The percentage of university students receiving job offers increased slightly this year. However, one job offer ended in a lawsuit after Nippon Television withdrew its preliminary promise to hire a young woman seeking to become an announcer after it found out she once worked part-time at a Ginza nightclub. The woman decided to sue. The case is a complicated one that highlights problems with Japan's job-hunting system and its view of female employees.
The TV station argued that the fourth year student's failure to tell them about briefly working at a nightclub in Ginza amounted to a false claim on her part. However, she argued that it was only part-time for a limited period and reneging on an offer of employment at this point in the job hunting cycle meant she could not find work elsewhere.
The case was worsened by the TV company lawyers' comments that announcers require a high degree of integrity and honesty, using words that could also mean "clean." The comments gave the impression that a part-time nightclub job was not "pure," compared to the high-integrity job of television announcer. That view of television announcers, and of nightclub workers, hinges on a view of women as either tainted or pristine, an out-of-date view that smacks of sexism.