An estimated 850,000 new graduates from colleges and high schools joined the workforce Monday, up several hundred thousand from last year as many companies hired more young people on the back of the economic recovery and ahead of the upcoming mass retirement of postwar baby boomers.
Leaders of companies and government bodies urged their new recruits to work hard to boost public confidence in their organizations in ceremonies held on the first weekday of fiscal 2006.
West Japan Railway Co. President Masao Yamazaki urged new recruits "to play a great role" in helping the company restore public confidence lost in the wake of a derailment that killed 107 people and injured 555 nearly a year ago.