interactive artificial intelligence-based interviews.
NTT Docomo will use such interviews for candidates who pass document screenings, with high scorers advancing to in-person interviews. At JR East, AI interviews will be used only for selected positions.
Both companies emphasize that final hiring decisions will be made by their officials, without relying on AI.
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