The Anatomy of the New Graduate Hiring Process in Japan

The search for a job after graduation in Japan is vastly different from western countries. Large traditional companies have annual new university graduate mass-recruiting on a set schedule. In many cases, your personality and willingness to be a blank slate for the corporation matters more than what you studied in college.

This yearly rite of hiring fresh graduates is called shinsotsu saiyo (新卒採用), and the process for hopeful students applying is called shushoku katsudo (就職活動), or shu-katsu (就活) for short. The process is usually for seishain (正社員) positions, so-called company membership-type employment. 

The annual hiring cycle begins roughly a year ahead of graduation, which is at the end of March for most universities in Japan.

While some companies accept graduates kisotsu (既卒) or second new graduates daini shinsotsu (第二新卒), if you want to try for shinsotsu recruitment for full-time employment at a large company, this is for you. 

To be eligible for new graduate recruitment, you first ideally still need to be in school when you apply and be on the road to graduation the next spring. Most require you to be graduating from a four-year program.

You don’t have to be in Japan, as some companies participate in overseas job fairs for students. But the process can move quickly, and face-to-face interviews are back after the pandemic.

The Japanese Business Federation (Keidanren) puts out a suggested schedule for the hiring cycle. For April 2025, companies could begin posting ads in March 2024, officially begin selection in June, and hand out official offers, called naitei (内定), from October 2024.  

In practice, activities can start much earlier as companies race to snap up the best candidates. Some may start as early as January or February with “internships.” Many companies aim to start interviews around Golden Week in May.

While the goal is to finish the selection process by the middle of the year, screening still takes months. Sometimes companies will have a second, autumn recruitment as well.

So what is screening like and what can you expect if you want to go through the process? I will be outlining the general steps, but each company’s recruitment is different. 

I will also mainly be talking about my own experiences, so there are two things to keep in mind: One, it was long before the pandemic and screening processes have changed. Two, I am not a software engineer, so my experience is only in the media and entertainment industry.

If you are new to looking for programming jobs, take a look at this Japan Dev guide. If you are already a professional in your field, then Japan Dev has a carefully curated list of jobs for software engineers who are looking to move to Japan. 

 

1. Company information sessions and entries

The very first step of the new graduate recruiting cycle are information sessions, called kaisha setsumeikai (会社説明会). Along with the announcement of the start of the hiring cycle, companies open registration for these events. If you are just starting researching companies, then this is for you.

First, you have to register on the website of the company with your personal information. This is your name, birthdate, address… Then you get an account and can book your spot for a session and see the selection schedule. This is called an entry or a pre-entry. 

I was told students should do 50-150 entries to get the most information possible. But it depends on your interests and how much time you have to put into the process. Don’t overwhelm yourself. 

One thing to keep in mind is that new graduate recruitment might have an age limit. Many of the companies I applied for had a cut off of 25. Since I went to grad school, I just barely qualified. 

Later, I did a “general recruit” ippan saiyo (一般採用) cycle with a cut off of 30 years old. I was one of the oldest of my cohort at 27, and the youngest was 22. 

The typical setsumeikai will give you the basics of the company, introduce the departments that are hiring, and hold a question and answer session. Sometimes they also have representatives from departments who will speak about their jobs and will do an office tour.

Go to as many information sessions as you can to look at your options. Make sure to keep all materials given to you for later reference, and take notes about departments you are interested in. This will help later on in the process when you are writing entry sheets (see below).

The more concretely you can talk about how you see yourself fitting into the company, the better. 

 

One-day internships

Some setsumeikai go beyond a simple information session.

When we hear “internship” in the west, we usually think of a long-term, usually unpaid, part-time job. You get to actually experience what it is like in that particular workplace. While these kinds of positions do exist in Japan, in this context, it is more of a curated experience.

One of my classmates graduating with me got a several-week internship position, and a job offer at the end of it. I was required to work at a company for a week as part of a selection process. But at the time, before the pandemic, “one-day internships” were very popular.

One-day internships are more like an information session that lasts the whole day. In addition to getting lectures from human resources about the company, there are also activities with other participants, more interactive discussions with current employees, and company tours.

I participated in one for the company I eventually joined. I still vividly remember one of my to-be coworkers talking about her career path and showing off a project that she worked on. I didn’t step outside of the lecture hall, but I did learn a lot about the department I eventually joined.    

 

Dress code: Setsumeikai and beyond

Shinsotsu shu-katsu has a set dress code. It’s called the “recruit suit” (リクルートスーツ). If you are in big cities like Tokyo and Osaka in March to June, you will see students dressed this way. In fact, it is almost like an identical uniform.

The outfit is a black suit jacket and slacks (or knee-length or longer suit skirt), a white collared shirt, black non-descript shoes (low heels for women), and a khaki trench coat until the summer heat hits. Men’s ties should be in colors like black, blue, or red, and women who wear skirts should have skin-colored stockings. 

Men need to be clean-shaved and have their hair cut short. Women tie their hair back if it is longer than shoulder-length. No dyed hair. Makeup needs to be light, and nail art is frowned upon. Students are a “blank slate,” and you aren’t supposed to set yourself apart with your looks alone.

This is not to say that every company will be looking for the recruit suit for the interview. Some specifically say to come in “your own clothes” shifuku (私服) or say there is no dress code fukusou jiyuu (服装自由). 

But this is also a test. Can you dress yourself professionally without the recruit suit? Did you research the company’s corporate culture (called shafuu (社風))?  Do you look sloppy?

Like many parts of the process down the line, every small detail will be used to evaluate your personality. Keep it business casual. Try to look sharp and professional. Foreigners will stand out a lot anyway, so don’t dress too flashy or casual. 

 

2. Entry sheets

This is the actual job application. Since students don’t have resumes, companies ask a series of short to long answer questions to get an idea of their personality and experiences.

Part-time jobs you had as a student don’t count as work history, by the way! But it is a common question on entry sheets.

I was once told students should pick around 20-40 companies from the entry pool and fill out their entry sheets. 

I was a graduate student working on my thesis field work at the time, so that was out of the question! I only applied to six at the beginning. It would have been different if I was a native speaker, but it just took so much time.

Why? Because I had to write them by hand. In pen.

Companies had a PDF of the entry sheet to print out with spaces to write and paste your photo. (It is a thing in Japan to attach a photo to your resume.) The idea is that you can judge a person by their handwriting. I submitted the completed entry sheets by mail. 

Thankfully, since handling physical paper became a concern during the pandemic, many companies have now moved the process online. There were companies that did online entry sheets when I was a fresh to-be graduate too, but the majority had to be handwritten and scanned.

Some common questions are what you worked hard on in college, your hobbies, your strengths and weaknesses, why you want to work at the company, where you see the industry going in the future, and what you want to put special care into doing on the job. 

The reason you want to join a company is called your shibou douki (志望動機). I think of it like the Japanese version of a cover letter. 

Some other questions I got were which historical figure would I go to coffee with, who inspires me and why, headlines for the three biggest events of my life, my go-to song for karaoke, and since I was applying for media companies, my favorite books, magazines, manga, and anime, and how I would increase sales for my favorite media…

There was always a long essay question, and sometimes I would have to make up catch phrases or attach a fun picture and caption it.

Still, handwriting three to five pages of short to long answer questions was a nightmare. I had many sleepless nights and almost threw in the towel on multiple occasions when I would miss a kanji character on the very last question or smear the ink when erasing the pencil underneath. 

Whiteout was not an option.

After taking the process too seriously, I changed my tactics. The idea is to stand out on paper, so instead of just text, I realized I should make a work of art that human resources couldn’t ignore. I started to draw pictures and make more jokes. 

I looked over my old entry sheets for this article and I found one that asked me to describe my application simply. I wrote “shingeki no gaikokujin (進撃の外国人),” a play on being a foreigner and “Attack on Titan,” which had just started airing at the time.

One of my favorite entry sheets included a video response. The only prompt was to introduce yourself in a video three minutes or less. At first you might think of just talking into the camera. But it was for an entertainment company, so I decided to do something colorful.

I ran around the city with a friend who liked to shoot video, and he edited the creation I wrote and directed. There were many costume changes and we even shot in a karaoke booth. 

Entry sheets will be what interviewers look at to get an idea of who you are to formulate their interview questions. Be true to yourself and put down things that you want to tell them more about. It’s hard to memorize some grand speech, but easy to get excited about things you love. 

I passed most entry sheet screenings back then. Probably because it is extremely weird to be a foreigner applying for very traditional media with little diversity. 

Unfortunately for me, entry sheets didn’t matter for some of the companies because I would bomb completely in the next round: Written exams! 

3. Written exams and aptitude tests 

Written tests or hikkishiken (筆記試験) are nicknamed “cutting off the legs” ashikiri (足切り), which means to narrow down the candidate pool. This is a common step to filter out the “bottom of the barrel” after the entry sheet selection at big companies with hundreds of applicants. 

These tests could be before the first interviews even begin. Or it could be in tandem with the first or second round of interviews. It depends on the company.

Unfortunately, this is where my dreams usually ended.

A written test can be a variety of things. Many of them have a current events portion, a language portion, a math portion, and in entertainment, some kind of creative element like an essay. 

These exams are aptitude tests tekisei kensa (適性検査) that analyze your personality, tendencies, and ability to do the job along with your knowledge and skills.

The most commonly used is the Synthetic Personality Inventory (SPI) test. It is a standardized test created by the company Recruit Management Solutions. 

The test is broken into two parts: an ability part nouryoku kensa (能力検査) and a personality part seikaku kensa (性格検査). The ability part is further broken down into language gengo bunya  (言語分野) and non-language higengo bunya (非言語分野) parts. 

The language part asks questions about the meaning of Japanese words and phrases. The non-language part is math and reasoning. This is supposed to measure both your knowledge and communication skills.

I think you are getting the drift here that this doesn’t play out well for non-natives.

I’m terrible at math. But on top of that, while tests are said to be “middle school math,” Japan and the U.S. (where I got my education) have different curriculums.

There were quite a few times where I came upon problems I had never seen before in my life. And the framing of the questions wasn’t even similar to what I was used to, even beyond the fact that it was all word problems in Japanese.

I thought N1 would be enough for the Japanese part at least, but the vocabulary of native speakers compared to non-natives is night and day. Sometimes I couldn’t even catch a break with English language test portions. 

Since SPI is a standardized test, if you are really serious about preparing for it, you can buy a textbook and collections of sample questions at most bookstores. There are also online resources as well.

I did get one and study, and I can’t recommend drilling actual examples enough.

 

Anecdotes 

Most of the aptitude tests I ended up taking, however,  were created by the company themselves. 

 

・Company A

Due to some circumstances, I only sat for one in-person ashikiri written test for a major media company. The venue for the exam was a convention center, and there were at least 1000 applicants. It was terrifying! 

Along with three multiple choice sections – current events, math, and English – there was a “creative” section. You had to write a haiku based on a list of five prompts. 

The test booklet started with the haiku, and my dreams were promptly crushed. Out of the five choices, the only one I remember is “Donald Trump.”

I had tried to study current events. There are books specifically aimed at students for this and online resources, and I highly recommend them! But I was just not knowledgeable enough since I had only been in the country for two years at that point. I didn’t read the news in Japanese regularly.

Math was a no-go, as I mentioned. But I thought that maybe I could at least get a perfect score on the English section. Nope. I was reading through, and for some questions all the answer choices were unnatural to me.

Sometimes I wonder how dismal my score was. I did ask my acquaintance from Company A about it. He joined as a career hire, not a new graduate, but he said he still had to take the test to get full employment, seishain. He didn’t remember what he wrote his haiku about. 

I also asked him if there even were foreign employees. He said yes! Three! But all ethnically Japanese who were born or lived abroad (“returnees” or kikokushijo (帰国子女)). Well then!

 

・Company B

Even before the pandemic, it was common for aptitude tests to be “web tests” online. I knew I was in for something when I had to install software to even be able to load the script for the test website. 

For some reason, the text was mangled and I could barely read it. It was so bad that I wonder now if this was part of the test. Were they keeping out people who couldn’t read kanji characters from general shape and feeling?

This time I really hoped the math would actually be the one to save me but a few problems I just stared at blankly because I had never seen a problem like that before.

Of course, that was the end of the line for my aspirations of joining that company. I never even got an interview!

 

・Company C

This test was simple, straightforward, and probably the most workable one. I still remember wanting to pull my hair out because we had to order clients alphabetically, though. 

At the time I wasn’t that good at reading Japanese family names and had to recite Japanese alphabetic order to myself each time. I didn’t know I should have brushed up on how to read surnames and kana order!

Sadly this test cost me the job, but that’s another story completely. Remember that even the personality test is a test of your Japanese reading ability if you are a foreigner! 

There is a pattern to the questions and commonly used phrases, so look up examples of personality tests and study the vocabulary. The SPI can be a good foundation.

 

・Company D

The company I ended up working for had a written exam that had two parts: Current events and an 800-character essay. 

At that time in my life, I was more prepared to do current events. But an 800-character essay in Japanese in an hour on a topic announced at the start of the test? Handwritten? That seemed a little bleak. 

The secret was to write essays on three different topics related to myself and my experiences. I had friends and teachers help correct them and give feedback. 

Then, when the topic was revealed, I could pick the closest one and just tweak it a little bit to fit. I will never forget the essay prompt when I took it was “good conscience”… or how much my hand hurt after writing that much in such a short time!

I asked a few of my managers later what their topic was the year that they did new graduate recruitment, and most of them remembered!

 

4. Interviews and group interviews

At this point you might be wondering, what about interviews?! If you survive the document screening shorui senkou (書類選考) and sometimes an exam, then you can sit for an interview. 

There are usually two to three rounds of interviews. The first, ichiji mensetsu (一次面接), is usually with the company’s HR department. The second, niji mensetsu (二次面接) is with management level staff in the department you want to work in or where they are thinking of placing you. The third is usually with executives. This all differs by company. 

The order of these interviews with the aptitude test might be different — you might interview before you take the test or during the same level of screening. If the test is an ashikiri test for a big applicant pool, then you might be out without ever talking face-to-face with anyone. 

The first interview is an introduction. Who are you? What are you passionate about? Why do you want to work there? How do you see yourself in five years? In ten? Here are some common questions, which you might have to repeat in higher interview levels.

Memorize your (formal)  jikoshokai (自己紹介) and your shibo douki from your entry sheet. These will be the first questions. HR will refer to your entry sheet answers when thinking of questions, so review what you wrote and be ready to expand on it further.

As a foreigner, be prepared to explain where you come from. Why did you come to Japan and why do you want to work here? The articles above sum it up perfectly: They want to know you are in it for the long haul.

The second interview is more about what you will bring to the job, and more specific questions about what you want to do at the company. You will most likely be interviewed by the manager who will become your direct superior. 

This is the time to ask more detailed questions about the workplace and the type of projects you might be involved in to see if the job is the right fit.  

For Company C, my interviewer would have been my boss, and he explained in detail the project I would work on if I was hired. For Company D, the interviewers did not become my bosses, but they were at the same level in the corporate hierarchy. 

Oftentimes, there is a waiting space where you sit with other hopefuls. At Company C, there was another member of HR sitting around making small talk in that room too. Also a test to learn more about you! Be friendly and polite. 

But sometimes, there are other applicants with you in the actual interview. This is a group interview, and it is a ruthless battle to stand out without standing out too much.

I am not sure what it is like in other industries, but in entertainment, it was basically a contest of who could tell the wildest story.

At an interview for a production company for children’s content, I clearly remember a woman who was in grad school for molecular biology. She told a whole story about how her dream was to be shrunk down to the size of a cell and see how things worked up close. 

I will never forget the shock of the interviewers and interviewees alike. Needless to say, I bet she moved on to the next round. I did not. Being able to tell interesting, humorous stories in Japanese unfortunately came later when I got used to the process more.

One of the hardest things for me was that I stood out way too much, and I was a nervous wreck! Interviewers would stare at me like I had just landed from Mars. My words wouldn’t come out right. I most definitely could not express myself and what I wanted to do like natives could.

Focus on who you are and what is important to you. Don’t be too grandiose. Make your first interview memorable and humorous. Talk about things you enjoy explaining to others (just like on your entry sheets).

Make sure you ask questions, too. You want to be clear about what kind of company it is and what they will expect of you. This is especially true in the second interview, but you also want to make sure things are clear with HR as well.

And don’t forget to check out the Japan Dev interview guide for insights from top tech companies about how they screen candidates. 

 

Group work 

Another type of group interview is called “group work.” You are broken into teams with other applicants and are given a discussion topic or a problem to solve. 

For me applying in business roles, coming up with an idea for a new product or a marketing campaign was common, but it all depends on the job.

At the end of the given time period, you make a presentation to the rest of the applicant pool about what ideas were discussed, or a concrete proposal for a solution. The activity is not just for creativity and problem solving, but also your ability to summarize and present ideas. 

It is exactly like group work at university, but the stakes are a job rather than a grade. It is easy to think that you have to pick the presenter to be able to pass the selection, but dividing up the roles, taking notes, and moderating the discussion are also important.

I passed the entry sheet selection and moved on to the group work round at a well-known character business company. The discussion topic was based on the Japanese fairy tale Momotaro.

Momotaro is a special boy found by an old couple in a peach that floated down the river. When the village is pillaged by oni ogres, he sets out for their hideout and is joined by a dog, monkey, and pheasant. They beat the ogres and get their treasure. 

The task was picking three new animals that would help Momotaro with his quest and why. Well, he is fighting a battle against ogres, I thought. He needs some serious help! I suggested crows to attack the tall ogres’ faces, bears to claw them down…

I thought I had suggested some super solid choices to add to Momotaro’s army that would most definitely defeat the oni! It was only when I failed that my friend pointed out my problem: 

It was a cute company. The bear could have been a comfy bed. The crow could have brought the ogres some cool, shiny gifts. Momotaro could have used the abilities of the animals to charm the ogres into being his friends. Oh. Oh no…

I had been a little too “aggressive” and competitive, and probably came off even more like a crazy foreigner. Needless to say, I totally have Momotaro trauma now!

Make sure you do your research and read carefully what sort of traits they are looking for in candidates. This is true for all kinds of interviews, but even more important when you are trying to get across that you can play by the rules as a foreigner at a Japanese company.         

 

Unusual screening processes

Hands down the wildest recruiting experience I had was a gasshuku senkou (合宿選考) as the third round before the final executive interviews at Company C. Gasshuku means staying overnight together somewhere, like a training camp.

Yes, we took a bus to Yamanashi Prefecture and stayed at a recreational facility near Mt. Fuji.

What did we do there? I remember seeing “workout clothes” on the packing list and knowing I was really in for an adventure. True to my suspicions, we were divided into six teams with designated colors upon arrival and one of the first activities was a dodgeball tournament.

If that wasn’t crazy enough, there was an individual game where we needed to be first to beat levels to get a chance to talk to the head of HR one-on-one. The first level was unfortunately a math test that we had to get 100% correctly before we could move on. 

As I explained earlier, I am horrible at math. So that made me one of the very last people to move on. What awaited me next was a riddle. It was a Japanese play on words. Give me a break! 

The next room we had to make HR employees laugh by selecting a picture and making a meme or dressing up in a silly costume and telling a joke. That’s as far as I got before time ran out, but in the next room, the head of HR was chilling out with drinks and snacks.

Our teams also had to work together to build the highest paper tower. After that, we had to drink booze and win a funny story contest in a group interview with our own team. The final challenge was to write, direct, act, and create promotional materials for an original play as a team.

At the time, I was not confident enough in my Japanese in front of an audience, so I made the poster including illustrations and the catch copy. I think I contributed to writing the story as well, but now I don’t remember. 

Our team sadly did not win the contest, but at least one or two people from my team ended up getting job offers later down the line.

That camp remains one of the hardest things I have ever done! I had a lot of personal things going on at the time. If it wasn’t for that, I think I would have enjoyed it more. Unfortunately, they decided my Japanese wasn’t good enough based on the aptitude test. 

I still think about this company. Maybe one day if they have an opportunity open for career hire, I might try again!    

 

5. Final interviews and “pressure interviews” 

The last step is the final interview. It is often with executives at the company, and can be a “pressure interview” appaku mensetsu (圧迫面接). 

An appaku mensetsu is defined as when the interviewer has “bad manners” and is overbearing or negative. The objective is to make the interviewee uncomfortable. In short, the interviewer(s) bully a candidate to see how well they do under pressure.

It can be at any level of the screening, but I experienced it in my final interview with my previous company. 

I was nervous because the room was filled with the executive board of the company, all older men. Everything was going well until the executive of finance, who I guess was the “bad cop,” asked me why they should hire a foreigner. 

He said they had enough ethnic Koreans and Chinese (usually born in Japan), and they didn’t need other races with vastly different cultures. I think I saw red! Maybe I blacked out! (I actually think I answered the question honestly and convincingly…) 

I knew it was a pressure interview tactic, and maybe I should have handled it better, but I got the attention of the executive of sales. He liked me enough to offer me the job. 

Still, the moment I got to sit down away from everything and take a breather, I immediately cried. I thought I had failed!

It’s the hardest thing to do in an interview, but stay calm. It’s okay to say that you need a moment to formulate an answer. (Don’t make weird faces or verbalize, though!)

If you keep it in your head that they are just doing this as an interview tactic, it is easier to approach. Still, it is the very last step of the process and your last chance. They definitely keep that in mind as well. 

If you pass, you are usually directly phoned by HR. Be sure to thank them first and foremost! Be humble. 

The final step is receiving a naitei. This is a written document that promises you will be hired in April when the new fiscal year begins. 

Sometimes there is a ceremony, naiteishiki (内定式),  where you receive this certificate in-person with the rest of your new graduate hire group. This is often around October. 

In this case, the notice you passed the selection is called a nainaitei (内々定), pre-naitei.

To prevent you from continuing to shop around for another offer even after getting a naitei, HR will keep communicating with you over the next months. 

At the company I joined, we had a forum and wrote out answers to questions like what we were doing for summer vacation. I think there was even an activity where we went to see fireworks as a group. 

Getting a naitei is a promise from a company to you, not the other way around. You can turn down the naitei like turning down any other job offer. It isn’t binding.

It can be nerve wracking to turn one down, but it is best to call HR directly on the phone to explain. Don’t leave something like that to email. 

 

6. Navigating new graduate recruiting as a foreigner

The shinsotsu process is stressful enough for Japanese students — how can foreigners get through it?

 

• Skip it

My first suggestion is simple: Don’t. There are plenty of job sites and recruiters that are in the business of helping people who aren’t Japanese find work in Japan. Like Japan Dev!

The more you try to make yourself like a Japanese applicant, the more you will lose out to the other candidates. Companies have no reason to hire a non-native for a job that a native could do better. (This is true anywhere.) 

Companies will often talk about looking for “global talent” (グローバル人材). However, I once went to a job fair with that title and was told that it means Japanese people with experience abroad, not foreign people with experience in Japan.

This doesn’t mean that your experiences and point of view aren’t important. You should think about how to make your non-Japaneseness a strength rather than trying to become more Japanese.

Changing yourself to fit into a mold will make the job screening process even more stressful, and will end up making things even worse when you start working. 

You aren’t the “usual” job candidate, and some places are not ready to adapt. There is nothing wrong with you! They just don’t know how to utilize your skill set and outlook just yet. 

The companies handpicked by Japan Dev do though!

 

• Back door

Some large companies have a foreigner slot, unofficially called a gaijin-waku (外人枠), though it isn’t advertised. 

For Company B above, I found out later they had about two spots for foreigners, usually Chinese or Korean. The person they picked that year turned down her naitei a few weeks before April!

Company C also had a sort of spot like that, for hiring in their international sales department. Another company asked if they could switch my application from a general one to an international (foreigner) role. 

Sometimes there are these secret doors that you won’t find if you don’t knock around.

I also recommend taking a contract worker position or a part-time job somewhere first if you can’t pass the exam. You get to do the work, prove that you are a good fit for the company, and build workplace relationships. 

If you like the job and are allowed to take the full employment exam, you know what to expect. And if you aren’t sure how to prepare, you have your manager and coworkers to help. 

There is a stereotype that foreigners can’t handle Japanese work culture and quit as soon as it gets rough. One company I wanted to work for said no because a girl had quit and gone back to her country after only one year. 

Like I mentioned in the interview section, companies want to know that you are there for the long run. 

Membership-type full employment contracts at large, traditional companies are still considered lifetime employment. They don’t want to go through the trouble of sponsoring you only to have you leave. 

If a company is willing to hire you full time off the bat — that’s great! But if not, taking an offer at a company as a contract or dispatch employee first will build trust.

 

• Network

You are more likely to find great opportunities for foreigners by talking to other foreigners already in the workforce. 

Not only can they offer you advice and tell you more about companies than just the recruit page, they might also know of an opportunity for you. 

One of the reasons I was able to get my full employment contract was a long relationship with a senpai from university. She introduced me to the part time job at the company. 

For shinsotsu there is a step called OB OG houmon (OB・OG訪問), where you visit alumni from your school working at companies or in industries that interest you. 

If you are a student in Japan, the career center at your university can help connect you with alumni. Students also rely on clubs or sports teams, and friends or family to find the right person. 

If you aren’t currently a student, here is a great list of tech meetups for you to get out and meet people. 

There is a limit to what info you can gather online. The best way to feel out a company or position is to talk to people who actually work there! That way you can be sure that you are picking the right fit for you.

One company I was in the screening process for made me work as an intern for a week at the office. During that time, after witnessing a bunch of chaos, one employee leaned over and told me not to come work there. 

That’s an extreme case, but valuable input! 

Most of all, don’t be discouraged — It’s still hard to compete in the new graduate job market if you weren’t raised in Japan. 

 

7. Conclusion

From attending information sessions and contacting alumni, to filling out entry sheets, taking aptitude tests, and going through multiple rounds of interviews, new graduate recruitment for Japanese companies is rough. 

And it’s even harder if you haven’t spent a lot of time in Japan! 

Looking back now, I was completely unprepared. But I learned a lot not only about traditional Japanese corporate culture, but also about myself and my place in Japan.

By identifying what you can bring to the table as someone who isn’t from Japan, you can make a strong case for yourself. Your unique point of view is valuable.

Japan and the workforce are slowly changing, and if you don’t give up, you will be able to find something that fits you. It might even be somewhere you least expect!